Transcript New Economy Skills for Africa Program Information

World Bank Human Development Network
Cross-Sector Learning Event
Washington D.C., June 8, 2009
Jee-Peng Tan
Africa Region Education Advisor
World Bank
Outline of Presentation
 Overview of Context in Sub-Saharan Africa
 Challenges and Africa Region Responses
 Knowledge Gaps
Sub-Saharan Africa, circa 2006
 48 countries (E20, F22, P5, S1)
 Population: 782 million (30 persons/sq. km)
 Per capita GDP: $580 in 2006 dollars
 Poverty rate: 40% to 69%
 Life expectancy: 51 years
 Population growth rate: 2.5%
 HIV/AIDS infection: 2 - 26%
 Beginning to grow in tandem with rest of the world until
global crisis of late 2008
SSA economies largely informal
Distribution of Out-of-School Population Ages 15-59 by Employment
Status, 23 SSA Countries, circa 2003
Inactive: 14.0
Unemployed:
6.9
Total
population
(5-59): 100%
Economically
active: 86.0
Informal
sector: 71.0
Employed: 79.1
Modern
sector: 8.2
Farming:
51.3
Non-farm:
19.6
Private:
4.3
Public:
3.9
Skilled:
4.8
Unskilled:
3.4
High unemployment among the educated
Employment Status by Age Cohort and Educational Attainment, average for 23
African Countries, circa 2003
25-34 years
35-49 years
Upper
secondary
Higher
education
Upper
secondary
Higher
education
36
55
46
76
Informal sector (%)
46
20
47
19
Unemployed (%)
18
26
7
6
Inactive (%)
8
3
5
3
100
100
100
100
Employed:
Modern sector (%)
Total (%)
Limited options for skills development
Enrollments by level and type of education and training, 33 SSA countries,
circa 2005 (in millions)
Primary education
100.4
Lower secondary education
13.8
Upper secondary education
7.2
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET)
0.2
School-to-work transition programs
0.0
Tertiary education
3.0
Key Challenges and Responses
 Diversify pathways into labor market
 Align skills development with growth strategy
 Leverage partnerships to enhance skills development
 Africa Region Responses
 ESW and Operations (e.g., Ghana, Mozambique, Mali,
Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, etc.)
 Policy dialogue (e.g., via South-South Learning Visits)
 Regional program on new economy skills
New Economy Skills for Africa Program (NESAP)
 Initial focus on Information and
Communication Technology (NESAP-ICT)
 A Joint AFTHD/ GICT/ AFTFP Flagship
Program
 Responds to the Leadership Roundtable ICT
Skills Development Initiative
Overview of NESAP-ICT
 Why NESAP-ICT?
 Objective of NESAP-ICT
 Strategy for IT/ITES Skills Development
 Implementation status
Why NESAP-ICT?
 Scarcity of ICT skills in Africa amid rapidly growing telecom
(35% of total FDI) and services sectors. Skills gap reduces
potential returns on ICT investments, discourages new investors.
 Potential for job creation for youth over a short period of
time. Every ICT job indirectly creates 3-4 other non-ICT jobs.
 Potential for wealth creation through export of IT/ITES
products and earned wages. India ICT exports $49 billion per
year ; global markets projected at $500bn in 2008, 15% tapped.
 Rising demand but poor performing ICT components in
Bank education projects.
SSA has yet to exploit the IT/ITES opportunity
ITES market
IT services market
Central and
Eastern
Europe
4%
Mexico
5%
Others
2%
China
3%
Central and
Eastern
Europe
3%
Ireland
8%
China Others
2%
5%
India
37%
Ireland
5%
Philippines
1%
India
54%
Philippines
15%
Canada
29%
Canada
27%
Source: Tholons 2006
Source: NASSCOM-Everest 2008
Objective of NESAP-ICT
 Support ICT skills development and meet educational
needs of targeted African countries
 Build Bank staff and client capacity to better design,
implement and ICT projects/components
 Pilot a new way of working collaboratively across sectors
to address a common development challenge, within the
Bank and at country level
 Leverage strong results commitment of senior Bank
management, Bank TTLs and country counterparts
Strategy for IT/ITES Skills Development
 Link to ongoing & pipeline Bank operations
 Pilot & scale up framework for skills development:

Needs and skills assessments

Skills development plan for: (a) IT services (generic, specialized, lightweight,
advanced and researcher; and (b) IT-enabled services (generic and company-linked)

Certification and international benchmarking of skills (essential to strategy
for attracting “anchor” FDI)

Training infrastructure requirements (hi-speed networks, training labs)

Institutional structures to align skills development with market needs; private
sector partners involved from the start
NESAP-ICT Implementation Status
 May 2008 launch, with endorsement by Directors of 3 Bank departments
 8 participating countries: Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania; endorsed by country “Champions”
 February 2008 South-South Learning Visit to India for policy makers
and practitioners from the 8 countries, resulting in draft country-specific
actions plans.
 Nigeria Pilot Project developed, ready for implementation
 Kenya and Mozambique needs and skills assessment underway.
 FY10 Plans: needs and skills assessment in 2 more countries; publication
on IT/ITES industry in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Nigeria Pilot
 Objective: Expand IT/ITES employment opportunities through skills
benchmarked to global industry standards and certification
 Focus areas:



IT Service: Software developer skills
ITES: Business process outsourcing skills
Supporting ecosystem (infrastructure, institutional framework, regulatory environment, cyber
security)
 Funding and Supervision: STEPB Project (AFTHD) and GEMS Project
(AFTFP)
 Nigerian Institutions involved: Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Outsourcing
Development Initiative in Nigeria (ODIN, an industry association) and partner
post-basic institutions
 Partnership with 10 global companies: Microsoft, HP, Intel, Carnegie
Mellon University, Oracle, SAP; expected to produce software development
certification, knowledge hub, continuous structured student assessments,
trainer of trainers
Knowledge gaps
 How can SSA countries diversify, in a cost-effective and
sustainable manner, the pathways for school-towork transition into the largely informal labor
markets?
 How can SSA countries leverage FDI to create modern
sector jobs and the relevant skills?
 What are the implementation challenges for skills
development? How can the Bank help facilitate crosscountry learning, particularly among practitioners?