Pakistan needs massive investment in human capital: WB report

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank in a report pointed out that Pakistan faces deep human capital crisis, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The bank has released a report on Pakistan’s human capital and advised hectic efforts and increasing considerable investment in the human development.

The WB report has highlighted the need of increasing investment in Pakistan’s human capital. It advises large investment in education and health sectors to overcome problems.

The report stated that human capital is low in the country and has improved only marginally over the past several decades.

“We document that Pakistan has made enormous progress over the last 30 years in poverty alleviation, despite a massively expanding population,” the report stated.

A recent study by the World Bank shows that Pakistan’s Human Capital Index (HCI) of 0.41 is low both in absolute and relative terms, which means that a baby born in Pakistan today will only be 41% as productive as they could be if they enjoyed complete education and full health.

Pakistan has been in lowest ladder in human capital in comparison to other South-Asian countries, according to WB report. Pakistan’s human capital outcomes are more comparable to Sub-Saharan Africa’s, which has an average HCI of 0.40, report said.

Pakistan also highly underutilises its human capital due largely to low female labor force participation.

“The country’s 20 million children have been out of school. The children also facing malnutrition on massive scale in the country,” report said.

The report stressed for sustainable and long-term investment in human capital. ” Pakistan has repeatedly demonstrated it can deliver effective services at scale.”

The report emphasises that investing in human capital is in fact an enormous opportunity for Pakistan, and more importantly, that this is a very safe bet. Starting from a very low baseline means that Pakistan can focus on the basics of good health and education governance.