Around the world, women and girls are disproportionately affected by lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. In Papua New Guinea, only 40% of people have access to safe drinking water, one of the lowest rates in the Pacific Islands. Women and girls of school age generally assume the burden of water collection for their families. The World Bank is supporting the Papua New Guinea Government improve access to clean water in towns like Bialla in West New Britian and Bulolo in Morobe Province. The PNG Water Supply and Sanitation Development Project is funded through the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the world’s most in-need countries.
Graham Watson's insight:
The importance of access to clean water is an important part of development, and it has significant gender-based implications too, with girls far more likely to be involved in water collection than boys. As a result, they often miss school, lowering their human capital and leaving them stuck in the poverty trap.
This World Bank clip shows how one project in Papua New Guinea is enabling communities to overcome this disadvantage.
Every year, Mozambique faces extreme weather events like cyclones and floods, which cause destruction to schools and compromise the education of children. However, climate-resilient classrooms retrofitted with reinforced structures are helping to keep schools and children safe during these climate shocks. These retrofitted schools have proven to withstand the test of cyclones and are helping to secure investments in the education and future of young people.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank clip looks at how the organisation has helped make the provision of education more resilient, with schools increasingly designed to withstand extreme weather incidents. This is important in an age of climate change, because education enhances human capital, increasing productivity, and wages in turn, potentially allowing people to escape the poverty trap.
Over the past decade, Benin’s economy has grown remarkably, driven by a steady expansion of services, and increasingly, by private investment. This GDP growth positioned the country as one of the region’s rising economies. To sustain its recent economic dynamism through structural reforms and policies, the country will need to learn from the positive results and address existing challenges and focus on building human capital, developing transport infrastructure and services, and taking advantage on its strategic geographical position.
Graham Watson's insight:
It seems that Benin is one of the rising stars of West Africa, looking at how it has managed to remain resilient in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. It's a lovely look at how the need for diversification is an essential part of moving towards becoming a middle income economy.
This is a lovely example of those factors that determine whether or not an economy can will grow, and the policies that will help it develop, both market-based and those that require government intervention.
Investing in human capital - people’s health, skills, knowledge, and potential - is the most important long-term investment any country can make for future prosperity and well-being. In India today by the time children grow up and start working, they are likely to be just half as productive as they could have been with full education and good health. A strong focus on human capital development can help India achieve higher economic growth, more and better jobs, and improve the quality of life of its population. The COVID-19 pandemic risks wiping out some major human capital gains that India has made over the years, while slowing progress in other areas.
Graham Watson's insight:
And in India, the World Bank is looking at reinforcing the need for India to invest in human capital, one of the most determinants of development. This is particularly true in a country such as India, with a young population.
This clip looks at how India might think about enhancing its human capital by investing in education and healthcare.
Getting access to safe and affordable childcare is a challenge for many mothers around the world. In Burkina Faso, an innovative childcare model is allowing women employed on public work sites to work with their minds at ease while their children are being cared for nearby. These childcare units are completely mobile, allowing for easy transition from one work site to another.
Graham Watson's insight:
A wonderful World Bank clip looking at an unusual childcare solution, increasing female participation in Burkina Faso - and also increasing human capital. Not only are women employed in public works projects, but a number of mobile creches have been set up to accommodate the children of workers, and supported by the government.
The warning from the Congressional Budget Office comes as tens of millions of Americans are out of work.
Graham Watson's insight:
The impact of coronavirus on the US economy is predicted to have a marked effect on the next decade of US growth, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggesting that that scarring effects could last for up to a decade.
If anything says hysteresis, this does - the CBO notes the number out of work, the likely impact of this upon their human capital, and the effects of lower levels of consumer spending and lower levels of investment in the energy sector too.
One year after the launch of the Human Capital Project, leaders are bolstering their efforts to ensure more and better investments in people. Find out how diffferent countries are approaching the challenges and opportunities.
Graham Watson's insight:
The claim that "only 60% of the children born today will reach half of their productivity" invites ToK style thinking about how to measure such a thing.
However, it's undeniably the case that investing in human capital is essential to economic development, and that different countries are going about this in different ways. This World Bank clip looks at the Human Capital Project which focuses on education in the hope of boosting their productive capacity.
A child born in ASEAN today will achieve only 59% of their full productivity potential. For ASEAN countries to provide a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for all its people, investing in education, healthcare and social protection programs will be key to building strong human capital.
Graham Watson's insight:
Excellent little World Bank clip about the need to invest in human capital to foster inclusive development. This looks at all sorts of things, spending on education, healthcare and social safety networks, as well as appropriate technology.
My one quibble - the statement that "A child born is ASEAN today will achieve only 59% of their full productivity potential". That's a ToK issue right there.
Since 2010, Papua New Guinea’s Urban Youth Employment Project (UYEP) has been working to build employment skills and opportunities in the nation’s capital, Port Moresby.
Graham Watson's insight:
A lovely World Bank clip looking at the importance of human capital in development, this time in Papua New Guinea.
A new World Bank report identifies four sectors which have huge potential for private investments and shows how successfully attracting those investments would generate growth, create jobs for its citizens and ultimately contribute to developing Egypt’s #HumanCapital.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank clip - currently with 57 views - and one has to consider doing cost-benefit analysis on this sort of thing - highlights how the Egyptian government, in partnership with the World Bank have altered their developmental priorities.
Instead of investing in infrastructure, there's going to be increased investment in people, boosting the economy's human capital and, hopefully generating growth and boosting development.
