In the introduction of his encyclical letter, the Pope challenges the 'peoples of opulence', presenting the social question of a just development of the 'peoples of hunger' who struggle against hunger, misery, lack of health care, and of whom he became the 'advocate' at the United Nations General Assembly, after having set up the pontifical commission 'Justice and Peace' in the Vatican.

Paul VI, defining the Church as an ‘expert in humanity’, affirmed that it does not pretend to meddle in the politics of States, but only to ‘scrutinise the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel’, in order to help peoples reach their full flowering.

The Christian vision is that of 'integral development', the necessary and indispensable face of the 'promotion of every man and of the whole man', because 'every life is a vocation' to a 'new' and 'plenary humanism', to a 'development in solidarity with humanity'. 

In order to build this 'integral development' of man, says the Pope, it is necessary to promote: education and 'having more in order to be more', urging an 'effort of his intelligence and his will'; the universal destination of goods, even at the cost of using sometimes the expropriation of goods; intelligent and free 'human' work; the decisive fight against the scourge of hunger; the creation of a World Fund for Development; the subordination of freedom of trade to the horizon of social justice; the construction of a universally recognised juridical order.

On the other hand, we should not limit ourselves to recalling only the good works of the colonisers (schools, hospitals, roads, etc.), without denouncing the injustices against the colonised countries, without denouncing the distortions of colonialism, such as monoculture and racism, and of neo-colonialism; the scandalous inequalities, both in terms of goods (primarily food) and power; the rejection of local traditions; the avarice as the 'most obvious form of moral underdevelopment'; the industrialisation subjected to the dictatorship of liberal capitalism and the international imperialism of money, with profits, competition and private ownership of the means of production without limits or social obligations; the law of free trade with excessively disparate starting conditions; the self-referential nationalism.

Not least because, as has already been experienced in the past, the dangers to the peaceful future of world civilisation are those of violent popular reactions and insurrectional unrest, yes to be condemned, but surging to combat the enormous social injustices.

We can then ask ourselves how Paul VI's encyclical, whose heartfelt appeal is still dramatically relevant today, can illuminate the fundamental correlation between peace and the development of peoples.

Let us consider only goals 1, 2 and 6 presented in the latest United Nations 2024 Report on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In 2022, some 735 million people were hungry. Global hunger, as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment, remained relatively well above pre-pandemic COVID-19 levels, affecting about 9.2% of the world's population in 2022 compared to 7.9% in 2019. Approximately 29.6 percent of the world's population - 2.4 billion people - were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022, of which about 900 million (11.3 per cent of the world's people) were severely food insecure.

Malnutrition among children under five remains a significant concern today, posing serious risks to their growth and development. Globally in 2022, an estimated 22.3% of children under five, or 148 million, were stunted (too low for their age), down from 24.6% in 2015. Based on current trends, 1 in 5 (19.5%) of children under the age of five will still be affected by stunting in 2030.

In 2022, almost 60 percent of countries around the world faced abnormally high food prices due to the spread of conflicts, such as severe disruptions in logistics and food supply chains after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which led to an increase in food and energy prices.

The war also exerted strong upward pressure on fertiliser prices, adding uncertainty to farmers' sowing decisions.

Despite some improvements, progress in water and sanitation remains insufficient. At the current rate, in 2030, 2 billion people will still live without safe drinking water, 3 billion without safe sanitation and 1.4 billion without basic sanitation. In 2022, about half of the world's population experienced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year and a quarter faced 'extremely high' levels of water stress. Climate change worsens these problems, posing significant risks to social stability. Although 153 Member States share transboundary waters, only one region is on track to cover all transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers with cooperation agreements by 2030.

Sustainable water management is the basis for prosperity and peace. It requires more funding, more data-driven decision-making, skilled workforce development, innovative technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), and strong cross-sectoral collaboration.

The degradation of water quality since 2017 is a worrying trend based on data from countries with extensive monitoring programmes. This trend could be global, given lower wastewater treatment rates in many low-income countries. Lack of data obscures early warning signs, hampers restoration efforts and jeopardises freshwater eco-system services.

After the technical assistance and work done by specialised agencies in the early years of the UN's foundation, the question of development arose. As more and more member states joined the UN, new interests and concerns about the issue of development arose and were subsequently considered in UN programmes.

In 1958, the General Assembly established a Special Fund under Resolution A/RES/1219 (XII), the predecessor to the UN Development Fund. The resolution states: "The General Assembly, in conformity with the determination of the United Nations, expressed in the Charter, to promote social progress and the raising of the standard of living within a wider concept of freedom and, to that end, to use its institutions to promote the economic and social advancement of all peoples... [resolves to establish a] separate Special Fund by which systematic and sustained assistance will be provided in areas fundamental to the integrated technical, economic and social development of the least developed countries".

We close with a reference to the entry 'Underdevelopment' in the Encyclopaedia Treccani, which presents interesting reflections. Compared to the stages of hunting and fishing, pastoralism and agriculture, and the economy based on slave labour, three further stages can be distinguished in modern times: feudal agriculture, mercantile capitalism and industrial capitalism. The ‘underdevelopment’ from which a large part of the nations of the African, Asian and South American continents suffer is due, historically, to their colonial past, today transformed into that ‘neo-colonialism’ of the multinationals already denounced by Paul VI.

Will the Jubilee, in the light of the biblical reasons for its institution, succeed in being a precious ‘showcase’ to give a voice to these ‘peoples of hunger’, to the ‘poor’ so dear to Pope Francis, and to convince, above all the ‘peoples of opulence’, to act for the resolution of the senseless armed conflicts that are among the first causes denying the just development of peoples?

See, Giubileo “centrifugo”: quale sviluppo dei popoli?