Human capital—comprising health, education, and skills—is the single most important asset of a nation. Yet Bangladesh continues to underinvest in its people, especially in rural and marginalized communities. This has created a silent crisis: high child malnutrition, inadequate schooling, and limited skills for a rapidly changing economy.
More importantly, in the age of AI, global investment in artificial intelligence is surging, yet spending on human capital — health, education, and skills — is dangerously lagging behind, especially in countries like Bangladesh. While AI investment grows by 25% annually, global spending on education and health remains at 4.4% and 6% of GDP respectively, with developing countries such as Bangladesh often far below these averages. This imbalance threatens economic relevance, social stability, and ethical integrity.
Cross-sectoral integration: We don’t treat health, education, and skills in silos. We design interventions that reflect the real-life interdependence of these areas.
Local solutions, global standards: We root our work in local realities, while applying best practices from global experience and rigorous evaluation.
Public-private partnership: We bridge the gap between policy and practice, working with both public institutions and private innovators to deliver impact.
Sustainability-first approach: Every program we support is designed to be scalable, financially sustainable, and aligned with national priorities.
Evidence to action: We don’t just generate knowledge—we ensure it is used to inform policies, budgets, and investments that improve lives.
The HCI endeavours to focus exclusively on human capital development. This is unlike comparable institutions that do not have human capital focus exclusivity
Adopting a comprehensive approach in addressing human development including the optimal use of disruptive technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence) that can facilitate human capital (HC) development
The HCI has developed an initial plan (3-year) of human capital related activities. While implementing the plan, they can be adjusted based on a need assessment from time to time
The initiative will not only conduct basic research activities for formulating human capital policy recommendations, but will also undertake action research with partners’ support to test some hypotheses that can help in undertaking robust policy actions
As part of the comprehensive approach, the HCI plans to undertake training activities to help primary stakeholders in the design, implementation and evaluation of human capital intervention
HCI will undertake a catalytic role in human capital development, which will be led by key stakeholders including the government, private and non-profit sectors
The HCI would play an important role in policy coordination and quality assurance to foster collaboration among stakeholders in achieving optimum human development outcomes
Working to Improve the Human Capital for a Prosperous Nation
Borak Unique Heights, Flat 11/A, 117 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka 1000.
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