COVID-19 dealt the biggest setback to global poverty-reduction efforts in decades – 70 million more people pushed back into extreme poverty. But it also caused a hidden but massive collapse in the human capital of young people at critical moments in the life cycle. The impact was much greater in poorer countries.
This World Bank report details how massive COVID’s blow to human capital accumulation really was for people under the age of 25, the generation which will make up 90% of the prime-age workforce in 2050.
The report extracts lessons from actions and policies implemented around the world in response to the pandemic, as well as past evidence on program effectiveness. It also recommends concrete policies for the short and medium term that will help recover human capital losses from the pandemic and prepare for future shocks.