How countries nurture CONTINUITY Human Capital Implement a whole of government approach WHOLE OF CO GOVERNMENT CE OR EN D IN ID AT EV IO Many countries that have pursued N continuity, coordination, and evidence in tandem have managed to achieve complete transformations. ABOUT THIS SERIES This four-part series explores the strategies Whole of Government Approach governments have deployed to overcome the myriad barriers to effectively invest In their efforts to build human capital, countries that in human capital. It focuses on a whole have successfully managed to sustain efforts across of government approach that (i) sustains political cycles, coordinate across government, and efforts across political cycles; (ii) coordinates design policies and programs that use and expand across government; and (iii) designs policies the evidence base have been most effective in and programs that use and expand the accumulating human capital, thereby reaping many evidence base. lasting social and economic benefits. These include countries like Singapore, the Republic of Korea, While adopting any one of these strategies Japan, Ireland and Finland, to name a few. Many can help build human capital, countries have managed to achieve significant transformations that have implemented all three in tandem in just a few decades. are often among those that have made major strides in improving human capital Singapore: creating a outcomes. In this series, we examine the world-class education system various dimensions of this approach using country examples and conclude with In 1950, an adult in Singapore averaged 2.1 years a look at how success across all three of formal schooling. This rose five-fold by 2010 to strategies has led to meaningful gains and 10.6 years, higher than the East Asia average of lasting benefits. 7.9 years. Government-driven investment in the learning economy helped Singapore develop a world-class networked learning and innovation system, capable of delivering quality education in response to market signals. Because the government placed a premium on education, it determined that no student should be denied an education for lack of funds. Its education policy sought to incorporate all worldbank.org/humancapital private and public schools into a unified national 2009. Singapore today boasts some of the highest system of education through direct state funding learning outcomes in the world as measured by or generous grants-in-aid. The government also international assessments. It outperforms all other subsidized higher education by providing low- participating countries in science, reading and interest loans from a revolving fund. math in PISA, at a level that is more than two years ahead of OECD counterparts.1 By the 1970s, Singapore achieved universal primary education; it had 44 percent secondary enrollment by 1990. Simultaneously, it built up its Peru: a long-term vision vocational training sector, making a determined to reduce stunting effort to match the skills offered by vocational schools with those needed by the market. Between 2005 and 2016, the rate of chronic malnutrition in children in Peru declined from As the country attracted increasing foreign 28 percent to 13 percent. Effective public policy investment, the government worked in tandem on reducing stunting in children was maintained with these foreign companies on training across successive governments with each technicians for their factories. Companies administration setting new and ambitious targets were persuaded to train twice the number of to reduce stunting. In 2007, the national strategy technicians needed and given the opportunity to for Early Childhood Development, Crecer, rallied choose first from among the graduates; the pool of national, regional and municipal governments remaining qualified technicians served to attract to reduce poverty and boost development in new investors. Ultimately, the training centers were cooperation with the private sector, international consolidated to form the Institute of Technical development agencies and grassroots Education (ITE), an arm of the Singapore Ministry organizations. A communications strategy jointly of Education. An employment rate of 90 percent led by these diverse partners created widespread speaks to the quality of ITE graduates. At the awareness about the devastating impact of university level, responsiveness to market needs chronic malnutrition and its potential prevention has meant engaging employers in curriculum and with early interventions. As more mothers course design. Key government agencies work met more regularly with doctors, nurses and together and serve as intermediaries between nutritionists in clinics and health centers, the education and business sectors to ensure that their habits started to change and with it the feedback is constant and acted upon. health of millions of Peruvian children. Between Singapore has also made extensive use 2007 and 2016 the number of children who were of international benchmarking as a tool stunted fell by 49 percent in urban areas and by for improvement, participating in Trends in 50 percent in rural areas. International Mathematics and Science Study Crecer had a three-pronged strategy. First, it (TIMSS) for many years and in Programme for stressed that nutrition was a much wider issue International Student Assessment (PISA) since than just food distribution. Water, sanitation, access to health services, education and the empowerment of women in poor, remote and rural communities were critical to reducing stunting. It was impossible to effectively combat chronic malnutrition without regular child growth monitoring and promotion as well as fighting infectious diseases, improving sanitation and access to water. Second, the government stressed the importance of coordination, horizontally across ministries and public bodies and vertically, between national, regional and municipal authorities. Third, and most crucial to effective implementation of the strategy, was the decision Beneficiaries of Peru’s Crecer program. Photo: Bibiana Melzi to give the power (and resources) for tackling the problem to regional and municipal governments Implementing all three while holding them accountable. strategies together can The Ministry of Economy and Finance took a help achieve dramatic leadership role. Using a results-based approach to spending resources on nutrition, sectors transformations. converged and worked toward a common goal. Peru was careful to spend money only on tried-and-tested methods and evidence- REPUBLIC OF KOREA: based interventions that had already been shown to improve nutrition and children’s health sustained investments in elsewhere. The importance of real time data health and education and well-functioning systems was recognized early, and action was taken. Cash incentives, complemented by sound through a Conditional Cash Transfer program economic policies known as Juntos, were a crucial part of the solution. Juntos provided cash to mothers while took advantage of requiring them to take their young children regularly to health, growth monitoring and demographic dividend promotion check-ups at health centers and ensure that their older children attended school. 