…focuses on social inclusion& Educational mobility
October 18, 2017 By Joseph S. Margai
Kemoh Mansaray, Senior Economist, World Bank Sierra Leone, making a statement yesterday
In observance of the End Poverty Day, yesterday (17 October, 2017), the World Bank Group focused on social inclusion and educational mobility.
At a news conference organized by the Bank in Washington D.C through its country offices in 30 African countries, Senior Director, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, Carolina Sanchez, said ending poverty requires collective efforts.
“Our focus is on inter-generational transmission of poverty which has received lots of attention in the develop world and we are bound to eradicate it at all cost,” she said.
She said in order to eradicate poverty; they focused on educational mobility around the world, adding that education is a principal determinant of income generating capacity.
“We look at two concepts of mobility: absolute mobility which means children are better than their parents, it emphasis the fact that children have more education than their parents. Relative mobility means the relative educational status of parents than their parents,” she explained.
She added that they have found out that in most developing countries, parents’ economic background determines what the children would become in the future in terms of economic and educational status.
She said they have realized that inter-generational mobility is higher in developed countries than in developing ones.
Madam Sanchez said education, while not the only determinant of the next generation’s economic status, is likely to continue to play a key role in whether people can move up and out of poverty.
She called on all to invest in rising aspirations to break inter-generational poverty so that the world would achieve its goal of eradicating poverty by 2030, noting that they should support local actions gearing towards breaking economic mobility.
Speaking on the need for social inclusion in order to end poverty, a Director who works on Social Inclusion, Maninder Gill, said the concept is the process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society.
“Individuals take part in society through three inter-related domains: markets (e.g. labour, land, housing, credit), services (e.g. electricity, health, education, water), and spaces (e.g. political, cultural, physical and social). To improve the terms on which people take part in society means to enhance their ability, opportunity and dignity,” he said.
He said one of the factors that contribute to eliminating poverty is social inclusion, noting that there are many people across Africa who will not get the opportunity of social inclusion.
He cited that if a child is living in the street, in the refugee camp, or from a lower-class family, there are some opportunities that, that child would not benefit from in the society.
Kemoh Mansaray, Senior Economist, World Bank Sierra Leone, said in Sierra Leone only 12 percent of the current generation are more educated than their parents and that means it will be difficult to break the cycle of poverty.
“It means that if one is born poor, there is every possibility that he would remain poor. We need more education to break that cycle. We need to make equal opportunity for all despite one’s background,” he said.
Representatives from the 30 countries made meaningful contributions and recommendations gearing towards eradicating poverty.
In Sierra Leone, Dr. Isatou Ceesay of Junior Doctors Association Sierra Leone (JUDASIAL), said their social inclusion activities included child sexual abuse, prevention and awareness raising, noting that they have a campaign they have just started and they are targeting almost 3,000 children.
“Our own recommendation is to fund campaign for awareness. This could be a door-to-door campaign, media, skills training for adults and children at school, among others,” he said.