Thailand faces a skills crisis, with a very large proportion of youth and adults whose foundational skills are below threshold levels, meaning they cannot perform basic reading and computing tasks and do not show tendencies to engage with others or to be open to explore new ideas. There is a need to improve the entire ecosystem of skills development, given the skills crisis is an outcome of the lifecycle investments in foundational skills, starting from early childhood until adulthood. There are many ways to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in fostering foundational skills by delivering evidence-based programs and involving emerging transformers from the public, private, and non-government sectors.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank clip looks at the lack of foundational skills in Thailand, a middle income country, noting that a lack of literacy and basic digital skills means that some people lack human capital, and if it wants to develop, it will need to tackle this with the help of the World Bank.
The World Bank funded Skills and Employment for Tongans Project supports the Tongan government to establish a cash transfer program to address the financial constraints many households face in accessing and keeping children in secondary school. The project aims to directly address Tonga’s high secondary school drop-out rates, as well as ensuring those that have dropped out of secondary school have alternative vocational and learning pathways.
Graham Watson's insight:
The World Bank has supported the Tongan government implement a Skills and Employment project to develop human capital, as well as spending money to create greater resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Both are important in ensuring sustainable development in the Pacific economy, and enhancing developmental prospects.
Investments in human capital—the knowledge, skills and health people accumulate over their lives – are key to unlocking a person’s potential. The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest blow to human capital in living memory. That’s why the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is prioritizing investments in people in the poorest countries.
Graham Watson's insight:
A World Bank clip looking at the importance of human capital to development, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Education and healthcare play an important part in ensuring people can achieve their potential and boost productive capacity, economic growth and development.
How do you measure the wealth of a country? For many, gross domestic product is the first and maybe only measurement that comes to mind. While GDP measures the monetary value of the goods and services produced in a given year, it doesn’t provide a complete picture of a country’s wealth, or how sustainable that wealth will be in the long term. In many cases, economic growth is happening at the expense of nature, and therefore at the expense of future prosperity. To understand the sustainability of growth, we must look at the value of all the assets that generate income and ultimately well-being.
Graham Watson's insight:
A well worn theme - how do we move beyond GDP to ensure sustainable development? This World Bank clip looks at the dependence upon non-renewable resources and so on.
Worth a look if you've not considered this sort of thing before.
COVID-19 has upended mobility in South Asian cities, disrupting public transport and laying bare poor and unsafe conditions, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. How can South Asia make its urban mobility sustainable and safer for all, as we move towards a resilient recovery?
Graham Watson's insight:
The clip looks at how road safety is a major issue in South Asia, and a source of unnecessary deaths among the young. It highlights how the World Bank has been investing in this area, with the aim of protecting the region's human capital and enhancing development.
It's an issue close to my heart: my housemate died in a road traffic accident in Sri Lanka in 1996.
UN agency the International Labour Organisation warns of potential "lockdown generation".
Graham Watson's insight:
The ILO have flagged up the very real prospect of substantial hysteresis for the so-called "lockdown generation", as young people struggle to find work in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Fitri is a newborn Indonesian baby girl. But given the current state of education and health outcomes in Indonesia, according to the Human Capital index Fitri and other Indonesian children like her will only reach 53% of their full potential. To reverse that in time for Fitri and her generation, Indonesia must act now – and invest more and better in its human capital.
Graham Watson's insight:
This clip looks at the World Bank's Human Capital Index - it's a fascinating look at what contributes to development, and there's a ToK slant, in asking how the World Bank can come up with the notion that the individual, Fitri, will only reach 53% of her full potential.
However, it does look at what contributes to human capital formation and the policies that help foster it.
You might also wonder whether such animation is really a good use of World Bank funds. I know I do - and I'm an Economics teacher.
Over the past 20 years, Cambodia has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. While growth has been pro-poor, to continue this transition Cambodia needs to diversify its economy and close the infrastructure gap and invest in people.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank clip celebrates 25 years of partnership between the bank and Cambodia, and looks forward to the next five years. In doing so, it touches on all the main developmental themes: institutions, human capital, education, healthcare and so on.
A good introduction - or recap - of the multi-faceted nature of development.
Thailand’s most important resource is its people. Investing in people, its human capital, is key to reducing inequality. Creating equal opportunities will not only trigger economic growth, but also help people, families and Thailand prosper.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank clip looks at the economic success at Thailand, but also notes that the gains from growth have been unevenly distributed. Thus, the World Bank is looking for future growth to come from investment in human capital, boosting growth, reducing inequality and enhancing developmental outcomes.
The best way to improve a nation is to educate its people and invest in human capital so that future workers will have greater knowledge accessible to employers.
Index seeks to name and shame countries failing to invest in health and education to create productive children
Graham Watson's insight:
The World Bank has launched a new developmental index designed to measure the extent to which economies invest in health and education, so as to make the most of their human capital. It is hoped that this will shame certain countries into improving their provision in these sectors.
However, at first glance, I don't think that it actually tells us very much - the countries at the bottom are also, unsurprisingly, at the bottom of the UN's Human Development Index too. The only possible plus that I see, is that it might change the emphasis on approaches to development, but even then only at the margin.
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The importance of access to clean water is an important part of development, and it has significant gender-based implications too, with girls far more likely to be involved in water collection than boys. As a result, they often miss school, lowering their human capital and leaving them stuck in the poverty trap.
This World Bank clip shows how one project in Papua New Guinea is enabling communities to overcome this disadvantage.