Putting people first through investing in human capital – the knowledge, skills, and health that people need to achieve their potential – is critical for sustainable, inclusive growth and poverty reduction. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to leave generations behind and exacerbate inequalities. Health impacts, setbacks to nutrition, the early years and learning, job losses and expanding gender gaps must be addressed with urgency. Countries have stepped up in innovative ways to put people first through building, protecting, and utilizing human capital – with support from the World Bank and partners. However – ambition, innovation, and sustained support are needed to recover human capital losses and strengthen recovery. Investing in people consistently and providing opportunities for all to achieve their potential can yield economic dividends – and help bring greater stability in a challenging global context.

During the 2022 World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings, leaders, innovators and change-makers shared how investments in human capital can not only change lives for individuals, but also create more inclusive and equitable societies. Listen to the Spring Meetings highlights in a special series of The Development Podcast.

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Timestamps

[00:00] Welcome and introduction of the topic

[02:38] Tanzania's education system

[05:13] Tanzania's investment in health

[08:28] Tanzania: Challenges in education and health

[13:35] Tackling learning poverty

[17:36] Special considerations from a gender and fragility context

[19:07] Impacts of the pandemic on young people

[23:50] The value of investing in people

[28:10] Equipping young people for the jobs of the future

[29:32] Closure and thanks for tuning!

Featured voices

• Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of United Republic of Tanzania: "In some societies, the herd keepers, the livestock keepers, they prefer their kids to go for herding rather than going to school. We had to educate the parents to accept sending their kids to school."
• David R. Malpass, President, World Bank Group: "Men are part of the problem [gender-based violence] and have to be educated and brought forward along."
• Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General: "Even if you had connectivity, teachers were not prepared to teach, and learners were not prepared to learn, even though we thought we had them connected."
• Mari Pangestu, Managing Director, Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank: "This accelerated learning recovery really needs a focus, in terms of the programs that we need to design, the teachers that we need to train, to be able to have the tools and resources to address this."
• Malala Yousafzai, Co-Founder of Malala Fund: ""We know that when children enroll into schools, there's also the issue of what they learn in their classrooms. So it's the access to education, but also the quality of education that are important."
• Beatrice Mahuru, Founder & CEO, GLaD Ltd and B&WE Ltd: "Conflict resolution is definitely one of those soft skills that's required, both to manage workplace conversations, as well as their communities back at home."

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