…which may be cured by higher Foreign Direct Investments, researchers say
By Our Reporter
Worth Noting:
- Owalo challenged delegates at the SPS, including high-ranking government officials, ministers, governors of central banks, permanent secretaries, ambassadors, a queen, and special advisers to Heads of State, to move out of their comfort zones by embracing emerging trends in the digital space to advance economic policy.
- “My challenge to AERC is that you must now move out of your traditional comfort zone. It is a new world. Through research, AERC must contribute to leading Africa into the new order as an equal partner. If Africa missed out on the first three Industrial Revolutions, the time to make up and catch up is now,” he said. He added, “This seminar must go down in history as a turning point for Africa’s economic development. It will not do so, I am afraid, if it remains in the traditional comfort zones.”
Economic policy analysts have cited an emerging learning crisis in developing countries, such as Kenya, as a critical impediment to sustainable growth.
The analysts said school and human capital development are essential to individuals’ livelihoods and country-wide economic growth and development.
The economic policy analysts, in their research presentations delivered at the just concluded two-day African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) 25th Senior Policy Seminar (SPS), noted that a crisis of learning quality had replaced the earlier enrolment crisis faced by developing countries.
The Economic Policy Researchers presented their findings following a collaborative research project on human capital and growth in Africa supported by AERC in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
In a paper titled: Education in Africa: Career Progressions, Gaps in Learning Outcomes, and Responding to the Learning Crisis, University of Delaware Department of Economics Chair, Prof Adrienne Lucas described the learning crisis and access to quality learning as acute.
In the mid-1990s, sub-Saharan Africa, he said, had a crisis of low enrollment rates, with only 54% of primary school-aged students in school in the lower- and middle-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa now replaced by a crisis of learning quality.
“As barriers to schooling have fallen, the primary school net enrollment rate is now over 80 per cent (UNESCO 2019). Yet, in many cases, schools are continuing to fail the children they are supposed to be serving by not imparting them with adequate knowledge to be successful,” Prof Lucas said. He added, “As an example, in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, about three-quarters of grade 3 students cannot read a simple sentence (World Bank 2018). This “learning crisis” of students being in school but not learning is acute. The scale of this problem was recognized and codified in Goal number 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals focuses on “quality education” and not just the number of years of schooling.”
University of Nairobi Professor of Economics Prof Germano Mwabu, in his paper Human Capital Accumulation in Africa: Drivers, Consequences, and Way Forward noted that Foreign Direct investments (FDI) stimulate education achievement in a host country by enabling the youth to acquire on-the-job training. This is from options such as on-the-job training and the provision of tax revenues that the government can use to construct schools and fund scholarships and research.
“Multinational firms provide incentives for skill acquisition because workers know they must be highly skilled to work for foreign-owned enterprises, which pay higher wages than local firms,” Prof Mwabu said.
He, however, noted that the education stimulus from FDI depends on the host country’s capacity to absorb the investment. “Critical to the absorption is the previous skill accumulation in a host country, as well as local workers’ ability to adapt to production technologies of multinational firms,” he stressed.
Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo, the Chief Guest at the SPS opening ceremony, called for strengthening capacity-building efforts at the human capital development level to facilitate economic and social growth.
Owalo challenged delegates at the SPS, including high-ranking government officials, ministers, governors of central banks, permanent secretaries, ambassadors, a queen, and special advisers to Heads of State, to move out of their comfort zones by embracing emerging trends in the digital space to advance economic policy.
“My challenge to AERC is that you must now move out of your traditional comfort zone. It is a new world. Through research, AERC must contribute to leading Africa into the new order as an equal partner. If Africa missed out on the first three Industrial Revolutions, the time to make up and catch up is now,” he said. He added, “This seminar must go down in history as a turning point for Africa’s economic development. It will not do so, I am afraid, if it remains in the traditional comfort zones.”
AERC senior policy seminars are forums designed specifically to bring together senior policymakers from sub-Saharan African countries to exchange experiences and deliberate on topical issues pertaining to the sustainable development of their economies. Participants in these seminars are drawn from the highest levels of government, including the presidency, ministers, governors of central banks, heads of civil services, permanent secretaries and heads of government agencies and parastatals.
The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) that was
Established in 1988 is a premier capacity building institution in the advancement of research and training to inform economic policies in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is one of the most active Research and Capacity Building Institutions (RCBIs) in the world, with a focus on Africa.
AERC’s mission rests on two premises: First, that development is more likely to occur where there is sustained sound management of the economy. Second, that such management is more likely to happen where there is an active, well-informed network of locally based professional economists to conduct policy-relevant research. AERC achieves that program through research, training, and policy outreach.
AERC has now emerged as a premier capacity building network institution integrating high quality economic policy research, postgraduate training, and policy outreach within a vast network of researchers, universities and policy makers across Africa and beyond.
It has increasingly received global recognition for its quality products and services and is ranked highly among global development think tanks.
