GCRI · Society and Human Development
Society and Human Development
Societal resilience, inequality, health, population change and the human consequences of risks and innovation. Society and Human Development is an established platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation.
- STEM methods
- 4
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 10
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 2
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
Society and Human Development in seven parts.
- 01The problemWhy the human consequences of risk are unequal and cumulative
- 02CoverageThe areas of society and human development this platform takes on
- 03OverviewWhat Society and Human Development does
- 04Mandate and boundariesWhat Society and Human Development studies, and whose decisions it informs
- 05Across the domainsPeople experience all five domains at once
- 06Reports, standards and contributionsWhere social evidence goes
- 07What the platform doesSocietal evidence, measured carefully and used responsibly
Why the human consequences of risk are unequal and cumulative.
Hazards become disasters through vulnerability. A flood, a price spike or an epidemic is filtered through who people are, where they live, what they own, what protections they can draw on and whether institutions reach them. Decades of research on disasters and poverty show the same pattern: households with few assets, insecure work, poor housing and weak access to services are more exposed, suffer larger losses relative to what they have and recover more slowly. Those who are excluded by gender, age, disability, ethnicity, migration status or informality often carry the heaviest burden.
Losses also compound over time. A household that sells livestock or takes children out of school to survive a drought loses future income and skills; a community that loses trust in institutions during a crisis is harder to reach in the next. Shocks that overlap, such as conflict, food insecurity and climate extremes, can turn temporary hardship into persistent poverty and displacement. Population change, ageing, urbanisation and migration shift who is exposed and who provides care and labour.
Innovation brings its own social consequences. Digital services can widen access, but they can also exclude people without connectivity or identity documents, and information systems can spread misinformation that undermines public health and social cohesion. Understanding these dynamics needs social science that is rigorous about measurement and causation and respectful of the people it studies.
These questions are not only about poorer countries. Ageing, loneliness, housing insecurity, regional decline and the erosion of local institutions shape resilience in high-income societies too, and comparative evidence across very different contexts is one of the field’s strengths.
Humanitarian needs overview.
The screen a team would use to follow this field: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
The questions this field works on.
Poverty and inequality
Exposure, distribution and social protection.
TopicDemographic transitions
Ageing, migration and population change.
TopicHuman security and wellbeing
Safety, rights, health and livelihoods.
TopicHumanitarian and displacement
Crisis, displacement and safeguarding.
TopicEducation and capabilities
Learning inequality and societal opportunity.
TopicTechnology and social cohesion
Trust, misinformation and public outcomes.
TopicUrban social vulnerability
Community resilience and informal services.
TopicInclusive research ethics
Participation, consent and local knowledge.
TopicMedia and information systems
Media and public information as social systems.
TopicHumanitarian risk
Humanitarian and displacement analysis under safeguards.
Stocks, flows, delays and a tipping threshold.
Two stocks, pressure and adaptive capacity, joined by a reinforcing growth loop, a delayed balancing response and damage when pressure outruns capacity; past the threshold the system can tip. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows Latin America and the Caribbean; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Growth of pressure
- 6.0% a year
- Efficacy of capacity in reducing pressure
- 4.0% a year
- Investment response to perceived pressure
- 20%
- Perception delay
- 4.0 years
- Tipping threshold of pressure
- 60 index
- Amplification past the threshold
- 2.0 times
- Years simulated
- 50 years
Readouts
- Peak pressure
- 113 index
- Capacity at the end
- 186 index
- Years over the threshold
- 15.8 years
Numbers, methods and sources
| Year | Pressure | Capacity | Perceived |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 20.0 |
| 4 | 23.3 | 44.9 | 21.2 |
| 8 | 27.2 | 42.2 | 24.0 |
| 12 | 31.7 | 42.3 | 27.7 |
| 16 | 36.8 | 45.5 | 32.2 |
| 20 | 42.3 | 51.5 | 37.2 |
| 24 | 47.9 | 60.3 | 42.6 |
| 28 | 53.2 | 71.3 | 48.0 |
| 32 | 57.8 | 84.3 | 53.1 |
| 36 | 66.4 | 98.4 | 58.4 |
| 40 | 82.7 | 115.9 | 69.7 |
| 44 | 97.8 | 139.7 | 83.8 |
| 48 | 109.1 | 169.4 | 97.3 |
Methods
- System dynamics Forrester (1961), Industrial Dynamics, MIT Press; Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics
- Critical transitions and tipping points Scheffer and others (2009), Early-warning signals for critical transitions, Nature 461
- Causal loop diagram Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics, McGraw-Hill
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
No observed data enters this model: it runs on the teaching values set by the controls, to be replaced with a programme’s own evidence.
