Investing in Human Capital Systems in South Asia: The Key to Sustainable, Inclusive, and Resilient Growth

With an average annual growth rate of almost 7%, South Asia was the fastest growing region in the world in 2019. However, The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this upward trend and reversed decades of gains in human capital outcomes. As South Asia emerges from the pandemic, policymakers in South Asia are rightly focusing efforts to reinvigorate their economies and accelerate poverty reduction. This effort will require sustained commitments to the region's human capital.

During the World Bank event, Investing in Human Capital Systems in South Asia: The Key to Sustainable, Inclusive, and Resilient Growth, which took place at the 2022 World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, leaders from governments across the region met to discuss the importance of sustaining human capital investments to recover and boost economic growth, and to ensure greater resilience of South Asian populations and systems in the face of future crises.

"Unlocking human capital could super-charge South Asia's economic recovery and growth." -Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director of Operations

South Asian countries need healthy and skilled citizens to accelerate and sustain economic growth and ensure it is inclusive and benefits the poor and vulnerable. The region needs to act now with innovative policies aiming to regain what has been lost and close gaps in health, education, and social protection systems to make them more resilient and prepared for future crises. These systems also need to be more inclusive, greener, and more efficient.

The event served as a platform for these leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities for human capital investments in South Asia. Panelists spoke on balancing the needs between investing in people and investing in other sectors to promote economic growth as they recover from COVID-19. Ministers discussed various implementation programs aimed to ramp up education for mothers and children, reskill youth for the labor force, and provide basic needs and access to technology.

"People of Bangladesh will be primarily working in the knowledge industry, in the high-tech sector providing knowledge-based services around the world and not just being a part of the fourth Industrial Revolution but leading the charge for the fourth Industrial Revolution," said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology, Bangladesh."Find your own niches, find your own innovations, find new technologies. Don't imitate. Innovate."

The event concluded with a 'lightning round' where panelists were asked one question: In 60 seconds, please tell us what is your number one priority for human capital investments as your country recovers from COVID?

The priorities varied around the table but centered around common areas: education for children, skills needed for the digital economy, better use of technology to accelerate strong results, and good safety net programs.

"It's again investment in mother and child for an inclusive Bhutan for tomorrow." - Ms. Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo, Minister of Health, Bhutan

"It's to develop basic infrastructure for learning in the schools such as technology-equipped classrooms, capacity development of teachers, availability of educational materials, and use of technology so the Ministry of Education intends to connect virtual learning to employment."- Mr. Devendra Paudel, Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, Nepal.

Closing the event, the same question was posed to the audience via a mentipoll. The word cloud below shows the result which align with the discussion among the panelists. Recognizing high learning losses caused by prolonged school closures in the regions, a central focus was a renewed and strong emphasis on education and learning. Also, very important was investing early during the first 1000 days of a child's life, maintaining a focus on pandemic preparedness, and ensuring social protection.

The World Bank will continue to support governments as they address these critical challenges. During COVID, the World Bank significantly increased its support to health, education, and social protection. To help the most vulnerable, more than 857 million vulnerable people across South Asia benefited from $2.73 billion of support for social safety nets that helped them buy medical supplies and food. The World Bank will continue to support its partners as they put in place policies and programs that will both recover the human capital losses and move human capital development forward in new and transformational ways. Our goal is to support a people-centered economic resurgence in South Asia.

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