Human capital is a key factor for growth, development and competitiveness
Ghana has been ranked second in Africa on the Global Human Capital Index 2017 by the World Economic Forum.
The Global Human Capital Index Report aims to provide a holistic assessment of a country’s human capital—both current and expected—across its population.
On the global front, the West Africa country Ghana ranked 72nd out of 130 countries. Rwanda is the only country which placed ahead of Ghana; ranking number one in Africa on the index.
In total, the Index covered 29 countries from the sub-Saharan Africa region, of which five are from the upper-middle income group, eight from the lower-middle income group and the remaining 16 from the low-income group.
The top 10 in the ranking were Norway (1), Finland (2), Switzerland (3) – as well as large economies such as the United States (4) and Germany (6). Four countries from East Asia and the Pacific region, three countries from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and one country from the Middle East and North Africa region were also in the index.
The report measured countries against four key areas of human capital development; Capacity, largely determined by past investment in formal education; Deployment, the application and accumulation of skills through work; Development, the formal education of the next generation workforce and continued upskilling and reskilling of existing workers; and Know-how, the breadth and depth of specialized skills-use at work.
Countries’ performance is also measured across five distinct age groups or generations: 0-14 years; 15-24 years; 25-54 years; 55-64 years; and 65 years and over.
In addition, the report stated that with an overall average score of 52.97, sub-Saharan Africa was the lowest-ranked region in the index.
South Africa (87), the region’s second largest economy, comes towards the middle in the region. Nigeria (114) ranks in the lower midfield and Ethiopia (127) is the lowest performer, fourth from the bottom on the index overall,” it added.
The top 10 in the ranking were Norway (1), Finland (2), Switzerland (3) – as well as large economies such as the United States (4) and Germany (6). Four countries from East Asia and the Pacific region, three countries from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and one country from the Middle East and North Africa region were also in the index.
Globally, the latest report found that countries’ failure to adequately develop people’s talents was underpinning inequality by depriving people of opportunity and access to a broad base of good-quality work. It further noted that investments in education often fail due to inadequate focus on lifelong learning, failure to develop high-skilled opportunities and a mismatch of skills required for entering and succeeding in the labour market.
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