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Society and Human Development in Foundry
- Tested at Society and Human Development in Universe
- Codified in Governance, Security and Society in Standards
- Published in Society and Human Development in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Health and Society in Academy
The areas of society and human development this platform takes on.
Society and Human Development studies how risks and innovation affect people’s lives: poverty and inequality, population change, human security and wellbeing, displacement and humanitarian need, education, social cohesion, urban vulnerability, information systems and the ethics of research with people. Its pages set out the data, methods and evidence behind each, with every value labelled by its evidence and every limit stated, and with people’s rights over data about them respected. Governments, humanitarian agencies and communities decide.
Poverty and inequality
Who lacks income, assets and capabilities, and how gaps between groups grow or narrow.
Demographic transitions
Changes in births, deaths, ageing and migration, and what they mean for economies and services.
Human security and wellbeing
Freedom from fear and want, and how people themselves experience safety and quality of life.
Humanitarian and displacement
People forced from their homes by conflict, disaster and other crises, and the response to their needs.
Education and capabilities
Learning, skills and the freedoms that education makes possible, and how crises interrupt them.
Technology and social cohesion
How technology changes trust, participation and the ties that hold societies together.
Urban social vulnerability
Why some urban residents are more exposed and less able to cope with shocks than others.
Media and information systems
News, platforms and information flows that shape what people know and believe in a crisis.
Model Society and Human Development as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Societal and information risk standards: the hazards it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Choose the components, pick an initiating hazard and step through the cascade. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every coupling weight is a stated assumption you can change. A teaching model, not a forecast, an assessment or a certification. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Civil unrest
- Supply-chain disruption (set off downstream)
- Currency crisis (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-12Software, model and AI/ML artefacts (supply chain, model cards, dataset sheets)NRS-H117Hazard family: Social cohesion and atrocity risk (NHS-1 soc.cohesion)NRS-X7Information integrity and public trustNRS-D2Society, inclusion and human development riskNRS-H52Hazard family: Information-integrity attacks (NHS-1 cyber.integrity)NRS-H79Hazard family: Mental health crises (NHS-1 health.mental)NRS-H59Hazard family: Economic shocks and governance failure (NHS-1 soc.economic)
Observation
- WorldPop gridded population (listed for reference)
- World Bank Open Data and World Development Indicators API (listed for reference)
- Global SDG Indicators Database (listed for reference)
- Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
- Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income
- Number of countries that adopt and implement guarantees for public access to information
Example geography
- The Horn of Africa: 253 hexagonal cells
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
What Society and Human Development does.
Human development is the expansion of people’s freedoms and capabilities to lead lives they value, including health, education and a decent standard of living. Society and Human Development covers poverty, population change, human security, displacement, education, social cohesion, urban vulnerability, information systems and research ethics. Governments, humanitarian agencies and communities decide.
Its community
Social scientists; humanitarian researchers; demographers; community advocates.
Its methods
Socioeconomic indicators; vulnerability methods; mixed methods.
Its outputs
Human development profiles; social vulnerability briefs; community case studies.
How Society and Human Development is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
System model
The couplings between the systems in Society and Human Development: signs of influence, a reinforcing and a balancing loop, and cross-links where stress jumps.
