Education as a tool for poverty reduction

Amory Gethin, an economist at the World Bank's development research group, believes that education policy should continue to be at the center of global poverty reduction.

- MARIANNE GO

In a feature article of the F&D Magazine of the International Monetary Fund, Gethin wrote that the world economy has experienced a remarkable transformation over the past four decades, with global GDP per capita doubling in real terms, driven by the rise of China and India, and by significant growth elsewhere.

Much of the gains, Gethin noted, accrued to the global poor. The proportion of the world's population living below the international poverty line of $2.15 a day dropped from 44 percent in 1981 to nine percent in 2022, according to the World Bank.

According to Gethin, recent research points to education as one of the main drivers of inclusive growth, citing that there has been an unparalleled expansion of access to schooling over the past 50 years in high-income and low-income countries alike, generating large productivity gains, especially for those living in poverty.

Education, he wrote, accounts for fully half of total economic growth and two-thirds of real income gains among the world's poorest 20 percent since 1980, based on his findings. The statistics he gathered call for a continued focus on expanding access to education. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) offer enormous opportunities for productivity growth and innovation.

Yet the size of these gains and who will benefit depend on the creation of a sufficiently large skilled labor force.

Universal basic education, he said, has been at the center of education policy in many developing economies – with positive results. Now more than ever, he wrote, there is a need to expand access to high-quality secondary and post-secondary education, for both equity and efficiency. Education, he said, ensures not only that countries can use global innovations efficiently, but also that they share the benefits broadly.