BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini yesterday took off to Tanzania where he will be Representing His Majesty King Mswati III.
Dlamini is going to the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit. According to the World Bank the overall theme of the Summit is linking investments in human capital to economic growth and harnessing the demographic dividend, by addressing learning poverty and the skills gap for youth and women.
“Learning poverty is the share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10, estimated to be 89 per cent in Africa. In response to engagements with government focal points on the need to draw attention to the role of human capital in economic growth and elevate the discussion on the importance of investing in people,” reads the formal statement on the World Bank website.
The Summit will foster technical deliberation, share the latest knowledge on human capital, and conclude with concrete commitments and next steps from the participating Heads of State.
This two-day summit will bring a bottom-up demand to human capital prioritisation and investments (via technical workshops in all Sub-Saharan countries) by discussing challenges and bottlenecks to human capital accumulation along with identification of priorities and drivers of growth.
These workshops will be led by country Human Capital Focal Points. The outcomes of country-level workshops will be used to inform high-level Heads of State summit interventions.
On May 19, 2023 Her Excellency President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan launched Tanzania’s hosting of the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit that will take place on July 25 – 26, 2023 in Dar es Salaam.
At the launch event, the President along with senior African leaders called on fellow African Heads of State to join together for renewed focus on the urgently needed investments in the continent’s human capital.
President Samia made the call at the official launch of the Africa Heads of State Human Capital Summit (HCS) today in Dar es Salaam.
“As our countries struggle to weather the unprecedented impacts of overlapping crises over the last few years from the COVID-19 pandemic and now the rising inflation, competing fiscal priorities and tight budgets, it is possible to get consumed by agendas focused on immediate relief from these crises, and lose sight of important investments needed for our human capital which is our greatest asset,” said President Samia.
She further called upon fellow African leaders not to lift the pedal off these critical interventions. As people are key to unlocking their aspirations and the continent’s economic potential. In 2018, the World Bank Group launched the Human Capital Project (HCP), as a global effort to accelerate more and better investments in people for greater equity and economic growth. As of April 2023, 87 economies have joined the HCP.