Model, equations and assumptions
The model structure used for Society and Human Development, the assumptions it makes and how each is tested.
Ri = f(Hi, Ei, Vi, Ci)hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacityEAL = ∑k pk · Lkover events k with annual probability pkxt+1 = A xt + B ut + εtA carries the couplings, u the shock, ε the error| Assumption | Why it is made | How it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Hazard and exposure are independent within an event | Keeps the loss integral tractable | Compare with a copula fit on joint records |
| Couplings are linear near the operating point | Lets shocks propagate through A | Perturb beyond the linear range and compare |
| Vulnerability curves transfer between places | Local curves are rarely available | Validate against observed losses where they exist |
- Inputs
- versioned datasets with provenance
- Outputs
- distributions, never single numbers
- Code
- released with the model card and tests
- Reproduction
- same data, code, environment and seed
What Society and Human Development studies, and whose decisions it informs.
Society and Human Development, studies how risks and innovation affect people’s lives: poverty, population change, displacement, education, cohesion and wellbeing. Governments, humanitarian agencies and communities decide; the platform provides no humanitarian assistance and respects people’s rights over data about them.
Population and displacement figures appear only with their source and date; illustrations are marked as such.
People and exposure in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Population density, night lights and daytime surface heat over Latin America and the Caribbean, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
People and exposure, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2) (NASA LAADS DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LAADS DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite radiance, corrected for moonlight and atmosphere
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite night-time radiance for the date shown; lights are a proxy for electricity use and outages, not a measurement of supply or access.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (persistent cloud still leaves gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- 8-day; Satellite 8-day composite; persistent cloud still leaves gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-09-14
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite skin temperature of the ground over the 8 days ending on the date shown, a heat exposure indicator; not air temperature, heat index or a heat warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite image
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite image. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Modelled (latest year GIBS publishes)
- Source
- MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1) (NASA LP DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LP DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- yearly; Satellite classification; latest year GIBS publishes
- Newest at build
- 2024-01-01
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite land cover classes for the year shown, including croplands; a classification with known errors, not a farm register.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- OMI Aura (NASA GES DISC)
- Provider
- NASA GES DISC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite retrieval; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-10
- Resolution
- about 2 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite column of nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere on the day shown, mostly from combustion; not a ground-level concentration or a health warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
People and exposure, framed on Latin America and the Caribbean.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERTSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Optional layers (9 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
People experience all five domains at once.
- WaterHow this field couples to itLack of safe water falls hardest on women and girls who collect it.
- EnergyHow this field couples to itEnergy poverty limits heating, cooling, study and income.
- FoodHow this field couples to itFood insecurity tracks poverty and conflict.
- HealthHow this field couples to itHealth outcomes follow social determinants.
- BiodiversityHow this field couples to itNatural resource dependence makes ecosystem loss a livelihood shock.
Where social evidence goes.
Disaggregated analyses are designed for the Country Systems Risk and Resilience series and the Evidence Brief series. Survey-based series would keep consent and disclosure terms attached under the proposed Nexus Standards.
- Communities can co-design studies.
- Researchers can contribute evaluations with disaggregation.
- Humanitarian organisations can share lessons on data responsibility.
Societal evidence, measured carefully and used responsibly.
The platform develops socioeconomic indicators, vulnerability methods and mixed-methods research that show how risks reach people and how societies adapt, with uncertainty stated and with safeguards for the people whose lives are described.
Human development profiles
Structured evidence on population, inequality, health, education and protection, with sources and limits.
Social vulnerability briefs
Analysis of who is exposed to a risk, why, and what protections reach them.
Community case studies
Mixed-methods studies carried out with communities, under consent and ethical review.
GCRI is a research, development and policy institution. It does not regulate, certify, license or approve. Social protection, humanitarian and policy decisions remain with competent authorities and the communities concerned.
Ten topics and three chapters.
