Collapse and Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital

EDITOR’S PICK

COVID-19’s impact on young people risks a lost generation. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive collapse in human capital at critical moments in the life cycle, derailing development for millions of children and young people in low- and middle-income countries, according to the first analysis of global data on young people who were under the age of 25 at the onset of the pandemic. Read the Feature Story.

IN FOCUS

‘You can hear it in their voices’: Employment program delivering much more than jobs in Solomon Islands. The Community Access and Urban Enhancement Project (CAUSE) is helping improve the lives of nearly 20,000 people in the Solomon Islands by providing job training, employment opportunities, and short-term income for workers building essential community infrastructure.?Learn more.

PUBLICATION

Collapse and Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

BLOG?

In wildlife conservation, gender equality brings win-win returns. Women and men typically hold contrasting positions – literal and notional – in relationship to the environment, to decision-making about resources, and land ownership. Gender norms, behaviors, and expectations shape human-wildlife relationships too.?Learn more.

EVENTS

REPLAY: Driving global trade for development. Can globalization be reshaped to accommodate legitimate national concerns while maintaining trade as an engine of green, inclusive, and resilient development? What are the new opportunities for developing countries to leverage trade for development? If you missed this discussion, hosted by the World Bank and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, catch the replay now.?Watch the replay.

REPLAY: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It. The World Bank’s Human Development Flagship report, Collapse & Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It, provides a comprehensive review of global data showing that the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed human capital at critical moments in the life cycle, scarring millions of children and young people in low- and middle-income countries. Watch the replay.

NEWS

World Bank Group President Malpass Announces Intention to Step Down

World Bank Significantly Steps up Assistance to the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea

JOBS

Global Benefits Officer (Dakar, Senegal)?

Chief Data Privacy Officer (Washington, DC)?

All Career Opportunities

DATAVIZ

What do we know about gender gaps in paid family leave?

While there is reason to believe that both maternity and paternity leave are important for women’s labor market outcomes, we have not seen equal progress in the expansion of these two policy levers. Across the world, the number of leave days allocated to mothers has been increasing since the 1970s (when our dataset begins). On the other hand, there was almost no expansion in paternity leave until the early 2000s. Even since then, progress has been meager. In 1970, only 13 out of the 190 countries covered granted leave to fathers for the birth of a child. By 2021, 114 countries had policies in place granting leave to fathers, but the global average number of days for fathers is currently 21 days, compared to an average of 191 days for mothers. More data.