Q&A: 60 seconds with Saadia Zahidi

Saadia Zahidi is Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital Programmes at the World Economic Forum. Here we speak to her about the upcoming World Economic Forum on Africa, taking place in Cape Town on 4th and 5th June.

You just launched your Human Capital Index 2015 – how does Africa do?

The point of our Human Capital Report is to look at all the measures countries are taking to help people fulfill their professional potential. Not only early on in their lives, but during their working careers, for example through access to on-the-job training and the opportunity to continue working into their later years.

All 24 countries we measured from Sub-Saharan Africa amongst the 124 in total come in the bottom half of the index, with Mauritius the highest at 72. Interestingly, where African countries do rank above their peers is in the 65 and over age band as people of retirement age tend to participate in the workforce more than in other regions – but this is offset by the fact that very few of them are living a healthy life past the age of 65.

What should South Africa’s priorities be?

South Africa ranks 92, making it the fourth placed BRICS nation ahead of India at 100. The country benefits from relatively high primary and secondary enrolment rates and gender parity in its secondary enrolment – but about a third of children who should be in secondary school are currently not. It also has the highest share of skilled workers in the region, indicating pockets of excellence, but business executives still say they can’t find enough skilled employees (it ranks 114th here) so more investment is need in developing the most skilled workers in the economy. And much more needs to be done to lift people out of low-skilled work and into more value-added roles – South Africa currently ranks 105th) on medium-skilled roles.

What will you be doing in Cape Town?

We’ll certainly be talking to leaders about how they can more effectively intervene to develop their workforce; as talent increasingly becomes the defining factor in the global economy, making sure no one is left behind is going to be critical for Africa’s economic transformation. Specifically, our Africa Skills Initiative will be getting business leaders to commit to greater collaboration with each other and with the public sector to help develop employability skills. We also have a number of sessions aimed at progressing gender parity in Africa, tapping in part into models we have already used successfully in other regions but ensuring that any initiatives that emerge are locally relevant.

And what about your gender work?

Empowering women in Africa is absolutely crucial. Ironically, according to our benchmarking, African women are more economically empowered than in other regions of the world, however too many of the jobs they do are low quality with little room for advancement. We’ll have a number of sessions that will look specifically at how to address the gender gap by improving the prospects of women through training, education and other targeted interventions.

What one outcome would you like to see come out of Cape Town?

I’d like to ensure that in addition to getting everyone to a deeper level of insight on the issues of education, skills and employment, with a special focus on women and youth, we walk away with clear pledges from leaders at the meeting and metrics to track them.

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Author: Saadia Zahidi is Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital Programmes at the World Economic Forum.

Image: Saadia Zahidi speaks at theWorld Economic Forum on the Middle East 2010.