Review: Maastricht Debates: ‘World Bank Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation’

On 23 January, 2007, Maastricht played host to a public debate on the latest World Bank Development Report, ‘Development and the New Generation’. This was the second such event hosted by Maastricht Debates with several more events planned throughout the year in the city. This new local initiative aims at giving voice to experts on world affairs in Maastricht. (For further information please see related interview with Maastricht Debates organiser Huub Mudde).

 

Maastricht welcomes World Bank expert
Emmanuel (or Manny) Jimenez, lead author of the World Development Report 2007, came to Limburg to discuss youth issues with a panel of experts and about 60 students as well as a handful of community members. Jo Ritzen, President of the University of Maastricht (UM) moderated the event in the university’s Auditorium.

Ritzen, who was recently reappointed President of the UM as of 1 February, kick-started the debate by saying that “the World Bank, whether you like it or not, is still the leading organisation that thinks about development, with the largest number of development economists and thinkers.”

It is worth noting that before becoming UM President in 2003, Ritzen was Vice President of the Development Economics Department and Vice President of the Human Development Network at the World Bank for four years. Previously to that, he was the Dutch Minister of Education from 1989 to 1998.

The World Bank has over 400 PhD experts working on development cooperation. One is selected each year to head the World Bank Development Report. For 2007, highly regarded development expert Manny Jimenez was chosen. He is originally from the Philippines, but like most development experts, is a global citizen and lived and studied in Canada and the US for most of his life. Since 2002, he has been Sector Director of Human Development, in the World Bank’s East Asia Region.

The audience was not as full as one would have expected considering the first debate had over 130 guests according to the Maastricht Debates website. And it looked like mostly students were in attendance with a handful of professionals and other community members. Perhaps the word hadn’t gotten out as much as it could since surely many expats in Maastricht would have been interested in this type of event.

Even though this was classified as a ‘debate’ it was more like a typical lecture followed by questions. Jimenez presented the World Bank report for almost an hour in front of a podium with a PowerPoint presentation. Following this, two local Maastricht experts and two students had just five minutes each to comment on the presentation. Then the audience had a chance to ask questions. A typical debate in the US and most Commonwealth countries has two or more opponents presenting alternate views on an issue followed by a back-and-forth discussion. The Maastricht Debate felt more like a presentation and not a lively debate. But the lecture was nevertheless very detailed and interesting and definitely worth listening to.

The presentation: Motivation for the World Bank Report 2007
According to Jimenez, the World Bank chose Youth and Development as this year’s central theme because “the best thing the world can do for development is to invest in 12-24 year-olds.” He described the Annual Report as an agenda for the future of development. Youth are better educated and healthier than past generations, and Jimenez said there has “never been a better time to invest in young people.”

The sheer numbers of youth are impressive. The World Development Report says there are 1.3 billion youth living around the world, more than ever before in history. Against popular thinking about over population, Jimenez described this population boom as the ‘human capital’ of tomorrow.

The world population is still growing but according to Jimenez it will slow down soon. There’s currently a population bulge of young people, which he describes as a “window of opportunity for developing countries”. In his view, this “population dividend” has been responsible for about 1/3 of the economic growth in the so-called South Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) between the 1960s and 1990s. Jimenez argued that developing countries must apply policies to take advantage of their population bulges because there is a limited time to enjoy their benefits.

Better off than ever?
“Young people are healthier than ever before,” Jimenez said and the number of young in primary education is rising. But the World Bank Report also says some 130 million cannot read or write. Youth of today have more than past generations, but they also face new challenges. Are there jobs? Are there universities and can they afford to go to them? And more than ever youth face the dangers of wide-spread disease.

While there have been improvements, real sustainable growth won’t be easy and Jimenez urgers developing countries to invest in youth, promoting education and health and developing essential skills. The population bulges may prove beneficial, but the Report estimates around 100 million new jobs still need to be created in the Middle East and across North Africa by 2020 for the rising numbers of youth looking for work.

Transitions to sustained development
The Report assesses youth development of young people by using five key “transitions”. Managing those transitions – continued learning after primary school, working after completing school, growing up healthy, forming families and exercising citizenship – will determine a country’s future success. What are needed are sustained government investment and the creation of an atmosphere for young people and their families to flourish.

The World Bank uses three lenses or questions that will help determine whether these transitions are being made and whether human capital is developing.

First, are there opportunities to keep developing the world’s human capital? In fact, young people are too often entering adolescence unprepared. They can’t read or write nor do they know that condoms prevent HIV/AIDS. Is there a labour force that can compete internationally? Many youth lack the necessary skills. Even though students know basic facts and figures, this is not enough. Problem solving skills and even basic work habits like showing up on time are not always being developed. And even when a young person has the necessary skills, there aren’t always job opportunities. In line with World Bank policy and controversial, Jimenez argues that economic growth will be best stimulated by export industries which typically employ twice as many young people as other businesses.

These comments made people in the audience wonder what type of jobs can be offered to youngsters in export-led industries. Will they be able to use the problem solving skills that Jimenez suggests are necessary to find interesting and viable jobs? Or rather would youth be working in factories doing menial jobs with nowhere to advance within the company?

