First Human Capital Project (News and Research 285)
Transformative World Bank Investment in Human Capital to Help Georgia Toward Greater Economic Prosperity | Georgia’s potential for economic prosperity has received a significant boost with approval by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors of the Human Capital Program for Georgia. Financing in the amount of $400 million will be the largest cross-sectorial investment ever extended to Georgia by the World Bank over the 30 years of its partnership. The World Bank’s Program for Results (PforR) in Georgia will be the first financing instrument of its kind anywhere to comprehensively improve education, health, and social protection outcomes. It is also the first time Georgia is applying this instrument for World Bank financing for any sector. The Georgia Human Capital Program aims to improve the quality of life for all citizens of Georgia with fair and equal access to high quality education, better targeted social benefits, and strong preventive healthcare with lowered cost of treatments and medicine. The health and social protection dimension of the Human Capital Program will contribute to increasing efficiencies of service delivery and promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups in health, social, and employment services. The reforms are expected to improve the social assistance coverage of poor households with children, and to better prepare and connect the unemployed to job opportunities. The Program will help the Government to reform health service purchasing and pricing, improve efficiency and equity in the pharmaceutical market, and transform and strengthen primary health as well as hospital care in Georgia. The main objective of the education reforms supported by the Human Capital Program is to upgrade the skills and competencies of Georgia’s children and youth to better tackle increasingly complex problems that face modern societies. From Pre-School through High School to University and beyond, the Program will support the transformation of Georgia’s education system from mere knowledge provision to developing capabilities of problem-solving, collaboration, and communication.
Press coverage:
TV channels Rustavi 2 – VIDEO
Imedi TV – VIDEO
Georgian Public Broadcaster – VIDEO (from 24.41 min.)
Business Media – VIDEO (from 4:45 min.)
World Bank allocates $400 mln for Human Capital Programme in Georgia (Agenda.ge)
World Bank approves USD 400 million financing for Georgia (Interpressnews.ge)
World Bank Approves USD 509 Mln Programs for Georgia (civil.ge)
Measurement: The missing puzzle piece in early childhood education in North Macedonia | Bojana Naceva et al. |Global interest on early childhood education (ECE) is growing as more and more countries realize that investment in the youngest members of society lies at the heart of human capital development. A considerable body of international research highlights the importance of ECE, not just for school readiness but also for later educational and life outcomes. In view of such evidence, the Government of North Macedonia is committed to expanding access to ECE and improving early learning quality…The Missing Piece in the ECE Puzzle: In terms of access, the country has made significant strides in improving participation in preschool education. The number of children enrolled in all types of preschool institutions has increased by 11% between 2009 and 2019, which is a considerable accomplishment. However, despite improvements of access to ECE, the country has no system for monitoring the quality of ECE, thus facing challenges in answering the question: what is the quality of early learning in North Macedonia and how can we continuously improve it? Providing answers to such a question becomes even more vital considering the potential learning losses caused by COVID-19. Without an appropriate system of quality measurement, it will be difficult to take stock of the impact of the pandemic on children’s learning and well-being and to design suitable responses…The Solution: Luckily, this is about to change! More
The pandemic has elevated the risks of worsening income inequality in the longer run
Improving Early Childhood Development Outcomes in Times of COVID – 19: Experimental Evidence on Parental Networks and SMS Messages | Abstract This paper describes a policy experiment implemented in Costa Rica to increase learning during the COVID – 19 pandemic . The experiment provided parents of preschool student s with text message s to support their children’s learning at home. After 15 weeks of intervention, the cognitive skills of children whose parents received the text messages rose 0.11 – 0.12 standard deviations. An increase in parental involvement through the proposed activities drove the effect. o evidence was found that information is transferred within parental networks.
Ukraine
EU scrambles to plug gaps in education and childcare for Ukrainian refugees
Foundations, corporations providing support for Ukraine
Mapping host countries’ education responses to the influx of Ukrainian students
Education, economics and public policy 