Global Economic Convergence as a Resilience Strategy

Global economic convergence, the process through which lower-income economies narrow income, productivity, technological, and infrastructure gaps with higher-income economies, is often framed as a development objective. This report argues that convergence should also be understood as a core strategy for Polycrisis Resilience, reducing vulnerability to interconnected crises across climate, health, energy, economic, and social systems. Drawing on data from 217 economies, the analysis examines convergence across eight dimensions: income, productivity, industrial capacity, human capital, infrastructure, energy access, digital connectivity, and health and institutional capacity. The report introduces the concept of Convergent Resilience Dividends, whereby a single intervention, such as reliable electricity, digital connectivity, or clean cooking access, reduces multiple forms of vulnerability simultaneously.The findings show that convergence has occurred, but unevenly and increasingly slowly. Since 1990, much of the narrowing between rich and poor economies has been concentrated in a limited number of large emerging economies, while many low-income countries have experienced little or no catch-up. Access-oriented indicators such as electricity, internet connectivity, and sanitation have improved substantially, whereas productivity, industrial capacity, and institutional effectiveness continue to lag. Evidence presented in the report demonstrates that vulnerability to crises is more strongly associated with levels of development than exposure to hazards themselves, suggesting that convergence can strengthen societies' abilities to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from disruption. Using scenario analysis to 2100, the report explores alternative futures shaped by differing rates of convergence. Results indicate that accelerated and resilience-oriented convergence pathways produce substantially better outcomes across infrastructure, health, education, and systemic vulnerability metrics than pathways characterized by stalled development and persistent fragmentation. The report concludes that convergence is neither automatic nor sufficient on its own, but when directed toward productivity, reliable infrastructure, human capital, and institutional capacity, it represents one of the most powerful long-term approaches for reducing global vulnerability in an increasingly interconnected age of risk.