Collapse & Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

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Collapse & Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

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This event will be streamed with interpretation in  Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish

The World Bank’s Human Development Flagship report, Collapse & Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It, provides a comprehensive review of global data showing that the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed human capital at critical moments in the life cycle, scarring millions of children and young people in low- and middle-income countries.

These human capital losses threaten to reduce lifetime earnings, increase inequality, and increase social unrest for decades to come. Countries must address these problems otherwise they face generations of scarred children and youth and a catastrophic blow to economic development.

This global launch event begins with opening remarks from World Bank senior leadership and a short presentation of the report’s key findings and recommendations. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with representatives from government, civil society, and global development organizations. The panel explores the specific impacts of COVID on individuals in each life stage, the related risks to their futures, and policy options countries can consider to help address the challenges.

SEE LIST OF SPEAKERS

00:00 Welcome

- Gessye G. Safou-Mat, Communications Officer, IFC

02:15 Opening remarks

- Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics

05:23 Report presentation

- Alaka Holla, Senior Economist, Human Development Chief Economist Office, World Bank
- Joana Silva, Senior Economist, Human Development Chief Economist Office, World Bank

13:22 Panel discussion

- Robert Jenkins, Global Director, Education and Adolescent Development, UNICEF
- Santiago Levy, Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
- Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation, India
- Norbert Schady, Chief Economist, Human Development, World Bank

50:19 Closing remarks

- Mamta Murthi, Vice President, Human Development, World Bank

VIDEO CHAPTERS 0:00 Collapse & Recovery: Report overview 0:47 COVID-19 impact on early childhood 1:36 The impact of school closures 2:19 COVID-19 impact on youth 3:31 What can countries do? 5:21 Let's get started

“Restoring lasting prosperity will not be possible to do without prompt action to rebuild human capital.”

— Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics

"It's not too late to begin recovering the losses that COVID-19 brought to human capital. We need to work in partnerships, continue to raise awareness on what needs to be done, and help countries build better and more resilient systems to withstand future challenges."

— Mamta Murthi, Vice President, Human Development, World Bank

“Countries that are more dynamic with their education systems and delivery of learning opportunities fare better in the challenging situations that are to come.”

— Robert Jenkins, Global Director, Education and Adolescent Development, UNICEF

“It is likely that a lot of these youth are going to be entering the labor market with less human capital than before. So, we need to rethink the structure of labor markets and social insurance.”

— Santiago Levy, Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

“Put aside the linear, age grade curriculum for a little while. Focus on the basics, basic reading, basic math. Children will progress quickly if you start at their own level.”

— Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation, India

Read the Chat

Ritika D’Souza
Economist, Human Development, World Bank
Hello everyone, and welcome to the launch of Collapse & Recovery. We'll start the event in a few minutes. Please stay tuned and feel free to share your thoughts.
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
You can join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #InvestInPeople
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
While we wait for the event to begin, learn more about our new report, Collapse & Recovery, How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It, which was just published. The report shows that COVID-19 destroyed human capital at critical moments in the life cycle, scarring millions of children and young people in low- and middle-income countries. It also highlights some policy options countries have to recover and rebuild lost human capital.

You can find the link here: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
Despite world bank's support why is the level of poverty escalating in Africa.
What is the world bank doing in order to provide assistance to youths living in remotes areas of Africa?
 
The pandemic dealt the biggest setback to global poverty-reduction efforts in decades - 70 million more people pushed back into extreme poverty. The World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity series provides the latest estimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity and identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. This report can be found here: www.worldbank.org...

But the pandemic has also caused a hidden but massive collapse in the human capital of young people at critical moments in the life cycle. Human capital is a key driver of poverty reduction and inclusive growth. It is also imperative to building resilience for the overlapping crises of climate change, fragility, as well as the looming recession. The Collapse and Recovery report documents the collapse of human capital for individuals under the age of 25 and offers recommendations for policy responses to remedy these losses. In particular, Chapter 4 documents the impacts of COVID on youth employment (including for countries in Africa) and presents some policy recommendations to remedy losses. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN

You can also learn more about the World Bank’s efforts to support youth in Africa here: blogs.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
What is the world bank doing in order to provide assistance to youths living in remotes areas of Africa?Balarabe Ibrahim Ahmed
Balarabe Ibrahim Ahmed
 
The pandemic dealt the biggest setback to global poverty-reduction efforts in decades - 70 million more people pushed back into extreme poverty. The World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity series provides the latest estimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity and identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. This report can be found here: www.worldbank.org/...

