As announced at the beginning of October 2018, during the launch of Africa Pulse, World Bank has just published the new Human Capital Index in Bali (Indonesia), in the framework of the yearly assembly of Bretton Woods institutions.

The Index measures the loss of productivity sustained by countries that invest less in their human assets. The bank explains that the index compares the future productivity of a child born today with the one that child could have attained if provided optimum health conditions as well as quality and full education.

This index takes three factors into account, the bank continued. These factors are namely survival, health and education.

First, World Bank tries to determine whether a child born today could live up to an age when it would be able to go to school.

Secondly, the bank determines the duration of that child’s schooling and the knowledge gains during its schooling years.

Finally, it is determined whether the child will exit the education system in good health, ready to continue its studies or enter the workforce at maturity.

The first results of that index are already worrisome. 56% of the children born presently are already deprived of more than half of their potential revenues at adulthood because their governments are not investing enough to create an educated, resilient and healthy population ready for the future workforce.

Should Countries react now, children born today could be healthier, richer and more productive at adulthood, the institution concluded.

According to Jim Yong Kim (photo), president of World Bank, human capital which is one of the essential factors to sustainable and inclusive economic growth is most of the time, the only asset available to poor countries. Yet, investments in the health and education of these key assets are not what they should be. "This index establishes a direct connection between the improvement of people’s health and education, productivity and economic growth. I hope it will encourage countries to take urgent measures for more investments in their people", the president said.

Fiacre E. Kakpo