Publication: Pakistan – Human Capital Review: Building Capabilities Throughout Life
Loading...
Other Files
575 downloads
632 downloads
392 downloads
266 downloads
53 downloads
33 downloads
Published
2023-04-04
ISSN
Date
2023-04-04
Author(s)
Ersado, Lire,
Geven, Koen Martijn
Kathuria, Ashi Kohli
Baron, Juan
Bend, May
Ahmed, S. Amer
Editor(s)
Abstract
Pakistan can realize major economic growth and development by investing in its people and their human capital. But the reality is that Pakistan’s human capital is low and has improved only marginally over the past three decades. Inequalities in human capital outcomes have persisted or widened over time between the rich and poor, men and women, and rural and urban areas and among the provinces. Human capital outcomes are low across the board, with even the most economically advantaged groups in Pakistan having lower human capital outcomes than less economically advantaged groups in peer countries. Pakistan’s Human Capital Index (HCI) value of 0.41 is low in both absolute and relative terms. It is lower than the South Asia average of 0.48, with Bangladesh at 0.46 and Nepal at 0.49. Pakistan’s human capital outcomes are more comparable to those in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has an average HCI value of 0.40. To enhance its human capital, Pakistan should adopt a life cycle approach to building, protecting, and deploying human capital, starting before birth, continuing through early childhood development, and schooling, culminating in increasingly productive employment. This calls for a long-term commitment, recognition of the multidimensional and cumulative nature of human capital investments, deliberate efforts from multiple stakeholders and sectors to build on intersectoral linkages, and a continuity of policies across political parties and governments. Many countries previously at Pakistan’s level of development have managed to precisely do this, even with regional variations and gaps just as large. Pakistan has the tools to implement the recommendations in this report, provide stewardship for human capital investments, and enhance economic growth over the long term. Pakistan’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the country can manage complex challenges, despite its institutional constraints.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Ersado, Lire,; Hasan, Amer; Geven, Koen Martijn; Kathuria, Ashi Kohli; Baron, Juan; Bend, May; Ahmed, S. Amer. 2023. Pakistan – Human Capital Review: Building Capabilities Throughout Life. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39629 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Association of Human Capital with Physical Growth from Birth to Adulthood(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Undernutrition begins early in life and has lifelong consequences. The cost of undernutrition both for the individual and the economy are substantial. Analyzing data from an Indian cohort, the New Delhi Birth Cohort, formed between 1969 and 1972, this paper provides evidence on the associations between attained human capital in the third and fourth decade of life and measures of growth from birth to adulthood. For the purpose of this paper, attained human capital is defined through three metrics: educational status, male occupation, and material possession score. Growth measures (height, weight, body mass index (BMI)) during five age intervals (0 to 6 months, 6 to 24 months, 2 to 5 years, 5 to 11 years, and 11 years to adulthood) were related to human capital metrics using multivariate regression models. Sensitivity analyses were also performed to assess the stability of associations. All three human capital metrics had a significant positive association with birth size and measures of physical growth in children under-five years of age, in particular for children under two years. Length at birth and height gain from 6 to 24 months were consistently associated with all metrics. Faster weight and BMI gain from five years onward significantly predicted material possession scores. Among socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics at birth, maternal and paternal education, and paternal occupation also had a consistent positive association with all three human capital metrics. The findings reinforce the focus on interventions during the first 1,000 days of life to promote larger birth size and linear growth and suggest an additional window of opportunity between 2 to 5 years to improve human capital. The benefits can be enhanced by simultaneous investments in parental (especially maternal) literacy, livelihoods, safe water supply and sanitation, access to health care, and enhancing incomes. These interventions also have a nutrition-sensitive effect to promote early life growth.Publication Floods in Pakistan(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-11-01)This note assesses the effects of the 2022 floods on human capital in Pakistan. It focuses on the results of a Pakistan-wide phone survey that gathered information on the experiences of approximately 4,000 families with children ages 3 to 17. The survey was originally designed to track children’s return to school after school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the team adapted the survey methodology to ensure that it could better document and understand the challenges families with children are facing during the 2022 floods and that the country is experiencing as it seeks to protect and rebuild human capital for the future.Publication Learning Losses in Pakistan Due to COVID-19 School Closures(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10)Pakistan was among the first countries in the world to institute widespread school closures as a result of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). What are the expected levels of learning that teachers will have to deal with in the class? Will children have lost learning while schools were closed? What should teachers, parents, and children expect from the first few weeks of schooling? How can parents, teachers, and the school system as a whole help children catch up? While school closures have been effective in supporting efforts at social distancing, they may well have serious consequences for schooling and learning. This note presents results from a series of simulations that aim to capture the impacts that school closures in Pakistan may have on the learning levels, enrollment, and future earnings of children and students. In this note, the authors present an overview of how these numbers are calculated and how to interpret them. This note draws on a simulation exercise for all countries on which data is available, including Pakistan, conducted by researchers at the World Bank.Publication Nudging at Scale: Evidence from a Government Text Messaging Campaign during School Shutdowns in Punjab, Pakistan(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-08)Text and voice messages have emerged as a low-cost and popular tool for nudging recipients to change behavior. This paper presents findings from a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the impact of an information campaign using text and voice messages implemented in Punjab, Pakistan during the COVID-19-induced school closures. This campaign sought to increase study time and provide academic support while schools were closed and to encourage reenrollment when they opened, to reduce the number of dropouts. The campaign targeted girls