“Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.”  Warren Buffett

At a time when public trust in leaders and institutions is eroding worldwide, and global trust levels remain deeply fractured, one wonders how much that quotient of trust influences development gains on the one hand and regressions on the other, as we see around us today…

According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, an annual survey of trust measures across 26 countries for the past 26 years, a most disturbing recent trend is ‘a world retreating towards insularity’.  As the larger context of economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, climate anxiety and crises unfold, people and their institutions tend to turn inwards. Restoring trust, at a societal and individual level, requires investments and interventions that brings leaders and people together around mutual interests of shared security and prosperity. In general, the evidence shows that this is easier done in higher income settings, especially where trust in the private sector remains high even when public trust in government falters.

At the Executive Board on 3 February, UNDP’s Administrator, Alexander de Croo, framed the issue as “Restoring this trust is perhaps the greatest challenge of our generation.”  He went on to elaborate that trust is being eroded by structural fractures: conflict spreading faster than diplomacy, intensifying climate shocks, persistent inequality, and stalled progress on poverty (full remarks here). These disruptions test whether our collective resolve is strong enough to respond, and if international cooperation can still make a real difference in resolving some of the global ills that directly impact people’s lives.

To frame the concept: Trust is a deeply valued belief in someone or something, in their honesty, reliability, and capabilities. As Lao Tzu, the philosopher, said, ‘trust begets accomplishment.’ 

The term ‘trust’ was indeed repeatedly used by the Member States of the Asia-Pacific region, at the recent Executive Board (First Regular Session 2026), more than ever before, to describe the relationship of their countries with UNDP over time, and to confer specific value as it related to the reliability of presence and consistency of contributions that responded to their needs. 

So, a question for all of us in the development field to consider: what does trust unpacked look like in practice?

Trust begins with knowing who we serve and why

Our first line of accountability is to our national stakeholders – governments and communities – in their time of need. Building this trust, while different based on role and functions, is based on listening, engaging, respecting local cultures and practices, while asking for the same in return – a mutual respect of universal norms as captured in the UN Charter. Relationships built on both reinforces trust over time. 

Needs evolve. Trust remains constant. That legitimacy of trust is often grounded in solutions that appear modest but are transformative in their staying power: community‑designed renewable microgrids, locally governed water systems, climate adaptation models built for usability rather than novelty. These solutions work when they are co-created with the people who use them. Their effectiveness is judged by familiarity and proximity. As is trust.

Context-shaped solutions win local legitimacy

Trusted relations are often deeply local. Each country and community faces unique constraints: dispersed populations, high cost-of-doing business and exorbitant energy costs, significant crisis or climate exposure. Given the multiplicity of settings in which we serve, the value of global best practice and frontier models matter less than whether a village can rapidly repair its basic infrastructure after a cyclone or restart its banking services during a pandemic. Being there to support these needs matters.

While being present matters, for a global learning organization this also means not being insular. Innovations that UNDP has supported across decades, from community-led renewable energy to blue economy with local climate governance, and new financing instruments now shape global debates and norms. Trust allowed space to experiment, access to leaders and institutions, and a presence deep inside communities.  

Long-term commitment with repeated reliability

The time invested in building relationships of understanding, the long-term perspective one chooses to cultivate and commit to, sometimes the reliable repetition, these accompany a universal presence. Looking back allows us to look forward with greater confidence in treading into the unknown unknowns.  We do so with our partners. Initiatives such as the Pacific Futures Programme are built on long-horizon conversations about what development could look like 20, 30 or 40 years from now. Viet Nam’s Doi Moi (Renovation), which began in 1986, offers a powerful example of the transformation and impact this approach can generate. Long-term engagement cannot be rushed. Trust takes root because our partners know we will still be there after a project ends, during the quieter periods when institutions must be strengthened and local systems consolidated.

The toughest problems require systems, not silos

Development challenges rarely occur in isolation. Water scarcity intersects with climate pressure and energy insecurity. Governance gaps affect climate finance absorption. Public services rely on ageing infrastructure and are destroyed by natural disasters. Institutions that earn trust in such environments are those capable of a bounce back, of an ability to absorb shocks to the extent that the rebuild is better. This means bringing technology to modernize, to provide systems thinking and capabilities to connect underlying governance with economic reform needs, climate adaptation with energy access, health services with social protection and financing. UNDP has the advantage of a broad human development mandate that allows us, and demands of us, to connect the dots, and to do so based on ground reality. When given the keys to open multiple layers of institutional hierarchy and bureaucracy to create joined-up systems, that confers trust.

Trust as the new competitive advantage

As modern management theory guru, Peter Drucker reminds us, ‘You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organisation that is battle ready, that has high morale, has been through a crisis, knows how to behave, trusts itself, and where people trust one another.’

In the current global environment of breakdowns of long-held norms and standards, international law and conventions, trust has become the most valuable operating asset we have. It must be pursued, cultivated and treasured.

Trust, or the lack of it, shapes human progress. It takes long to build, it is easy to break, and hard to repair. But if and when broken, it must be restored.

We have learnt lessons on how to develop and nurture trust over time. In society, as in an institution, or among individuals, the more we try and control, the less we may be trusted. Trust is built on the desire to understand the other, the emotional intelligence to listen and empathize, to stay when the going gets tough and commit to the long-term. And it endures with the honesty and humility to know when to let go. Countries and communities make their own choices and lead their own development pathways. It may not always be the ones we want to see. However, trying to manufacture or reengineer outside of trust is a recipe for failure. Worse still, distrust.

In a world that feels increasingly divided, trust becomes the anchor that grounds us and the signage that shows the way.