Jim Kim: Developing countries rely on donors… not investing their money in human capital

Jim Yong Kim, outgoing president of the World Bank, says developing countries across the world have been relying on resources from donors for investments in human capital.

In a note published on his Linkedin page on Tuesday, Kim said heads of state and finance ministers of developing countries have not invested enough of their own resources in their citizens.

“At the Annual Meetings in Indonesia last October, we launched the Human Capital Project, which directly links investments in human capital with economic growth,” he wrote.

“The project makes it clear to heads of state and finance ministers how much more productive their workforce could be with better health and education outcomes,”

“For too long, developing countries have relied on the generosity of donors for investments in human capital and not invested enough of their own resources.

“The Human Capital Project makes the evidence of the economic benefits of those investments clear for heads of state and finance ministers, and the Human Capital Index – which ranks countries according to their investments in human capital – makes the evidence hard to ignore.”

Nigeria was ranked 152 out of 157 countries considered in the index, which measured countries’ contribution of health and education to the productivity of the next generation of their workers.

Kim would be joining Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a New York-based private investment fund owned by Bayo Ogunlesi, as a partner and vice chairman.