enrolled in grades 5 to 7. Messages were sent out by a government institution, and the campaign lasted from October 2020 until November 2021, when schools had permanently re-opened. Households were randomized across three treatment groups and a control group that did not receive any messages. The first treatment group received gender-specific messages that explicitly referenced daughters in their households, and the second treatment group received gender-neutral messages. A third group was cross randomized across the first two treatment arms and received academic support messages (practice math problems and solutions). The results show that the messages increased reenrollment by 6.0 percentage points approximately three months after the intervention finished. Gender neutral messages (+8.9 percentage points) showed larger effect size on enrolment than gender-specific messages (+ 4.3 percentage points), although the difference is not statistically significant. The message program also increased learning outcomes by 0.2 standard deviation for Urdu and 0.2 standard deviation for math. The paper finds a small positive effect on the intensive margin of remote learning and an (equivalent) small negative effect on the intensive margin of outside tutoring. In line with similar studies on pandemic remediation efforts, the paper finds no effect of the academic support intervention on learning. The findings suggest that increased school enrollment played a role in supporting the observed increase in learning outcomes.Publication How to Interpret the Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring : Human Capital Deepening, Inequality Increasing, or Waste of Resources?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02)Private tutoring is now a major component of the education sector in many developing countries, yet education policy too seldom acknowledges and makes use of it. Various criticisms have been raised against private tutoring, most notably that it exacerbates social inequalities and may even fail to improve student outcomes. This paper surveys the literature for evidence on private tutoring-the extent of the tutoring phenomenon, the factors that explain its growth, and its cost-effectiveness in improving student academic performance. It also presents a framework for assessing the efficiency and equity effects of tutoring. It concludes that tutoring can raise the effectiveness of the education system under certain reasonable assumptions, even taking into account equity concerns, and it offers guidance for attacking corruption and other problems that diminish the contributions of the tutoring sector.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Panama Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-12)Panama has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, with rapid economic expansion accompanied by significant poverty reduction. Driven by public and private investment as well as labor accumulation, the Panamanian economy grew by an annual average of 5.7 percent between 1990 and 2023, much higher than the regional average of 2.5 percent. This growth contributed to a significant reduction in poverty. Using the poverty line of US$6.85 per day per capita (2017 PPP), the share of Panamanians affected by poverty improved from one in two in 1989 to only one in ten lived in 2023. Nevertheless, Panama remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. While poverty in urban areas was 4.8 percent in 2023, poverty in indigenous regions (comarcas) reached 76 percent—15 times higher. Limited progress in reducing inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, contrasts with Panama’s achievements in other areas. Globally, Panama ranked 11th in inequality in 2000, with a Gini coefficient of 53.8. Two decades later, it ranked 8th, with a Gini coefficient of 50.9 as of 2022. This report examines Panama’s achievements and challenges in reducing poverty and inequality to inform policy options. With a special focus on the 2008–2023 period the report documents progress in poverty and equity in recent decades, highlighting access to basic services, expansion of quality jobs, improvement of human capital, and promotion of household resilience as critical policy priorities.Publication Philippines Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Climate change poses major risks for development in the Philippines. Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions. Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme events and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines. Policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor. Adaptation cannot eliminate the costs of climate change, but it can substantially reduce them. Many adaptation responses also contribute to mitigation; conversely, many mitigation measures generate local co-benefits, such as reduced air pollution. Although the Philippines is a relatively low emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG), it can contribute to global mitigation efforts through an energy transition, including a shift away from coal. The investment costs of such adaptation measures and an energy transition are substantial but not out of reach. The Philippines Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) comprehensively analyzes how climate change will affect the country's ability to meet its development goals and pursue green, resilient, and inclusive development. The CCDR helps identify opportunities for climate action by both the public and private sectors and prioritizes the most urgent development challenges impacted by climate change in the Philippines.Publication Poverty and Equity Assessment for El Salvador 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-12)This report proposes an agenda for building on gains to re-accelerate poverty reduction among Salvadorans. The last World Bank Poverty Assessment for El Salvador, from 2015, proposed two key policy recommendations: (a) effective pro-poor spending and (b) reduction of crime and violence through better access to jobs and education. Nine years later, the authorities have managed to achieve a substantial reduction in crime and violence and have indicated an intent to build on such progress to establish a path toward an El Salvador where shared prosperity is achievable. In this report, we propose a three pillar structure to address poverty and inequality reduction: jobs, services, and social protection, with a cross-cutting set of primary conditions that articulates this structure.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.Publication Peru Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Peru Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) provides analysis and recommendations on integrating the country’s efforts to achieve economic development with the pursuit of emission reduction and climate resilience. The CCDR explores opportunities and trade-offs for aligning Peru’s development path with its recent commitments on climate change. Peru is highly vulnerable to climate change and needs urgent adaptation action. Peru can benefit from decarbonization policies, thanks to its mining, forestry and agriculture, and renewable energy resources. Peru has many opportunities to develop and implement comprehensive climate policies that also increase productivity and reduce poverty. A low-carbon, resilient development for Peru would require substantial institutional reforms, in addition to public and private investments.