Examining Human Capital Capacity’s Influence on Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa

The aim of this paper is to examine and expand our focus on human capital capacity building as a foundation for poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The data showed significant differences in the human capital capacity building characteristics as measured by demographic, education and gender equality characteristics. In analyzing select human capital capacity building markers, the findings suggest that the educational indicators were among the strongest in explaining the variation in human development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings showed that gender inequality was a serious inhibitor of human development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the Sub-Saharan nations with the lowest level of poverty had some combination of a population with higher median years of school completed, a higher literacy rate, a lower population growth rate, a larger percent of the population that lived in an urban area, and it had a higher rate of students progressing to secondary education. The findings of this paper lends support to the belief that poverty reduction cannot be confined to enhancing and understanding capacity building as an institutional level activity or only as an economic phenomenon. Finally, the findings lend support to the adoption of an integrated policy approach that takes into consideration social development as well as economic development as a means of poverty reduction in SubSaharan Africa. The social component of the strategy would emphasize the collective human capital development of the population, while the economic component would employ an inclusive growth strategy.