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Sustainable Development Goal-8 affirms that increasing labour productivity, reducing the unemployment rate and improving access to financial services and benefits are essential components of sustained and inclusive economic growth. It is very pertinent that labour productivity, i.e., annual growth rate of real gross domestic product (GDP) per worker, globally has slowed from an average annual rate of 2.9 per cent from 2000 to 2008 to 1.9 per cent from 2009 to 2016. Global unemployment increased from 170 million in 2007 to nearly 202 million in 2012, of which about 75 million are young women and men. Nearly 2.2 billion people live below the US$2 poverty line and poverty eradication is only possible through stable and well-paid jobs. About 470 million jobs are needed globally for new entrants to the labour market between 2016 and 2030.
The slowdown represents a negative development for the global economy with adverse effect on living standards and real wages. While the global unemployment rate stood at 5.7 per cent in 2016, with women's unemployment rate higher than men, in case of young people the rate was as high as 12.8 per cent. Moreover, in more than 76 per cent of countries, more than 1 in 10 youth are neither in the educational system nor employed. Young women are more likely than young men to fall into that category in almost 70 per cent of countries.
The global scenario of employment also suggests that although the number of children from 5 to 17 years of age who are working has declined from 246 million in 2000 to 168 million in 2012, child labour still remains a serious concern. It is alarming that more than half of the child labourers (85 million) participate in hazardous work and 59 per cent of them work in agricultural sector. Girls have made greater progress than boys, with the number of girls engaged in child labour declining by 40 per cent during the period 2000-2012, compared to a decline of 25 per cent for boys.
A recent UN study indicates that roughly half of the world's population still lives on an average equivalent of about US$2.0 a day. In many places, having a job doesn't guarantee the ability to escape from poverty. This slow and uneven progress requires rethinking and even retooling the economic and social policies aimed at eradicating poverty. The study predicts that a continued lack of decent work opportunities, insufficient investments and under-consumption lead to an erosion of the basic social contract underlying democratic societies: that all must share progress.
Creation of quality jobs will remain a major challenge for almost all economies well beyond 2020. It has been argued well that sustainable economic growth will require societies to create conditions that allow people to have quality jobs while not harming the environment.
In Bangladesh, the first year of the 7th FY Plan coincided with the launch of the UN post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 7th FYP Plan centres on three themes:
- GDP growth acceleration, employment generation and rapid poverty reduction;
- A broad-based strategy of inclusiveness with a view to empowering every citizen to participate full and benefit from the development process.
- A sustainable development pathway that is resilient to disaster and climate change; entails sustainable use of natural resources; and successfully manages the inevitable urbanisation transition.
Human capital must be seen as an important determinant of growth, a claim substantiated by empirical evidence for a broad group of countries. Economic growth is not only driven by quantities of capital and labour. The quality of these inputs is also important determinants of growth. Improvements in human capital increase the potential of workers through enhanced knowledge and skills, which lead to economic growth and development. Education is the means through which human capital is improved. Instilling education at all levels and ensuring proper access is a crucial input for empowering people and for providing them the opportunity for productive employment in the future, while increasing their income. Education is the most potent tool for socio-economic mobility and a key instrument for building a just and equitable society. Proper education not only enhances efficiency but also augments the overall quality of life.
A well-educated population equipped with the right values and competence is essential for economic and social development. A quality education has to meet the needs of the economy and society. The benefits of such an educational system will not be merely limited to the people receiving the education. Rather, there will be spillover effects which will affect the economy and society at large and lead to the realisation of Vision 2021. At present, all over the world there are 70 countries that have the system of international quality education criteria, but Bangladesh still does not have. The budget allocation in the current financial year is relatively higher than the previous year but this being a very tiny portion of GDP (1.95 per cent) is not sufficient to meet the demand of the Five Year Plan.
Authorities in Bangladesh have to make assessment of job market before enrolling students in various disciplines and should take suggestions of the industrialists to develop technical education sector. Bangladesh government has approved 7,773 technical institutions to promote technical education in the country but the results or impacts are yet to reach at desired level. Enrolment in technical education is 65 per cent in Singapore, 32 per cent in South Korea and 21 per cent in Japan. But the rate increased to only 14 per cent in Bangladesh. Bangladesh needs development of technical education sector to become a middle-income country by 2021.
Managerial, technical and professional skills have always been the most important factors for developing countries to foster innovation, create business opportunities, increase productivity, integrate with global value chain and tap the future prosperity and create jobs. As per occupation distribution, Bangladesh has only 1.8 per cent managers, 3.8 per cent professionals and 1.9 per cent technical experts. Lack of skill is slowing down the trend of inward foreign remittances and increasing outward remittances. The education system of Bangladesh needs to be restructured matching the needs of the industry and service sector, and if any industry spends money for training of its professionals for developing managerial skill, that money should be considered tax free.
Promoting and sustaining health and nutrition along with containing population growth are priorities in the human development strategy. Bangladesh will strive to attain a number of targets in the road towards universal health coverage, consistent with the proposed major targets under the SDG framework. Vision 2021 envisions a middle-income Bangladesh with drastic reduction in poverty and with conditions that allow individuals to reach and maintain the highest attainable level of health. To improve service delivery and utilise the vast health network, various innovative approaches need to be explored. These include reviewing existing field-based service delivery, decentralisation of the management of facilities including involvement of local government institutions like Upazila Parishad and providing autonomy to hospitals by protecting the interests of poor, updating of essential service package (ESP) at different tiers of health service delivery, diversification of service provision (inclusive of public-private partnership) particularly for hard-to-reach areas. Apart from this, we feel, corruption, miss-management, dearth of manpower and lack of sufficient monitoring mechanism are the prime weaknesses of this sector. As per World Health Organisation (WHO), mid-level heath service delivery need at least 3.0 per cent of GDs allocations.
The writer is a former Secretary to the government and former Chairman, NBR.