Bhutan and Nepal Human Capital Forum Investing in People Public Disclosure Authorized 5-6 June, 2019 Kathmandu Venue: Hotel Radisson Welcome Remarks: Mr. Faris H. Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Group Country Manager, Nepal Public Disclosure Authorized Honorable Minister of Finance of Nepal Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, His Excellency Secretary of Finance of Bhutan Dasho Nim Dorji. Their excellencies Ministers, secretaries, joint secretaries and ambassadors, colleagues, partners, friends. Good morning and welcome to the Bhutan-Nepal Human Capital Forum. This forum brings together in Kathmandu today policy makers from Nepal and Bhutan, as well as academics, international experts, civil society and development partners to chart out opportunities, constraints and hopefully a roadmap not only for a sustainable model for development, but one Public Disclosure Authorized that puts people back in the center of it. After all, our world today is very different. First the pace of technological is so vastly accelerated that we no longer talk of rates of change, but the neck breaking acceleration in those rates of change themselves. Indeed, evidence shows youth 7 years from now will need to manipulate technology that we cannot conceive of today. Similarly, the world today is also one that is a global race for investment, where funds can largely how to countries that offers safe ecosystems of policies, infrastructure and a talented workforce for these investors that thrive. Thirdly people’s own aspirations are converging towards a justifiable high norm. The advent of social and other media have shown youth in most distant corners of the world what their fellow woman and man more fortunate than they can hope to achieve because of greater Public Disclosure Authorized opportunities facing them. Within Nepal, for example, a father or mother is able to see that greater investment in human capital can grow their own economy from an additional 10-30%, and an additional year of schooling for either themselves or their kids can add up to 10% to their child’s income potential. In Bhutan, for example, 21% of children under 5 are regarded as stunted, impacting 1 in 5’s chances of realizing their full potential in today’s world. So, we are all gathered here around this common goal, and one our beneficiaries outside this room share and expect of us and that is to invest in people and in their early years so that they can realize their full potential. This is of course no easy task, requiring true vision and leadership, and hard policy and financing decisions. People are the true capital; they are infrastructure that doesn’t rust, fall apart with time and cannot be depreciated. In fact, it’s the only true infrastructure of a country that; if empowered, creates more infrastructure and charts new pathways to growth. So, it is in that sense, I myself on behalf of my colleagues and World Bank look forward to working with all of you over the next few days to find workable solutions to this very critical work. There are so many people to thank and hopefully we will do that towards the end. This is not the proper time but I do want to thank of course the generous host, the government of Nepal for hosting this event and of course our very important partners of the government of Bhutan and all of you; many agencies and people are involved in this including our partners and colleagues. So I really want to express our appreciation and how much we are looking forward to working on this event but like any other event, this is only a beginning and I think the success of this event will not determine today nor it should be determine tomorrow but months down the road, a year or two years to see when new look back and say as a result of this forum, meaningful change have been and as for far as we want to do please regard the bank as a key trusted partner in doing this and wishing you success. Thank you very much. Lighting of Panas by chief guest Honorable Finance Minister Dr. Yubraj Khatiwada, Mr. Nim Dorji, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Bhutan and Mr. Faris H. Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Manager, Nepal. Opening Remarks Videos Messages: Investing in People Ms. Annette Dixon, Vice President, Human Development, and Mr. Hart Schafer, Vice President, South Asia Region, World Bank Hi, I am Annette Dixon, I’m the Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank. Hello I’m Hart Schafer, World Bank’s Vice President for the South Asia region. Nepal and Bhutan are holding a summit on human capital. We are very sorry that we can’t be there in person, but we know this will be a really important event for both countries. Nepal and Bhutan have joined 65 other countries worldwide to make it a priority to invest in the health, education and the learning of its people to better prepare its young generation for the jobs of the future. We know that countries that have done well on this human capital outcome have had broad-based support across all stakeholders and have sustained this effort over time. We hope that this conversation will really lead to a joint commitment to accelerate action. Thank you. Ms. Ani Choying Drolma, UNICEF Nepal National Ambassador As we all know, nothing is more important than investing in people. I would like to welcome and congratulate the government of Nepal and Bhutan for coming here for two days to discuss about human development. Both countries have come a long way when we look at education and health. But going the last mile sometime can be hardest. My appeal to all gathered here is to invest in early childhood. And make sure all our children grow up with access to clean water, sanitation and nutritious food. They must have the possibility to go to a school where they can have a chance to learn in a safe and fun environment. This investment will definitely bring enormous returns and help sure that our new generation will be fit for meeting all requirements in a changing world of ours. When young people are prepared, empowered and encouraged; they will use their energy, creativity and talent to turn on certain landscape into a world of opportunity for themselves, for Nepal and Bhutan. Let’s invest in our children’s future today. Mr. Hans Timmer, Chief Economist, South Asia Region, World Bank Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. I would also like to thank the government of Nepal and government of Bhutan for co-hosting this very important event. We have already heard how important is to invest in the children, to secure future development. Over the two days, we will hear a lot more details, we will talk about priorities and about action plan and at a moment, I don’t have a lot to add but what I would like to do is briefly share with you the history of education in the Netherlands; the country that I am from. 102 years ago, to be precise in 1917, the Netherlands wrote very remarkable education law in the constitution. At that time, the Netherlands were a very different country from what it is now. Obviously it was much poor and the population were divided basically in three groups; 1/3rd were Catholics, 1/3rd was Protestants and 1/3rd was socialists. Each of these three groups they wanted to have their own education system, own health care system and their own media. But to focus on education, what the country did in the constitution was saying that beside public education, we will also have private education and whether you are public or private you will all get the same amount of money per child as long as you meet certain quality standards. So everybody is financed by taxpayer money and that was a very remarkable system and 100 years later, that system still exists. There are lots of experiments in education. Parents can start school if they can show that school with this kind of characteristics doesn’t exist in a neighborhood yet and they all get the same amount of money as long as they meet the standards. Now 100 years later, Netherlands rank number 9 out of 157 countries in terms of the expected numbers, quality control, number of years that a child get in the first 18 years. I am not suggesting with this example of the system in the Netherlands. That is just an example that should not be replicated in other countries. Every country is different, you cannot replicate this example but as in the coming two days, we are thinking how we in Nepal and in Bhutan we are further developing the education system. You might want think about a couple of principles that are coming from these examples. You might want to think how important diversification and experimentation is, allow different kinds of school forms to emerge and see which will comparatively last. We might want to think about the importance of the involvement of the parents in the school. As I said, we might want to think about competition between schools. Very importantly, we might want to think about the importance of a level playing field making sure that there is equality of opportunities, making sure that every kid can have access to high quality education irrespective of where you are born and what your social background is. And finally for me, the example of the Netherlands shows that we might think about effective nationwide quality control.