Accra, Ghana, March 28, 2019//-World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Henry Kerali is optimistic that Ghana’s Free Senior High School Policy (Free SHS) will enable girls to acquire employable skills before going into marriage.
According to him, empowering young girls with such employable skills would better prepare them for motherhood, reduces high birth rate, maternal mortality and boost the Human Capital Index (HCI).
Mr Kerali made this known at a teleconferencing to launch a quarterly Africa Civil Society Organisation and Parliamentary Development Dialogue on Tuesday in Accra.
The dialogue is expected to be a quarterly interactive programme among 16 African countries to promote social inclusion, accountability and advocate for greater voices.
The event was also used to discuss highlights of World Bank Africa Human Capital Project (WBAHCP).
As part of effort to improve human capital index of Ghana, the bank is implementing programmes including social protection, skills, community water and sanitation to help enable Ghana to catch up with its peers such as Rwanda, he said.
The bank would support Ghana’s developmental programmes such as giving second chance to people who could not get access to education to be equipped with knowledge and skills to push the country up to the HCI to be the best in Africa, Mr Kerali assured.
To reverse the trend, he recommended that the government needs to invest in the country’s human resource to imbibe the right innovation and technology that would help make the best use of the natural resources.
The HCI consists of the knowledge, skills and health that people accumulate throughout their lives enabling them to realise their potential as productive members of society, according to the World Bank.
Out of 100 per cent, Ghana recorded 44 per cent ranking 116 out of 157 countries in the HCI report, released in 2018 ranked.
95 out of 100 children in the country, survived up to age five while a child who started school at age four was expected to complete 11.6 years of school by their 18th birthday, it added.
It noted further that across Ghana, 76 per cent of 15-year olds would survive until age 60. The country had not been able to sustainably developed because of the weak capacity of her human resource.
African Eye Report