A second question or lens is capability. That is whether youth are capable of making independent decisions. Jimenez showed the audience a chart with the percentage of young women (ages 15-24) who feel they personally have had the most influence on key life choices. This varies from country to country. In Iraq only 43 percent of women feel they make their own decisions about work whereas 89 percent of women feel they have this ability in Malaysia.

What can help improve youngsters’ sense of autonomy? “More information,” says Jimenez. For example, if they know how much more much more money they can earn after completing school, more will finish their education. Unfortunately this is not obvious to all and switching to health matters, Jimenez adds that even when teens know for example that condoms prevent disease, many still don’t use protection. This means youngsters also need incentives to become more in charge of their own lives.

Paying or bribing girls to go to school in Bangladesh?
The Bangladesh Female Secondary Stipend Assistance Program (FSSAP) is one such incentive programme offering subsidies to students, particularly young girls. Bank accounts have been setup for girls only if they go to school, pass their exams and if they don’t get married (these are girls aged 11-14). The aim of FSSAP is to avoid biases against girls’ schooling and to allow girls to own their decision to go to school.

One audience member voiced concern about FSSAP. He saw the incentive programme as bribing children to go to school: “If they depend on financial incentives, and then the money runs out, the incentive will disappear and most girls will just drop out,” adding that in his view, “the reality is that these girls can make more money from prostitution than from going to school.”

Jimenez responded by saying that it is crucial to convince parents of the economic payoffs of education. This is why the bank accounts in Bangladesh are a good idea, he argues, because “they are a signal to families that there are immediate economic payoffs from going to school.” “Normally,” he explained, “money comes later after graduation and once employment begins.” Jimenez argued this kind of programme just speeds up the process and motivates parents to send their girls to school.

The third lens the Report describes is whether second chances are offered to youth after they make bad choices. Under this lens, youth should be offered ways to get back on track if they drop out of school or contract a disease.

Brain Drain
According to Jimenez, the “best thing we can do to fight brain drain is to develop opportunities in our own country because actually most people want to stay in their own country.” Programmes for safe migration that allow youth to work legally abroad are very important. If there are no opportunities at home, youngsters will travel and work even when it’s illegal and dangerous. If developed countries “build a wall”, youth will still find a way to crawl over the wall in the hope to earn a living, but they might not ever be able to get back to their country of origin. “Make it safe and legal, and then working abroad becomes a temporary solution for some youth,” argued Jimenez.

Panel Debate
A panel discussion followed Jimenez’s presentation.

Diederik de Boer, a senior economist from the Maastricht School of Management discussed the importance of access to education. He pointed out that in Tanzania the education system is too fragmented for progress to be made. Different ministries are responsible for primary and secondary schooling. While more primary schools have been built, there are not enough secondary schools for children to continue their education. But it becomes difficult to know which ministry to go to with this complaint, said De Boer.

Ger Hoeben, coordinator of the Maastricht twinning association with Rama in Nicaragua focused on primary schooling. He said kids aged 8-13 have little choice but to drop out and start working. “Yes, get them to school, but you need to solve their problems too,” Hoeben urged. “They have so many health and family issues, and education is no use if these other problems aren’t solved as well.” He suggested that schools should be used to solve such problems. For example health care could be provided at school. “National governments have a great responsibility to help with local initiatives. This is how real change will happen. The ministries of health and justice need to step in and get involved with schools,” Hoeben said.

Two UM student representatives from Concordantia (European Studies student association) offered their opinions on the World Bank Report. Victor Sluyter said that overall his association had positive feedback on the report. The students liked the emphasis on youth empowerment and the pragmatic solutions based on education to help young people escape poverty.

Where does the money come from?
But fellow student Hermann Amecke-Mönnighoff was prepared to make several critiques. He said that the World Bank offers no actual guidelines to solve the problems youth are facing: “The World Bank’s proposals sound impressive but who will fund all these incentive programmes for youth to go to school? Who will pay for the school improvements and make sure kids have the necessary skills to enter today’s labour market? Who makes these social investments?”

Child Labour – a vicious cycle?
Mönnighoff also says children are forced into labour because they need to support their families. “Families simply can’t afford to send their children to school. So how exactly would youth be financed to go to school?” he asked.

Some audience members offered suggestions for improvement. Making primary education free would cut out the problem of finding money to pay for school. Many schools have teachers that rarely show up, and others are simply too dangerous, especially for girls, so improving the quality of education would also attract more pupils.

But perhaps the developed world’s understanding of education isn’t necessarily what people in the developing world need or want. One audience member suggested “experience-based education is more realistic and connected to their real lives.” More apprenticeships and other work experience programmes might be more practical than attending university or even secondary school.

All in all this was a ‘debate’ well worth attending. The audience might not have been large, but the mixed Dutch and foreign students seemed engaged with the topic and ready to ask the panel questions. Even though all of Maastricht Debates are in English – as they primarily cater to foreign students and academics in Maastricht – local students were just as active in the discussion.

By Danya Chaikel

Danya Chaikel is from Vancouver, Canada and recently graduated from law school. She has a background of working with migrants and promoting human rights. Danya recently moved to Maastricht to be with her Dutch partner.

Further reading:
The 2007 World Development Report is the fifth report of its kind and can be downloaded at www.worldbank.org/wdr2007.