- 01
Poverty and inequality
- 02
Demographic transitions
- 03
Human security and wellbeing
- 04
Humanitarian and displacement
Crisis, displacement and safeguarding, with humanitarian risk analysis under safeguards.
- 05
Education and capabilities
- 06
Technology and social cohesion
Trust, misinformation and public outcomes, with media and information systems.
- 07
Urban social vulnerability
- 08
Inclusive research ethics
- 09
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Society and Human Development rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Society and Human Development
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Society and Human Development
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Society and Human Development
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Society and Human Development
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Society and Human Development
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Society and Human Development
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs). Decide in Society and Human Development
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Society and Human Development
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
How this works across the six pillars.
Society and Human Development works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, the Global Risks Forum (GRF) and the Global Risks Alliance (GRA) each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere methods, data and models become reproducible builds, each run with its inputs, version and limits on record.Society and Human Development in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere a build is tested under controlled conditions with independent evaluators, so a method’s skill is measured, not assumed.Society and Human Development in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere methods, identifiers and data schemas are codified in the open and corrected when a test finds a fault.Governance, Security and Society in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere findings are published with their method, uncertainty and evidence class, and corrected as new versions.Society and Human Development in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere methods and systems are taught on real data and real places, by working the case, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Health and Society in Academyrisksacademy.com
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| Human Development Report concepts and the capability approach | UNDP Human Development Report Office | Development as the expansion of people’s freedoms and capabilities, with measures beyond income |
| Global Multidimensional Poverty Index methodology | UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative | Measuring overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards |
| Sustainable Development Goals 1, 4, 5 and 10 | United Nations | Targets on poverty, education, gender equality and reduced inequality |
| Human security concept, General Assembly resolution 66/290 | United Nations General Assembly | A common understanding of human security as freedom from fear, want and indignity |
| Global Compact on Refugees and Global Compact for Migration | United Nations General Assembly | Frameworks for responsibility-sharing for refugees and for safe, orderly migration |
| Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability | CHS Alliance, Groupe URD and Sphere | Commitments to quality and accountability to affected people in humanitarian action |
| Fundamental principles for national statistical systems (resolution 68/261) | United Nations General Assembly | Principles for independent, confidential and high-quality published statistics |
| Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki | US National Commission and World Medical Association | Ethical principles for research involving human participants |
| UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science | UNESCO | Principles for open, inclusive and equitable science, including participation of communities |
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Society and Human Development links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Pages in Society and Human Development.
Mandate and publisher
PageField overview
PageResearch and evidence
PageInnovation and practical technology
PageProgrammes and projects
PageData and technical methods
PageSpecialist community
PageLearning and professional development
PageEvents and technical dialogues
PageResearch and publications
PageParticipation paths
PageContact the specialist team
PageTrust, rights and status
PageSTEM foundation of Society and Human Development
PageChapters
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Society and Human Development?
Is Society and Human Development active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
Is the platform operating?
Does the platform rank countries or communities?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Society and Human Development works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Society and Human Development
How Society and Human Development works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Society and Human Development home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Society and Human Development.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Society and Human Development platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Society and Human Development. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: society, demography, health, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageSociety and Human DevelopmentMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of society, demography, health and Latin America and the Caribbean.Public API
Series in this context society, demography, health
- GSGlobal DevelopmentPoverty, inequality, human development, demographic pressure and displacement as the ground on which shocks become losses.NXS-GRX-AR-000064Society · Demography · Health
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Society · Health · Demography
- GSGlobal HealthHealth security capacity, epidemic emergence and spread, heat and air-quality burden, health system stress and access.NXS-GRX-AR-000062Health · Society · Demography
- SRConflict, fragility and human securityConflict risk and escalation, fragility, organised violence, civilian harm and the conflict–climate–food–displacement nexus.NXS-GRX-AR-000075Governance · Demography · Society
Country profiles Latin America and the Caribbean
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Health and biosecurityNXS-GRX-AR-000143
- Society, conflict and economyNXS-GRX-AR-000147
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
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Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.