Publication: Survive, Learn, Thrive: Strategic Human Capital Investments to Accelerate Azerbaijan’s Growth
Loading...
Files in English
905 downloads
Other Files
4,206 downloads
Published
2020-09
ISSN
Date
2020-09-25
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Human capital is the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives and that enable them to realize their potential as productive members of society is an important contributor to the wealth of all nations regardless of income status. While Azerbaijan has achieved remarkable economic growth and poverty reduction over the last two decades, it lags its regional peers in terms of human capital accumulation.This report aims to evaluate Azerbaijan’s progress in human capital development and to identify opportunities for accelerating growth. To this end, the analysis uses the HCP to benchmark human capital development in Azerbaijan against its international peers using the Human Capital Index (HCI). The report supplements the HCP with additional analysis assessing key challenges and constraints in the areas that are instrumental for human capital development, and provides pathways for targeted catalytic interventions aimed at yielding positive growth in human capital development in the country.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. Survive, Learn, Thrive: Strategic Human Capital Investments to Accelerate Azerbaijan’s Growth. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34514 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 Survive, Learn, Thrive(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09)Human capital is the stock of accumulated knowledge, experience, and attributes that workers bring to and use in the production of goods and services in an economy. Investing in people through quality healthcare, education, social services, and job opportunities develops human capital, which is key to ending extreme poverty and creating more inclusive societies. The state of Georgia’s human capital is of significant concern as it threatens to hold the country back from reaching its growth potential. Recognizing this urgency, the government has begun to set national priorities for accelerating human capital development.This report highlights the state of and trends in human capital development in Georgia today. Its aim is to acknowledge Georgia’s accomplishments, address ongoing challenges, and outline key interventions to help the country in taking the next step in its growth by investing in its most important resource, the Georgian people. Moving from ideation to the implementation of strategic human capital investments will require a whole-of-society approach, an increase in financial commitments, continuous monitoring and learning from results, and the exploitation of technology.Publication Survive, Learn, Thrive(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09)Human capital – the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives and that enable them to realize their potential as productive members of society – is an important contributor to the wealth of all nations regardless of their income status. A child born in Armenia today will be 57 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she received a full education and was completely healthy. This reflects the existence in Armenia of deficiencies in its schooling, student performance on harmonized tests, and the protection from non-fatal health risks that it provides beyond childhood. These gaps in human capital formation have negative implications for the economy. The 2013-2014 National Competitiveness Report of Armenia highlighted that insufficient human capital is a binding constraint to the country’s growth. If Armenia ensured full education and complete health in the long run, the per capita Gross Domestic Product could be 1.75 times higher.Publication Russian Federation : The Demographic Transition and Its Implications for Adult Learning and Long-Term Care Policies(Washington, DC, 2011-01)This report describes the demographic transition in the Russian Federation and its implications for adult learning and long-term care policies. The population of Russia is aging and declining rapidly compared to other European nations. Russia's current age structure results from decades of complex demographic trends that have created a population structure with increasingly fewer young people. Women are having fewer children and are waiting longer to have children. Russia's mortality remains higher than in other developed societies. This high mortality is due to an unusually high incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries among adult men. Two key challenges face Russia. The first challenge is whether public expenditure on pensions and health care will become unsustainable as the size of the elderly population increases. The second challenge is whether declining population sizes will reduce the size of the labor force and hence reduce economic growth.Publication Expanding Access and Enhancing the Economic Benefits of Education in the Maldives : Challenges and Prospects(Washington, DC, 2012-05)Human capital is the central determinant of economic well-being and social advancement in the modern global economy. The key characteristic that distinguishes between advanced economies, middle-income economies and low-income economies is the knowledge content of their economic activities and production processes. Industry, agriculture and especially services have become increasingly knowledge and skill intensive in recent years. Further, the dominance of knowledge and skills is increasing at an accelerating rate. Among advanced economies, for instance, the education levels of their populations is the single most important factor determining their economic performance [Hanushek and Welch (2006), Hanushek and Woessmann (2008)]. Among middle-income and low-income countries, too, economies that have high education attainment enjoy considerable welfare gains [Fasih (2008), Patrinos and Psacharopoulos (2011)]. Human resource development is particularly important for the economic development of small states [Martin and Bray (2011)]. Education also produces a variety of social benefits. These include healthier and better nourished families