High-skilled jobs: The World Bank’s new jobs council has yet to specify the economic sectors it will prioritise in creating employment, although the focus will obviously be on young people and women. — 123rf
THERE is crisis all around us, it seems. There are wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as potential conflict in the South China Sea and East China Sea, on top of climate change, geoeconomic tensions and more. So why is it good news that the World Bank has added a looming jobs crisis to this increasingly long list of worries?
It is because it shows an ability and willingness to think ahead – 10 years ahead in this case – rather to wait for a crisis to erupt and then to react, as is all too often the case. It also suggests that public institutions are ahead of market mechanisms in this vital regard. What’s more, it suggests that nations of the Global South are willing to take the lead in anticipating the advent of future crises and devising pre-emptive strategies to deal with them.