But the pandemic has also caused a hidden but massive collapse in the human capital of young people at critical moments in the life cycle. Human capital is a key driver of poverty reduction and inclusive growth. It is also imperative to building resilience for the overlapping crises of climate change, fragility, as well as the looming recession. The Collapse and Recovery report documents the collapse of human capital for individuals under the age of 25 and offers recommendations for policy responses to remedy these losses. In particular, Chapter 4 documents the impacts of COVID on youth employment (including for countries in Africa) and presents some policy recommendations to remedy losses. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN

You can also learn more about the World Bank’s efforts to support youth in Africa here: blogs.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Welcome everyone! I’m Dasan Norman Bobo with the World Bank, and I will be live blogging this event.

Listed on this page toward the bottom, you can see the speakers participating in today’s discussion.

The event will begin with introductory remarks from Indermit Gill, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics at the World Bank
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
Two of our report authors, Alaka Holla and Joana Silva, will now present the key findings of the report. They will outline the impact of COVID-19, the risks countries face, and what countries can do about it.

Please post any questions you have in the chat and our experts will do their best to respond.
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
Are war-displaced persons living in camps and with host families taken into account?
Amani
 
The World Bank's World Development Report 2023, to be released in spring 2023, focuses on migrants, refugees, and societies. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Youth are very important for any kind of development. My question is that what measures are taken so as to empower youth??
LADISLAUS FRIDOLINI MBALALE
 
Chapter 4 of the report Collapse and Recovery documents the impacts of COVID on youth employment and presents some policy recommendations to recover these losses. In particular, it shows that youth have suffered from sharp declines in their job prospects, and the extent to which employment has recovered varies a great deal across countries. Appropriate policy responses will vary by country—in particular, by the extent to which there has been a recovery of both adult and youth employment. For countries where neither adult nor youth employment has recovered, policies should primarily be geared toward demand-side interventions that spur firms to start hiring again. For countries where adult employment has recovered but youth employment has not, support for supply-side policies such as adapted training, job intermediation, entrepreneurship programs, and new workforce-oriented initiatives for youth are all important. Countries where both adult and youth employment have recovered should monitor developments in the labor market to ensure that the recovery has been equal across groups. In all countries, policies should recognize that youth are a diverse group and that skills are the best insurance against a crisis. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Following the covid-19 economic set back experienced in developing countries,can individuals be financed to establish climate smart projects like vegetable farming in greenhouses to stabilize them financially ?
Martin Wasike
 
Climate change, poverty, and inequality are the defining issues of our age. The World Bank Group is the biggest multilateral funder of climate investments in developing countries. And we intend to go further in helping countries reduce poverty and rise to the challenges of climate change. You can find more about the programs the World Bank supports to build climate resilience here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Will you provide data?
question
 
Climate change, poverty, and inequality are the defining issues of our age. The World Bank Group is the biggest multilateral funder of climate investments in developing countries. And we intend to go further in helping countries reduce poverty and rise to the challenges of climate change. You can find more about the programs the World Bank supports to build climate resilience here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Poorest countries specially Pakistan are facing big financial crises, its currency badly hit and its remittance also declined due to affects of corvid. How WB will provide them additional support except already committed current country financial support?
zafar Abbas
 
As a development institution, the World Bank Group focuses on helping countries recover from COVID-19 and build more resilient, inclusive economies. Our pandemic response financing reached $72.8 billion between April 2020 and June 2022, including $37.6 billion and $35.1 billion in IBRD and IDA commitments, respectively. During the same period, its financing in human development sectors reached $47.5 billion, supporting 300 projects in low- and middle-income countries. You can find more information about what the World Bank is doing in Pakistan here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Norbert Schady, the Chief Economist for Human Development at the World Bank will now be joined by three experts to discuss the report’s findings and talk about how countries can best respond to this crisis.

Rukmini Banerji is the CEO of Pratham Education Foundation in India.

Robert Jenkins is UNICEF’s Global Director for Education and Adolescent Development.

