June 18, 2018, Mr. Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President Published in Foreign Affairs : “ Governments in pursuit of economic growth love to invest in physical capital—new roads, beautiful bridges, gleaming airports, and other infrastructure. But, they are typically far less interested in investing in human capital, which is the sum total of a population’s health, skills, knowledge, experience, and habits. That’s a mistake, because neglecting investments in human capital can dramatically weaken a country’s competitiveness in a rapidly changing world, one in which economies need ever-increasing amounts of talent to sustain growth”.
African Charter on the Values and Principles of Decentralization, Local Governance and Local Development adopted in Malabo (2014) retain among its principles Resource Mobilization and Local Economic Development (Article 7) as well as efficiency, notably through the upgrading of local governance administration, mobilization and disburse of resources as well as capacity building.
All global Agendas adopted from September 2015 (the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Climate Agenda, the New Urban Agenda, the Sendai Disaster Risk Framework, the Financing Agenda (AAAA)) emphasize not only on the “Human Capital” dimension, but also on the importance and the cruciality of quality education, training, learning and capacity building, as well as on resource mobilization..
In the African Union Vision 2063 “The Africa We Want,” paragraph 14 highlights the following: “ Africa’s human capital will be fully developed as its most precious resource, through sustained investments based on universal early childhood development and basic education, and sustained investments in higher education, science, technology, research and innovation, and the elimination of gender disparities at all levels of education. Access to post-graduate education will be expanded and strengthened to ensure world-class infrastructure for learning and research and support scientific reforms that underpin the transformation of the continent”.