Tirana, October 11, 2018 — A Human Capital Index (HCI), launched today at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, shows that a child born in Albania today will be 62 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health. The HCI for Albania is higher than what would be expected for its income level.
The World Bank research released today gives policymakers compelling evidence that delivering better outcomes in children’s health and learning can significantly boost the incomes of people—and of countries—with returns far into the future.
“For the poorest people, human capital is often the only capital they have,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “Human capital is a key driver of sustainable, inclusive economic growth, but investing in health and education has not gotten the attention it deserves. This index creates a direct line between improving outcomes in health and education, productivity, and economic growth. I hope that it drives countries to take urgent action and invest more – and more effectively – in their people.
“The bar is rising for everyone,” Kim added. “Building human capital is critical for all countries, at all income levels, to compete in the economy of the future.”
The Human Capital Index measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18. The Index ranks where each country is now in terms of productivity of the next generation of workers. It measures each country’s distance to the frontier of complete education and full health for a child born today on a scale from zero to one, with 1 as the best possible score. The Index is made up of five indicators: the probability of survival to age five, a child’s expected years of schooling, and how much will they learn, adult survival rate (fraction of 15-year old that will survive to age 60), and the proportion of children who are not stunted.
Albania has enhanced the coverage and quality of early childhood education and care. The access to pre-primary education has substantially increased from 58 percent in 2007 to 83 percent in 2017. Over the longer term, early learning opportunities are linked with higher educational attainment, post-school productivity, and income, and have a higher rate of return for vulnerable groups. But more needs to be done in addressing quality of pre-primary education and inclusion, especially for the disadvantaged children which is a priority recognized by the Government of Albania.
Albania managed to improve its average PISA scores, although in a context of a rapidly expanding education system, especially in the upper secondary education from about 40 percent in 2000 to 95 percent in 2015.
99 out of 100 children born in Albania survive to age 5, but infant, maternal mortality and stunted rates are slightly higher than in other countries in the region and improvements are still possible.
Sex-disaggregated data is available for 126 of the Index’s 157 countries. In most countries, the human capital gap for both boys and girls from the frontier is larger than the gap between boys and girls. Albania has reached full gender parity in pre-primary and basic education. In the last few years, gross enrollment rates have been almost identical for boys and girls in preprimary and basic education. However, more males than females attend upper secondary while more females are in higher education pointing to needs to address disparities at these levels of education going forward.
The Index is part of the World Bank Group’s Human Capital Project, which recognizes human capital as driver of inclusive growth. In addition to the Index, the Human Capital Project includes a program to strengthen research and measurement on human capital, as well as support to countries to accelerate progress in human capital outcomes.
Some 28 countries spanning various regions and income levels have expressed advance interest in participating in the Project and have nominated focal points within their governments to work with the World Bank Group. These countries have begun work on elevating human capital policy dialogue across their government line ministries and identifying national priorities for accelerating progress on human capital, based on each country’s own development plans.
The Index is included in the forthcoming World Development Report 2019 on the Changing Nature of Work, which addresses the importance of investing in human capital to prepare for the future of work.
Contacts:
In Bali: Nicole Frost +1 (202) 415-6302, nfrost@worldbank.org
David Theis +1 (202) 203-0601, dtheis@worldbank.org
In Washington: Christopher Walsh, (202) 473-4594, cwalsh@worldbankgroup.org
In Tirana: Ana Gjokutaj, agjokutaj@worldbank.org
For Broadcast Requests: Huma Imtiaz, +1 (202) 290-4864, himtiaz@worldbankgroup.org
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