And Santiago Levy is a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution

Join the conversation on Twitter or LinkedIn with the hashtag #InvestinPeople
We want to hear your thoughts!
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
Should the world at large have one goal on how to tackle sych a pandemic mainly economically
Samson wakabu
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront the risk of major disease outbreaks and highlighted countries’ lack of preparedness to fight them. Pandemic preparedness and disease surveillance anchored in strong health systems that reach all people—especially the most vulnerable—are crucial to ensure better protection from major disease outbreaks. Ensuring and investing in preparedness before a crisis strikes saves lives and ultimately saves money. You can find more details on the World Bank Group’s agenda to support the prevention, preparedness and response to disease outbreaks and pandemics at the country, regional, and global levels as part of a broader approach to strengthen health systems here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
The people who lost their job, what help did they get
Adrian ifedha wetindi
 
Chapter 5 of the report Collapse and Recovery documents government responses to the pandemic, including an unprecedented expansion of social protection systems and programs. These included income support programs that mitigated drops in food consumption for households whose member(s) lost a job or significant earnings, and cash transfers that attempted to keep people out of poverty. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
The continuous outflow of natural, social, economic and physical environment challenges keep rolling in on all nations. Can we have a reliable measurable impact assessment that is hopeful enough to warrant all the economic investment targeted at MDG attainment ?
Samson O. Afolabi
 
The pandemic dealt the biggest setback to global poverty-reduction efforts in decades--70 million more people pushed back into extreme poverty. But it also caused a hidden but massive collapse in the human capital of young people at critical moments in the life cycle. Investments in human capital critical to countries’ growth, stability, and prosperity. Human capital is a key driver of poverty reduction and inclusive growth. It is also imperative to building resilience for the overlapping crises of climate change, fragility, as well as the looming recession.

The report Collapse and Recovery presents evidence of the impacts of the pandemic using new individual- and household-level data from low- and middle-income countries and reviews the existing literature. It extracts lessons from actions and policies implemented around the world in response to the pandemic, as well as past evidence on program effectiveness. Moreover, the report recommends concrete policies for the short and medium term that will help recover human capital losses from the pandemic and prepare for future shocks. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
What will be the action of this organization concerned those covid-19 and the earthquake affected recently because most of them lost their properties
Oseni Idris oluwasegun
 
The World Bank is committed to supporting countries in their efforts to recover human capital losses while dealing with the urgency overlapping crises. Investing in human capital and in resilient human development systems is key to building resilience and promoting growth. The World Bank’s pandemic response financing reached $72.8 billion between April 2020 and June 2022, including $37.6 billion and $35.1 billion in IBRD and IDA commitments, respectively. During the same period, its financing in human development sectors reached $47.5 billion, supporting 300 projects in low- and middle-income countries. You can learn more about the World Bank’s response to COVID-19 here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Thanks to all for for this excellent presentation. More than one-third of school children globally are learning in a language that is not their "L1" - the language they speak and understand best. Should we couple improved language of instruction policies with other aspects of recovery of human capital? Thanks for your thoughts!
Michael Crawford
 
Chapter 3 of the report Collapse and Recovery highlights a focus on foundational learning as a non-negotiable priority to address learning losses. Children learn more and are more likely to stay in school if they are first taught in a language that they speak and understand. The World Bank report Loud and Clear: Effective Language of Instruction Policies for Learning, notes that effective language of instruction (LoI) policies are central to reducing Learning Poverty and improving other learning outcomes, equity, and inclusion. The report on LoI can be found here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
How can we make an online class interactive? What methodology can be adopted to implement the collaborative learning during online class.
Saima Afzal
 
Chapter 3 of the Collapse and Recovery report estimates the impacts of the pandemic on the human capital of school age children, documenting that around one billion children lost at least one year of face-to-face education in low- and middle-income countries and, despite enormous efforts put into distance education, sadly, on average, children learned nothing during prolonged school closures.
The World Bank has two reports that focus on remote learning. The first one follows a qualitative research approach to document the opinions of education experts regarding the effectiveness of remote and remedial learning programs implemented across 17 countries. The second one uses mixed-methods to examine how countries adopted different remote learning strategies, analyzing the take up, but also documenting -when available- the effectiveness of remote learning during COVID-19. This publication not only documents lessons being learned but also provides countries with principles to reimagine learning tomorrow. Both reports can be found here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
You are watching a panel discussion with: Norbert Schady, the Chief Economist for Human Development at the World Bank will now be joined by three experts to discuss the report’s findings and talk about how countries can best respond to this crisis.

Rukmini Banerji is the CEO of Pratham Education Foundation in India.

Robert Jenkins is UNICEF’s Global Director for Education and Adolescent Development.

