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
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.
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
COVID-19’s impact on young people risks a lost generation. As @Pratham_India said, we must work together to leap forward!
— Mamta Murthi (@MamtaMurthi) February 16, 2023
Great discussion today with @IndermitGill, @RobertG_Jenkins & others on how countries can best #InvestinPeople. Watch replay here: https://t.co/TPuBiQDqmd pic.twitter.com/NOMXsrwPll
How has #COVID19 impacted #HumanCapital?
— World Bank Health (@WBG_Health) February 15, 2023
Join the global launch of our new @WorldBank report on recovering #HumanCapital, featuring @Pratham_India @RobertG_Jenkins @MamtaMurthi + more.
Let's find solutions to recover losses & #InvestInPeople. https://t.co/oYeb4avqG9
The lifetime earnings potential of today’s youth globally may be reduced by $21 trillion due to #HumanCapital setbacks from COVID-19.
— World Bank (@WorldBank) February 16, 2023
A NEW report shows why countries MUST #InvestInPeople to recover these losses: https://t.co/omxBIufxkV pic.twitter.com/NdtsTqup9G
#HumanCapital drives poverty reduction & inclusive growth. Countries must #InvestInPeople & focus on:
— World Bank Education (@WBG_Education) February 16, 2023
?Vaccinations + nutrition
?Increasing #education
?Training + jobs
More policy options and solutions in this NEW report, Collapse & Recovery: https://t.co/aMxvCbo1k1 pic.twitter.com/RGyLcPX1YN
?Are you interested in learning how #COVID19 eroded human capital and why we need to #InvestInPeople?
— Stefano De Cupis? (@StefanoDeCupis) February 15, 2023
????Join @IndermitGill @MamtaMurthi @RobertG_Jenkins @Pratham_India and other key experts on Feb 16 | 9AM EST: https://t.co/E8o5jmSJ4L via @WorldBankLive #SDGs #SDG4 pic.twitter.com/QNXPaCwOl2
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
Learning Resources
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You can find the link here: wrld.bg/xJV850MQ7FN
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/...
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/...
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
Please post any questions you have in the chat and our experts will do their best to respond.
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!
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
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/...
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!
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
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
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
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/...
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
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Speakers
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Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics
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Chief Economist, Human Development, World Bank
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Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
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Senior Economist, Human Development Chief Economist Office, World Bank
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Senior Economist, Human Development Chief Economist Office, World Bank
Moderator
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Communications Officer, IFC