Leveraging ODA to Build Enduring Development Institutions:
The Case for Vocational Education and Training

Speech by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
June 23, 2017

Annual Conference of Swiss Development Cooperation
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

1. Opening remarks
•I am so happy to be here today to join you in your reflections on the importance of vocational education and training. But I would like to discuss the topic in the context of institutions and why they are necessary as the bedrock of all aspects of sustainable development and a stable and successful and fair society.

•It is important to talk about this context of institutions today because Switzerland is an important player in the field of development aid and cooperation, spending over US$ 3.5 billion a year on bilateral and multilateral ODA. Some of that goes to support institution building in countries of focus in Africa and South Asia. Not too many donors focus on institution building, so I want to congratulate Switzerland and urge it to stay the course. Congratulations also on a steady increase in ODA since the early 2000s, both in volume terms as well as percentage of GNI. You are now at 0.52% of GNI, well above the OECD average, and commendably most of the aid is untied.

•So let me get back to institutions. What do I mean by institutions? According to Douglass North, the Nobel Prize winning economist, “institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). Throughout history, institutions have been devised by human beings to create order and reduce uncertainty in exchange.”

•So, whether we are talking about education, health, politics, economics, or civil society, it is through solid institutions that rules, laws and social norms enable people to work together effectively and peacefully; they define how power is managed and used, how states and societies make and implement decisions, and how they measure and account for the results.

•Strong institutions are the foundation for human development, economic growth, and well-functioning societies. They help to reduce corruption, promote transparency and ensure that decision-making processes are more inclusive and representative, all of which help to build trust in governments.

2. Switzerland, a model of strong institutions
•For an example of this you need to look no further than this country. Switzerland is a country built on strong institutions that are the envy of the world. It has a long history of social harmony, economic stability and long-term, rational decision-making.

•Strong educational institutions are at the core of Switzerland’s success enabling the creation of a broad, educated, and secure middle class. Switzerland devotes a larger share of public expenditure to education than almost any other OECD country, allocating US$ 16,090 per student, compared with the OECD average of US$ 9,487. This enables the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers who receive average salaries at the primary and upper secondary levels that are nearly double the average salaries of their peers in other OECD countries.

•Switzerland is a particular leader in its approach to vocational training. I don’t know how many of you saw a very interesting article in the Financial Times of June 16 on the issue of vocational education and training in the US. It is titled, “Paying Young Americans to Learn.” There, Switzerland is raised along with Germany as one of the countries where vocational training receives as much attention as university degrees. So Switzerland has a global reputation for good vocational training institutions.

•More than 65% of students in upper secondary education in Switzerland were enrolled in pre-vocational or vocational programmes. And these vocational education programmes are highly practical, with 90% of students combining school and work-based learning, unlike other OECD countries that are only school-based. This system equips individuals to find well-paying jobs and provides the country with a high-skilled workforce that has contributed significantly to its economic success.

•Perhaps this is why Switzerland also has such an extraordinary track record for innovation. Although best known for its precision clocks and watches, I probably don’t need to tell you that this is also the birthplace of everything from Velcro, aluminium foil and stock cubes, to the electric toothbrush.

•Switzerland’s public transport network similarly reflects the strength and performance of its institutions. At its core are railways, which connect almost every corner of the country integrating the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) with private railways and every other form of public transport. Like everything else, the efficiency of the system is judged by high standards. Perhaps that is why the SBB’s drop from 95.9% of trains on time in 2007 to 95.8% in the following year made news headlines.

•The fact is, there is a reason why so few people outside Switzerland can name the Swiss President (presently, Doris Leuthard) and yet so many are willing to put their money here and send their children to Swiss finishing schools. It is because they trust Swiss institutions.

•Just consider the opposite. Without strong institutions, the sustainability of economic growth and development – and even the sustainability of the state itself – is at stake. You need only look at fragile states, such as Yemen, Sudan and Somalia, to see evidence of this.

•This is one reason why institution building will play such an important part in our achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and why Switzerland will become the epicentre of the work that gets us there. With Geneva home to representatives of around 175 states, nearly three dozen international institutions, bodies and secretariats – including Gavi, the organisation which I chair and to which Switzerland is one of the newest donors (thank you!) – hundreds of NGOs and corporates, and where 200,000 people come every year to have dialogues, Switzerland is where people come to figure out how we survive and thrive together in this complex world.

3. How do we build strong institutions?
Continue reading here https://www.facebook.com/NgoziOkonjoIweala/posts/1557566714293587

After all your big big grammar

You destroyed our economy

Yawns

Where is Adeosun sef

Keneking:
Where is Adeosun sef

Adeosun is a million times better than baby Ngozi

No ethnic sentiment attached

Ngozi baby supervised looting of our economy

While bae adeosun is trying to remedy the damage caused by ngozi

sarrki:
After all your big big grammar

You destroyed our economy

I did not expect u to say otherwise, the more u talk negative about her the more u look stupid because reasonable people knows during her time our economy was better than now

Daplux4:



I did not expect u to say otherwise, the more u talk negative about her the more u look stupid because reasonable people knows during her time our economy was better than now

chill
after defending her, what next

sarrki:




Adeosun is a million times better than baby Ngozi

No ethnic sentiment attached

Ngozi baby supervised looting of our economy

While bae adeosun is trying to remedy the damage caused by ngozi

Your problem is you have diarrhea of the mouth and you don't seems to know and I keep wondering what happened to you along the journey of life? Must you comment? Honestly you are appearing like a jester just attend to your "imaginary rice paddy"