Human capital development key in fulfilling vision 2030

Most developed and developing countries have recognised that 21st century economies will be significantly different from the industrial revolution and are focusing on science and technology innovations as the drivers of future growth. We in Zimbabwe must do same to achieve vision 2030.

HUMAN capital refers to processes that relate to training, education and other human capacity building initiatives in order to increase the levels of knowledge, skills, abilities, values, and social assets of the citizens of any country.

Developed countries have become developed through continuous investment in research and skills development while Africa continues to under-invest in its future.

Differences in economic growth across countries have become closely related to cognitive skills and unless we focus on developing these, we will remain underdeveloped and operating much below our potential capacity as a continent.

In order to achieve the vision of being an upper middle-income economy by 2030, it will be necessary for us to appreciate that the energy for change, innovation, creativity and ultimate economic growth resides in the brains of our citizens.

We must, therefore, create a new culture where all citizens are treated as valuable assets. According to international research “A highly developed human capital base will be the source of competitive advantage in the 21 century global economy.

Human capital or the education, skill levels and problem-solving abilities will be the competitive advantage of nations because they enable individuals to be innovative and productive in a highly competitive global economy.”

It is, therefore, essential for us in Zimbabwe to invest in this and to also rethink our economic growth strategies if we are to be a competitive nation in the future.

The rapid expansion of new digital technologies requires a totally different approach to human capital development. Countries must now focus more on the quality of education as opposed to mere access to education.

The developed world is now dominated by brain-intensive industries which include, among others, computers and software, robotics and machine tools, microelectronics, materials sciences, biotechnology, and telecommunications.

What used to be primary (inventing new products) has become secondary, and what used to be secondary (inventing and perfecting new processes) has become primary. These require significantly different skills than the past. Asia is a clear example where reinventing new products and perfecting new production processes has created significant economic growth. Africa should do the same. Unfortunately in Africa, according to the African Development Bank, most economies continue to compete on the basis of factor endowments, with growth dependent primarily on low-skilled labour and natural resources.

Moving up the value chain to more efficient and innovation-driven economies is, therefore, essential to increasing and sustaining economic growth.

According to the African Development Bank, in order for countries to achieve sustained growth, they will require high-impact investments in education, science and technology.

A vibrant private sector is key for creating jobs, producing and marketing sophisticated goods and services and latching on to global value chains. Further, improving the quality and inclusiveness of growth will require more citizen participation and greater accountability from public service providers to offer value for money as well as safety nets to build resilience to economic and social shocks and move poor individuals and communities out of poverty.

We desperately need to focus on rapid industrialisation because, by simply focusing on redistributing incomes and resources, we will not achieve long-term objectives of job creation and poverty alleviation. One of the key prerequisites of re-industrialisation of Zimbabwe is a high human capital skills base.

The four key areas we must focus on are; re-inventing our education system that used to be the pride of Africa, aggressively creating new employment opportunities including high-end jobs through industrialisation, providing broad access to health and wellness and creating an enabling environment for all our citizens to live up to their full potential.

Over and above this, the role of technology, especially telecommunications in accelerating human capital development cannot be ignored. Most developed and developing countries have recognised that 21st century economies will be significantly different from the industrial revolution and are focusing on science and technology innovations as the drivers of future growth. We in Zimbabwe must do same to achieve vision 2030. If we go back in history, Zimbabwe was well recognised in the past as having arguably the best education system in Africa. The post-Independence period from 1980 saw rapid expansion of access to education and to this day, literacy rates remain the highest in Africa.

However, high literacy rates alone will not deliver development. This must be supported by other complementary economic and social policies that continually invest in growing the skills capacity of the country.

The President has continually emphasised the need to link our education curriculum with development agenda. We must prioritise access to education at all levels of society. Primary schooling should be compulsory and free up to Grade seven.

Secondary education must be provided to those who excel, while it will be important to ensure that from that level, no resources are wasted through a onesize-fits-all-approach curriculum as we have seen in the past.

It will be important to widen choices at secondary level so that we can identify talented students early enough and channel them in the right direction.

We must also do our best to destroy the myth that everyone must be a graduate. Zimbabwe needs technicians and entrepreneurs, sports people and arts and culture practitioners and it will be important to offer these opportunities at secondary level. At tertiary level, we need to emphasise technology and science degrees so that we can create citizens that can fit into our developmental priorities.

As policy, no child who excels is denied further education at tertiary level. Government must, therefore, provide grants and loans to all students who are accepted at our universities. We must also encourage distance education since it is estimated that almost 80 percent of students fail to go to university for various reasons, the main one being affordability.

The issue of gender equity must also be addressed through an education policy that gives equal access to the girl child to education opportunities, starting early at primary level. We must also strengthen research institutions to support our developmental priorities, particularly in the agriculture, energy, technology and mining sectors. On the health side again, Zimbabwe suffered significantly with the brain drain of health professionals which has contributed to the dismal delivery of health services throughout the country.

Access to health services has diminished, is expensive and this is exacerbated by the lack of medicines. The rural population has suffered most and our social indicators have deteriorated significantly compared to pre-Independence.

Universal access to affordable basic medical care for all, improving child mortality rates, investing more in primary healthcare and nutrition are part and parcel of a successful human capital development strategy.

The suggested 10 key points to put Zimbabwe on a new human capital development trajectory include:

1. The development of skills and technology for competitiveness

2. Revision of our education system to help build a competitive workforce.

3. Investment in ICT infrastructure projects

4. Promotion of enhanced skills in Science, Technology and Mathematics;

5. Investment in research innovation and connection to global knowledge systems

6. Establishment of innovative teaching methods based on ICT

7. Implementation of curriculum reforms that take into account global developments

8. Broadening of the capabilities and economic opportunities of youth women and girls

9. Support of inclusive financing systems, including safety nets, micro finance and social entrepreneurship

10. Working towards establishing universal access to affordable health

Zimbabwe can certainly leap frog its neighbours through the application of new innovative technologies that increase production volumes and, therefore, exports.

Our education policy must, however, match our economic and social developmental objectives.

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