White Paper

Education and work in the Middle East and North Africa region will determine the livelihoods of over 300 million people and drive growth and development for generations to come. As one of the youngest populations in the world, it is imperative that the region make adequate investments in education and learning that hold value in the labour market and prepare citizens for the world of tomorrow. In addition, as the global transformation of work unfolds in the region, policymakers, business leaders and workers must be prepared to proactively manage this period of transition. This Executive Briefing uses the latest available data, including through a research partnership with LinkedIn, to provide a concise overview of the region’s education, skills and jobs agenda. It is intended as a practical guide for leaders from business, government, civil society and the education sector to plan for the needs of the future. It is also a call to action to the region’s leaders to address urgently the reforms that are needed today to ensure that the Middle East and North Africa’s young people can harness the new opportunities that are coming their way. In addition to providing insights on current trends and future projections, the World Economic Forum also aims to provide a platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration to prepare for the future of work by closing skills gaps and gender gaps through two key initiatives in the region. The New Vision for Arab Employment consolidates the latest insights, brings together business efforts to impart employability skills and supports constructive public-private dialogue for reform of education systems and labour policies. To date, companies engaged in the initiative have supported skills development for 250,000 people. In addition, the Gender Parity Task Forces help provide a method for national stakeholders to close economic gender gaps, with the first task force in the region to be launched this year. We invite more stakeholders to join these efforts, enhancing collaboration and coordination to accelerate impact.

Three major trends are affecting how human capital is developed and deployed around the world. 1) Globalization and technology are accelerating job creation and destruction. 2) Education and training systems, having remained largely static for decades, are not keeping pace with these shifts. 3) Outdated cultural norms and institutional inertia create roadblocks for half of the world’s talent. These factors together exacerbate income inequality and fuel political and social turmoil. But this need not be a foregone conclusion. Leaders can get ahead of this transition by acting today. This White Paper lays out a common agenda for action on transforming education ecosystems, advancing the care economy and facilitating the transition to a new world of work. It is the outcome of the World Economic Forum’s Dialogue Series on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work, drawing upon submissions by leaders and experts who engaged in the dialogue, as well as the latest thinking from international organizations, think tanks, businesses and other stakeholders.

Making the most of this opportunity requires concerted action across diverse high-growth sectors and by invested stakeholders. This document aims to support the development of a common set of future-oriented priorities for leaders to champion and implement, including members of the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on the Future of Education, Gender and Work, both through the Forum’s platform and their own. It draws upon the latest work in international organizations, think tanks, businesses and other stakeholders, as well as submissions and conversations with Dialogue Series participants. We hope these priorities can help set the agenda for reform and reinforce the urgency for change. This paper explores the dynamics of the challenges and opportunities for the acceleration of gender parity in sectors and job families that are likely to exhibit high growth in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: including Education, Consumption, Financial Services, and Care Sectors, as well as in STEM-expertise job families including Engineering, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Life Sciences Academia. We propose strategies for these sectors and job families, as well as strategies that may help accelerate system-wide change.

The Human Capital Index seeks to serve as a tool for capturing the complexity of education, employment and workforce dynamics so that various stakeholders are able to make better-informed decisions. Last year’s edition of the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Report explored the factors contributing to the development of an educated, productive and healthy workforce. This year’s edition deepens the analysis by focusing on a number of key issues that can support better design of education policy and future workforce planning.

‘High Performance Working is a general approach to managing organisations that aims to stimulate more effective employee involvement and commitment to achieve high levels of performance’ (Belt and Giles 2009: ii). It is important because raising the supply of skills does not automatically result in the raising of workplace productivity. These skills need to be used and applied effectively in the workplace. High Performance Working (HPW) practices apply across a range of areas, including approaches to work organisation, employment relations, management and leadership, and organisational development.

Digital technologies have spread rapidly in much of the world. Digital dividends—that is, the broader development benefits from using these technologies—have lagged behind. In many instances, digital technologies have boosted growth, expanded opportunities, and improved service delivery. Yet their aggregate impact has fallen short and is unevenly distributed. For digital technologies to benefit everyone everywhere requires closing the remaining digital divide, especially in internet access. But greater digital adoption will not be enough. To get the most out of the digital revolution, countries also need to work on the “analog complements”—by strengthening regulations that ensure competition among businesses, by adapting workers’ skills to the demands of the new economy, and by ensuring that institutions are accountable.

First came the “fly-up,” the price spike on world markets for oil, gas, and a broad range of natural resources that began in 2003. Then came the abrupt bust, as prices tumbled and global spending on natural resources dropped by half in the course of 2015 alone. Now, even as resource companies and exporting countries pick up the pieces after this commodity “supercycle,” the sector is facing a new wave of disruption.1 Shifts taking place in the way resources are consumed as well as produced—less noticed than the rollercoaster commodity price ride but no less significant—will have major first- and second order effects on both the sector and the global economy. These shifts are the result of technological innovation, including the adoption of robotics, Internet of Things technology, and data analytics, along with macroeconomic trends and changing consumer behavior. We see three principal effects of this technological revolution: Consumption of energy will become less intense as people use energy more efficiently thanks to smart thermostats and other energy-saving devices in homes and offices, and the use of analytics and automation to optimize factory usage. Transportation, the largest user of oil, will be especially affected, by more fuel-efficient engines and by the burgeoning use of autonomous and electric vehicles and ride sharing. Technological advances will continue to bring down the cost of renewable energies such as solar and wind energy, as well as the cost of storing them. This will hand renewables a greater role in the global economy’s energy mix, with significant first- and second-order effects on producers and consumers of fossil fuels. Resource producers will be able to deploy a range of technologies in their operations, putting mines and wells that were once inaccessible within reach, raising the efficiency of extraction techniques, shifting to predictive maintenance, and using sophisticated data analysis to identify, extract, and manage resources. Scenarios we have modeled suggest that these developments have the potential to unlock $900 billion to $1.6 trillion in incremental cost savings throughout the global economy in 2035, an amount equivalent to the current GDP of Indonesia or, at the top end, Canada.2 As a result of lower energy intensity and technological advances that improve efficiency, energy productivity in the global economy could increase by 40 to 70 percent in 2035. We believe these changes will have profound implications not just for companies in the resource sector and for countries that export resources, but also for businesses and consumers everywhere.

Global migration is now at the center of policy debates in countries around the world—and while it is fair to have these debates, it is critical to ensure they are based on facts and evidence. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has undertaken an ambitious research effort to understand the patterns and economic impact of people moving across the world’s borders. Combining an extensive review of hundreds of existing studies with expert interviews and our own economic analysis, we look at both voluntary and forced migration across more than 200 countries. We aim to provide a global perspective that is often missing from the current conversation, looking at broader migration patterns and specific population segments. Our research analyzes the impact of migration on labor markets and wages, on the global economy, on destination and origin countries, and on both native-born populations and migrants themselves.

Narrowing the global gender gap in work would not only be equitable in the broadest sense but could double the contribution of women to global GDP growth between 2014 and 2025. Delivering that impact, however, will require tackling gender equality in society.