The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19

Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the har...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34432
id okr-10986-34432
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-344322021-05-25T09:48:59Z The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 World Bank GENDER GAP CHILD HEALTH MATERNAL HEALTH HEALTH SERVICES ACCESS TO SANITATION CASH TRANSFERS FISCAL TRENDS FISCAL SPACE VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS SOCIAL PROTECTION EDUCATION QUALITY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT CHILD MORTALITY COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IMPACT Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. It was launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project, a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use can inform pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover ground lost during the current crisis. Ambitious, evidencedriven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them. 2020-09-15T13:24:33Z 2020-09-15T13:24:33Z 2020-09-16 Report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34432 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
topic GENDER GAP
CHILD HEALTH
MATERNAL HEALTH
HEALTH SERVICES
ACCESS TO SANITATION
CASH TRANSFERS
FISCAL TRENDS
FISCAL SPACE
VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS
SOCIAL PROTECTION
EDUCATION QUALITY
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
CHILD MORTALITY
COVID-19
CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC IMPACT
spellingShingle GENDER GAP
CHILD HEALTH
MATERNAL HEALTH
HEALTH SERVICES
ACCESS TO SANITATION
CASH TRANSFERS
FISCAL TRENDS
FISCAL SPACE
VULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDS
SOCIAL PROTECTION
EDUCATION QUALITY
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
CHILD MORTALITY
COVID-19
CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC IMPACT
World Bank
The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
description Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. It was launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project, a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use can inform pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover ground lost during the current crisis. Ambitious, evidencedriven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
title_short The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
title_full The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
title_fullStr The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19
title_sort human capital index 2020 update : human capital in the time of covid-19
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34432
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