Recognizing the key role of human capital in growth and competitiveness, the Government of Azerbaijan and World Bank Group organized a three-day, high-level Human Capital Forum in Baku from December 19 to 21, 2018. Each day, approximately 150 participants including government ministers, top policy experts, academics, development and business community leaders, and media representatives gathered to discuss how best to support the Government of Azerbaijan in accelerating the development of its people.
Why now?
Over the past two decades, oil wealth has helped Azerbaijan achieve high growth rates, significant poverty reduction, and a middle-income status. However, Azerbaijan is facing new and emerging challenges such as how to achieve broad-based, private sector-led growth and make key public services and economic opportunities accessible to all citizens across the country.
Further, on the recently released Human Capital Index, Azerbaijan ranks 69th out of 157 countries. A child born in Azerbaijan today will be 60 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health. Already, the country’s development strategy documents—the Azerbaijan 2020: Vision for the Future and the Strategic Roadmaps for Economic Reforms —envision human capital development and its effective engagement in the development of Azerbaijan.
The Forum provided a way to explore a “whole-of-government” approach to nurturing human capital by engaging ministers and officials from education, health, tax, labor and other fields.
Forum Highlights
On Day 1, with the focus on jobs, Sahil Babayev, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population, emphasized the country’s commitment to the formation of human capital and measures to stimulate the labor market. He particularly appreciated that human capital development is looked at through the prism of economic growth and social cohesion.
The World Bank presented the World Development Report 2019 The Changing Nature of Work, a study on how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today and how governments can best respond to these changes by investing in human capital and offering social protections to all people. Sahil Babayev was joined by Khagani Abdullayev, Adviser to the Minister of Taxes, Kestutis Jankauskas, Head of the EU delegation, and Maleyka Abbaszadeh, Chairperson of the State Examination Center of Azerbaijan, as panelists.
While discussing how investing in human capital must be a priority for governments for workers to build in-demand skills, Mr. Abdullayev said, “Experience shows that properly implemented tax policies contribute to the implementation of a mechanism for encouraging investment in human capital; in this context, Azerbaijan is paying attention to areas which require unique skills.
This year, it was proposed to introduce tax incentives for a period of ten years for investments in such areas as education, science, sports and culture. At present, educational institutions where people with disabilities study are exempted from income tax in 2019.”
Day 2 focused on education. Setting the stage for discussion, Naveed Naqvi, World Bank Country Manager for Azerbaijan, stressed that the people of Azerbaijan were the country’s only true resource and for them to fully utilize their potential, increased investment in education and skills was needed.
Jeyhun Bayramov, Minister of Education of Azerbaijan, confirmed this in his opening remarks, stating, “Our world requires well-educated, skills-equipped graduates from our schools who will shape our today and tomorrow. And achieving this is a shared responsibility of education, business and government leaders.”The topic was further elaborated in the WB presentation on the 2018 World Development Report: Learning to Recognize Education’s Promise.
In the discussion following the presentations, Jeyhun Bayramov was joined by William Gill, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires; Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Country Coordinator; Fariz Ismailzade, Vice Rector of ADA, Maleyka Abbaszadeh (mentioned above), and Cem Mete, Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice Manager, Europe & Central Asia, World Bank, as panelists. Participants debated measures to ensure that schooling and learning went hand in hand, how to act on evidence to maximize learning outcomes, and how to align various actors in the system to make it work for learning. Mrs. Abbaszadeh said, “It is necessary to change the nature of education to make it career-oriented."
A presentation on the changing nature of wealth and a discussion centered around The Human Capital Index and Human Capital Project set the agenda for Day 3. Panelists for the latter included Vusal Gasimli, Head of the Center for Analysis and Communication of Economic Reforms, Hijran Huseynova, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, Zakiya Mustafayeva, Head of Apparatus, Ministry of Health, Zaur Aliyev, State Agency for Mandatory Health Insurance, Dr. Hande Harmanci, WHO Representative, Garay Garaybayli, Rector of Azerbaijan Medical University, and Ghulam M. Isaczai, UN Resident Coordinator.
Issues for discussion included: Why should countries invest in human capital? Can early health care and education prepare children to succeed and prosper as adults in a rapidly changing world? What are the barriers to nurturing human capital and how can countries overcome them?
Additional forum sessions included the World Bank’s analytical work on employment, higher education, health financing, and early childhood development in Azerbaijan.
Finally, at the end of the three-day forum, the main presentations, key messages and recommendations from the event were presented at the National Parliament of Azerbaijan (Milli Mejlis). Mr. Ziyad Samadzade, Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee, led an engaging discussion on the state of human development in Azerbaijan and ways to accelerate the transformation of Azerbaijan’s oil wealth into human capital.
