Africa
A new report on Africa says unequal access to higher education is increasingly hindering progress towards eliminating extreme poverty and high inequality, and risks exacerbating conflict and the effects of climate change. are.
The World Bank report Leveling the Competition: Addressing Structural Inequalities to Accelerate Poverty Reduction in Africa states that extreme poverty and other forms of inequality result in limited access to higher education. It is pointed out that the poorer households have higher income.
“Inequalities vary widely by region, but are particularly pronounced in resource-rich countries that are not plagued by fragility or conflict,” the report says.
Senior Economist Dr. Nista Sinha, who is part of the team known as the World Bank’s Global Practice on Poverty and Equity and is also co-lead of the report, and Gabriela Inchauste, two other co-leads. The same goes for Dr. Dr. Amber Narayan, an economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice and Poverty and Equity Manager for the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region, identified race. In Africa, gender, ethnicity, religion, place of birth and parental education level pose major barriers to accessing higher education and skills.
In this context, the report, which draws on insights from 17 World Bank economic experts, finds that access to higher education and skills development is growing unevenly in some parts of Africa. They argue that this contributes to the failure to address the root causes of structural inequalities among communities and groups. .
structural inequality
The report defines structural inequality as the generational disadvantage of one social group over another based on racial, cultural, linguistic, economic, religious, physical, or other identity-based prejudice. It is defined as becoming.
The report said Africa is the most unequal region in the world, with more than 50% of countries experiencing high levels of inequality, and economic growth since 2014 has barely kept pace with population growth. .
The report, released on Dec. 3, said, “As of 2022, the extreme poverty rate in Africa will be approximately 40% and is home to more than 60% of the world’s extremely poor people.” .
In this regard, the report noted that circumstances at birth, such as ethnicity, religion, place of birth, and parental education level, explain at least half of the continent’s overall unequal opportunities. “Collectively, these conditions explain between 26% and 74% of total inequality across countries,” Sinha and colleagues said.
It was noted that the proportion of inequality of opportunity explained by circumstances at birth was lowest in Ethiopia (26%) and highest in South Africa (74%). In other countries, it ranges from 41% to 64%.
However, experts noted that there was some variation across countries as to which circumstances were most important. For example, region and place of birth are the most important circumstances in Mali and Burkina Faso, while father’s educational background is the most important indicator in Malawi.
In different countries, maternal education was found to be important in Liberia, Tanzania, and Uganda. At the same time, in Ivory Coast and Liberia, ethnicity is the second most important condition in reducing opportunities for inequality, as is religion in Ethiopia.
The problem is that while inherited favorable circumstances create opportunities for access to higher education, unfavorable circumstances entrench reduced economic opportunities, resulting in disadvantaged communities and other identity-skewed social groups. This means that it is increasing inequality in the country.
In fact, the World Bank says that high inequality in Africa is both a symptom and a cause of missed opportunities to reduce poverty, accelerate growth and empower societies on the continent.
However, the report recommends that governments invest in higher education and skills development to address Africa’s endemic structural economic inequalities, particularly in regions lacking higher education institutions.
Separate urban and rural areas
In this regard, the report highlights the differences between rural and urban areas, with poverty rates in rural areas being on average more than twice as high as in urban areas.
“50% of people living in rural Africa live on less than US$2.15 a day, compared to less than 20% of people living in urban areas,” writes a section of the report on Africa’s poverty reduction challenges. said Narayan and his colleagues.
Few students from such backgrounds pursue upper secondary or tertiary education, said Aziz Atamanov, senior labor market economist at the Global Practice and one of the report’s authors.
Atamanov cited statistics from the United Nations Children’s Fund that show that students from the richest 20% of Africa’s population benefit from an average of 12 times more government resources than students from the poorest 20%. pointed out. “These inequalities are even more acute in higher education,” he says.
Highlighting the situation in Ivory Coast, Atamanov said that 72% of higher education spending goes to the richest 20% of the population, a typical pattern observed in most other African countries. Ta.
Spending on higher education then increases socio-economic inequality and prevents them from acquiring marketable skills, as students from low-income families are less likely to attend college.
To level the playing field and reduce inequality of opportunity, the World Bank proposes improving enrollment in quality higher education in underserved regions. Higher education and skills development should be extended to identity-biased groups, especially women.
Women and higher education
According to the report, gender inequality is high in African countries, with gaps in higher education and skills effectively undermining women’s confidence and resources to compete in male-dominated fields.
But to break the inertia of slow progress towards eliminating gender inequality, the report calls for equal access to higher education, the labor market and business development.
Senior poverty economists Dr. Ana María Oviedo and Dr. Hugo Nopo said, “The impact on women’s higher education, investment in human capital, legal reforms to ensure fundamental rights, and changes in social norms will be , will foster sustainability and progress in the development of human capital and economic outcomes.” The report provides an analysis of the factors influencing poverty and gender inequality in Africa.
However, in order to level the playing field for workers, improving skills and implementing policies aimed at creating better employment and income opportunities means that higher education can lead to productive employment and the ability to use technology. has been cited as an important mechanism for finding
Job skills certification program
Inchat said the government may offer skills certification programs as part of its employment support policy for tertiary-educated youth.
On this issue, Sinha and other experts wrote in a report that in Africa, where the quality of education is low, vocational skills certification can provide higher-level skills to agricultural workers and those applying agricultural techniques in rural areas. He pointed out that there is a possibility. “Vocational skills certification interventions are the most promising and potentially cost-effective,” Sinha said.
Although on a much smaller scale, vocational skills certification programs are increasing employment opportunities, particularly in countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana.
Still, the report emphasizes that reducing poverty in Africa requires a multisectoral approach based on broad access to quality higher education. Indeed, the continent’s slow progress in addressing structural inequalities is linked to low, inequitable and inefficient provision of quality higher education.