and children; the creation of the enlightened citizenry needed for a modern liberal democracy; and the promotion of social mobility [OECD (2012)]. This paper offers an overview of the general education system and the current status of access and participation in the Maldives. This is followed by a discussion of the economic and social benefits of investment in education. The paper concludes by discussing options to expand access and participation at education levels where the Maldives lags behind other comparable small island economies.Publication Early Childhood Development and Education in China : Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Improving Future Competitiveness(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)Neuroscience and longitudinal studies of early childhood development and education (ECDE) found that prenatal care and experiences from birth to the first six years (0-6), affect physical and brain development of children, and thereby the cognitive and socio-emotional development in subsequent stages of their lives. Lack of access to nutrition and health care, insufficient stimulating human interaction, and non-enrollment in pre-primary education are associated with lower educational attainment and achievement, which, in turn, reduce life-time earnings and potentially contribute to disruptive behavior to society. Investing in ECDE yields the highest economic returns because early learning and formation of good habits and social skills are far more productive than later, remedial education and training. The internal rates of return of rigorously evaluated ECDE programs range from 7 percent to 18 percent, which are higher than the rates of return to financial capital. Investments in ECDE are one of the most cost-effective strategies to break the inter-generational transmission of poverty, and to improve productivity and social cohesion in the long run. The report considers it highly desirable to universalize ECDE for the 0-6 age group in the long run because it equalizes opportunities and enhances the country's future competitiveness. But the report focuses on the medium term and advocates a two-pronged, pro-poor approach in the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015).
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.Publication Building Effective, Accountable, and Inclusive Institutions in Europe and Central Asia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Countries around the world are facing the need to build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions. There has never been a more important moment to tackle this agenda, as countries grapple with increasing fragility and migration flows, more complex service delivery requirements, and greater demands for transparency and inclusion, all in a more resource-constrained environment. Moreover, the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic crisis has provided new evidence of the need for effective, accountable, and inclusive government responses. Governments’ capacity to respond to these complex challenges is understandably stretched, but this has not limited the rise of citizens’ expectations. Instead, it has often increased tensions and, in some cases, has affected the trust between governments and their citizens. This publication builds on the World Bank’s vast engagement across ECA and on the 2019 regional governance conference. It consists of six chapters, each corresponding to one of the governance areas around which governments across the world organize their institutional functions. Each chapter contains background and analysis by World Bank specialists, complemented by country case studies authored by regional experts and policymakers.Publication World Development Report 2009(World Bank, 2009)Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged. The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalizations many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s bottom billion, trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced. This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions. Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25)This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication Water Matters(Washington, DC, 2022)Water security is a matter of increasing concern across the world and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is no exception. With rapidly growing demands for water and increasing variability due to climate change, ensuring water access to all users and mitigating water-related risks should be at the center of national and regional adaptation strategies. With nearly a third of the world's water resources, the LAC region's development has been inadvertently driven by water. This rich water endowment has allowed LAC to position itself as the world's largest net food-exporting region and greenest in terms of electricity production through hydropower. Water has played a fundamental role in reducing poverty, preserving LAC's natural wealth, and accelerating economic growth. More importantly, access to safe drinking water and sanitation services has contributed to improve the health and living conditions of millions of people. Despite this progress, there are urgent water sector challenges that threaten the region's sustainable development. Access to water and sanitation services is inequitable, with greater gaps in rural, indigenous, and peri-urban communities. In addition, water-related extremes such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, having negative effects in lower-income communities. These gaps are more likely to be broadened by unsustainable water management practices, growing demands by competing water users, increasing pollution, and climate change impacts. In LAC, inadequate infrastructure results in a lack of storage and limited investment reduces the capacity of institutions to achieve integrated water resources management and improve service provision. The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) conducts research, convenes multi stakeholder dialogues, builds institutional capacity, and provides policy advice to water decision-makers. Focused on improving water governance, the authors aim to contribute to more prosperous and inclusive societies.