And Santiago Levy is a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution

Join the conversation on Twitter or LinkedIn with the hashtag #InvestinPeople
We want to hear your thoughts!
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
We know that early interventions could deliver important long-term gains. However, many countries are looking for quicker solutions to improve their human capital. What would be your suggestions to those countries in prioritizing their human capital development related investments?
Ahmet Levent
 
The report Collapse and Recovery report estimates the impacts of the pandemic on the human capital of young children, school-age children, and youth, and offers concrete policy recommendations to recover losses across these stages of the life cycle. Human capital is a key driver of poverty reduction and inclusive growth. It is also imperative to building resilience for the overlapping crises of climate change, fragility, as well as the looming recession. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. Where possible, the report translates these losses into reduced lifetime earnings and stymied economic growth.
So, which policies should countries put at the top of their human capital recovery list? Policy responses will vary by country, but Chapter 6 provides and suggests an approach to prioritization. First, an emphasis on transition periods in the life cycle can help stem the accumulation of losses (e.g. from early childhood to school age or from school to work) since transitions are defining moments in life. Second, the report also provides evidence on the full cost (i.e. fiscal costs, costs stemming from implementation complexity and political commitment required) of each proposed policy. Overall, we hope that the report helps policymakers understand the huge impact of the pandemic on human capital and identify policies to recover these losses that are relevant to their context. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
The COVID - 19 era induced economic challenges, what's could be the projected time duration for recovery of developing nations? Majority of African nations in particular.
Samson O. Afolabi
 
The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report forecasts growth for countries and regions and identifies critical steps needed to boost median incomes and shared prosperity. The report can be found here: www.worldbank.org/...
But the pandemic has also caused a hidden but massive collapse in the human capital of young people at critical moments in the life cycle. Human capital is a key driver of poverty reduction and inclusive growth. It is also imperative to building resilience for the overlapping crises of climate change, fragility, as well as the looming recession. The Collapse and Recovery report documents the collapse of human capital for individuals under the age of 25 and offers recommendations for policy responses to remedy these losses. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Details re recovering of life standard (Multi dimentional) after Covid Period!
A W S DE SILVA
 
How to recover losses across multiple dimensions of human capital is the question at the heart of the Collapse and Recovery report. The report estimates the impacts of the pandemic on multiple dimensions of human capital of young children, school-age children, and youth and offers concrete policy recommendations to recover losses across these stages of the life cycle (see Chapters 2, 3, and 4 for policy recommendations for different age groups). The report also highlights the multidimensional, cumulative, and sequential nature of human capital (see Chapter 5).
So, which policies from these menus of recommendations should countries put at the top of their human capital recovery list? Chapter 6 discusses this. First, an emphasis on transition periods in the life cycle can help stem the accumulation of losses (e.g. from early childhood to school age or from school to work) since transitions are defining moments in life. Second, the report also provides evidence on the full cost (i.e. fiscal costs, costs stemming from implementation complexity and political commitment required) of each proposed policy. Overall, we hope that the report helps policymakers understand the huge impact of the pandemic on human capital and provide some policy options that they can implement to recover these losses.
Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
Mamta Murthi, the Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank will now offer closing remarks and reflect on the discussion we just heard.
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 
How can we promote the inclusion of disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in the recovery? I am thinking about what was said about the little coverage of preschool in low and middle income countries, but also in other disadvantaged populations in high-income countries, where covid-19 already increased inequalities
Alejandra
 
The Collapse and Recovery report estimates the impacts of the pandemic on the human capital of young children, school-age children, and youth, and highlights differential impacts for vulnerable or marginalized groups where data are available. Chapter 5 of the report highlights government responses like the increase/expansion of social protection programs that were instrumental in protecting vulnerable groups during the pandemic. It also notes the features of adaptive and resilient systems that can protect the human capital of vulnerable groups in the face of crisis. Please see the report for more: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
In addition, the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity series provides the latest estimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity and identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. This report can be found here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
The impact of covid is still affecting poor countries. How do international donors provide assistance to mitigate its affect immediately?
zafar abbas
 
As a development institution, the World Bank Group is focusing on helping countries recover from COVID-19 and other overlapping crises to build more resilient, inclusive economies. Our pandemic response financing reached $72.8 billion between April 2020 and June 2022, including $37.6 billion and $35.1 billion in IBRD and IDA commitments, respectively. During the same period, its financing in human development sectors reached $47.5 billion, supporting 300 projects in low- and middle-income countries. You can learn more about the World Bank’s response to COVID-19 here: www.worldbank.org/...
Expert: Ritika D'Souza
 
That concludes the discussion. Thank you to all who tuned in! If you’ve missed anything, please note that the recording of the event will be available on this page – and there are many related resources available on this page.

To read the report and see other related content, please visit the publication page at wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN

For more information about the World Bank’s work on Human Capital, visit www.worldbank.org/humancapital
Moderator: Dasan Norman Bobo
 

 

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