6.7% average annual This payment increased demand for health and growth over 40-year period social services in poor and rural communities.2 Ireland: linking jobs and skills A chiefly agrarian economy in the 1970s with of government-funded, industry-led, training an average GDP of US$88 billion, Ireland networks. The aim was to ensure a supply of transformed itself in the late 20th century, higher education graduates with technical skills capitalizing on the economic opportunities and training to meet the demand of the labor presented by the new frontiers of electronics, market. By ensuring that its graduates met information technology, and globalization. In international standards, Ireland was able to 2017, Ireland’s GDP reached an all-time high of attract multinational corporations to its shores. nearly US$334 billion. In fact, a world-class tertiary education sector was singled out as the long-term driver in a Investment in human capital development was an world where business people, economists, and important contributor to the country’s economic scientists identified innovative technologies as growth and included significant reforms of the principal means of growth. Accreditation and education and training. The country achieved competency standards were facilitated through close to universal primary education by 1970 with increased devolution of responsibility from the 63 percent net enrollment in secondary education. Department of Education to agencies with a By 1990, net enrollment in secondary education wider representation of educational interests. had risen to 80 percent. Having solidified these tiers of education, Ireland, focused on a sustainable Ireland also benchmarked its primary education economy anchored to a learning economy. system against international standards. Based on the 2015 PISA scores, Irish secondary school In 1997, Ireland established a broad-based Expert students rank third among students in 35 OECD Group on Future Skill Needs responsible for countries for reading, while they performed assessment of various industries and sectors, significantly above average in math and science supported by an institutional implementation (13th place). framework, and the establishment in 1999 APRIL 2019 no. 4 of 4 Good governance played a part in Ireland earning its reputation as a “Celtic Tiger” economy over two decades. Working closely with Irish providers of infrastructure and skills, the Industrial Development Agency aimed to attract foreign investment by ensuring that Ireland’s urban infrastructure services were world class and its human capital equipped with technical and soft skills. The efforts of this agency were complemented by the Science Foundation of Ireland, created in 2000 to manage the €646 million Technology Foresight Fund. The fund’s purpose was to multiply the ties between the research and business communities in conjunction with the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions.3 Republic of Korea: complementary investments over many decades Starting in the early 1960s, the Republic of Korea underwent a massive demographic and economic transition resulting in average annual growth of 6.7 percent over a 40-year period. Successive governments made investments in health and education and determined economic policies that took advantage of the ensuing demographic dividend. Aggressive investment in family planning policies, health centers and field workers, as well as mothers’ clubs for more rural areas to provide information, education and contraceptives helped to achieve a target of 45 percent of married couples using family planning. As a result, Korea’s fertility declined rapidly. Between 1950 and 1975, fertility declined from 5.4 children per woman to 2.9, and this number decreased to 1.2 by 2005. With a large working-age population, Korea accelerated economic growth through policy measures across several sectors. The government shifted its education and skills development strategy to result in a higher skilled labor force. A ‘production-oriented education’ strategy provided citizens with knowledge and skills needed for economic development. The country also introduced The Human Capital Project is a global comprehensive economic plans that focused on investments in effort to accelerate more and better labor-intensive sectors, directed investments to infrastructure and rural construction programs, and created a favorable business investments in people for greater environment that brought in foreign direct investments. Korea’s equity and economic growth. The deliberate decision to simultaneously enact health, education, Project is helping create the political and economic growth policies enabled these efforts to reinforce space for national leaders to prioritize one another, enhancing effectiveness and helping to deliver transformational investments in health, sustained economic growth over many decades.4 education, and social protection. The objective is rapid progress toward a world in which all children are well- ENDNOTES nourished and ready to learn, can attain 1 Yusuf, S. and Nabeshima, Kaoru. 2012. Some Small Countries Do It Better: Rapid real learning in the classroom, and can Growth and Its Causes in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland. The World Bank. enter the job market as healthy, skilled, 2 Marini, A., Rokx, C. and Gallagher, P. 2017. Standing Tall: Peru’s Success in Overcoming and productive adults. its Stunting Crisis. The World Bank. 3 Yusuf, S. and Nabeshima, Kaoru. 2012. Some Small Countries Do It Better: Rapid Growth and Its Causes in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland. The World Bank. 4 Population Reference Bureau. 2012. https://www.prb.org/south-korea-population/ FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: worldbank.org/humancapital