Being an Artifact presentation required for the award of a verified certificate in respect of the course on The Future of Work organised by edx.org in collaboration with the World Bank Group

1. COURSE TITLE:THE
FUTURE OF WORK
FINAL PROJECT FOCUS:HUMAN CAPITAL INDEX
A Presentation by Sylvester Oshita Edor

2. Introduction
 Most Governments especially in developing economies pay more attention on
etc.physical infrastructures such as energy, roads, bridges, airport etc.
 They are however less interested in the Human Capital aspect of investment.
 The consequence is the wide gap created through a weakened system, not
capable of competing with developed economies.
 The World Bank has developed a new index known as the Human Capital
Index.

3. Human Capital Index
 It is an index to measure the extent to which human capital contributes to
the productivity of the next generation of workers.
 According to the World Bank. the index will be launched at their annual
meeting at Bali in October,2019.
 The index focuses on the extent of a country’s investment on health as well
as education that a child born today can achieve by the age of 18;

4. Basic Issues
 Various researches have shown that:
 A quarter of children especially in developing economies under 5 years are
malnourished;
 More than 260 million children in the developing countries still fall short of
learning proficiency;
 Teachers are not adequately trained;
 Governments are failing to invest in their population,probably due to the long
term required for such investments to be materialised.

5. Advantages of Investing in Human
Capital
 Focusing on human capital in the first 1000 days of a child’s life is one of the
most cost effective investments required of Governments;
 It should be noted that proper nutrition and stimulation in the uterus and
during early childhood improve physical and mental well being later in life;
 Although the above can as well be achieved later in life but with a higher
cost. Therefore, maternal education is needed;
 Investments in human capital is capable of improving the cognitive and socio-
behavioural skills of children required for large economic returns;
 Early investments in education in South West Nigeria through school feeding
in the 70s gave the zone advantage over other parts of the country.

6. Advantages Cont’d
 Currently, the zone boasts of the most educated people in the country;
 Each household has at least an individual with Professorial qualification and
they have excelled in various spheres of life;
 Increased sensitization on the importance of immunization in Northern Nigeria
has drastically reduced cases of polio and cerebral meningitis ;
 Death of infants has also reduced by 30%.

7. Way Forward
 In vestment in human capital must be championed by the State/Government;
 Discrimination of sexes should be abolished;
 Rating agencies such as the World Bank, Transparency International etc must
consistently provide information to spur governments action;
 Tax loopholes and exemptions should be closed;
 Revenue collection should be improved through apprpropriate fiscal policies;
 More sensitization on removal of subsidies and trust to establish social
contract;
 Corruption should be eliminated.