The nature of work is changing. People will need to adapt and readapt. The Haitian government must invest in early childhood education and health and build a lifelong learning system that will allow the Haitian youngs and adults to be reskilled and/or upskilled in many cases. Also, it must build a social protection system that will promote a renewed social contract. In order to do so, the government may conduct tax reforms that will allow the leaders to find the financial means they need.

1. Association of Leaders Without Borders
1st second annual conference
Speaker: Onyl GEDEON
Title: The Future of work : how can Haiti prepare for disruption?

2. Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen, Project Directors of the Child Development Centers of Haiti,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of the Mass Media
Ladies and Gentlemen, Pastors of the Cluster Plaine du Cul de Sac
Dear young leaders of the Association of Leaders Without Borders,
I am so delighted to be with you this afternoon and feel so privileged to be your guest
speaker for your first annual conference on Employability Strategy.
During my intervention, I will speak about “the Future of Work and how countries can
prepare for Disruption.
First, I will explain why the nature of work is changing and why it is important for the
governments to invest in building a human capital and lifelong learning.
Second, I will focus on the need for governments to invest in providing Social Protection to
citizens and promoting Social inclusion in order to build a renewed social contract.

3. Today, the nature of work is changing and this for many reasons.
First, widespread automation is simultaneously disrupting industries
and creating new ones. New technologies are transforming day-to-day
life by creating new lines of business, new types of firms and new types
of workers to operate them. Platforms now enable firms to enter
markets without physically being there, exercise outsized influence and
grow without vertically integrating.
Second, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new production methods take
root, the demand for low-skilled labor lessens while that for advanced
cognitive skills, sociobehavioral skills, and skill combinations associated
with greater adaptability is rising. These shifts present uncertainties
that all countries must face in order to remain competitive in the
landscape of the future.

4. • Despite these changes, individuals and families often cannot afford the costs of
acquiring human capital. Even when human capital investments are affordable,
individual decisions may be shaped by lack of information, or restricted because
of the prevalent social norms. Individuals also do not necessarily consider the
wider social benefits created by their collective actions. For these reasons,
governments have an important role to play in fostering human capital
acquisition.
• In the face of the changing nature of work, the 2019 World Development Report
suggests three solutions. The first and most significant of those is building human
capital by investing in people, especially in disadvantaged groups and early
childhood education to develop the new skills that are increasingly in demand in
the labor market.
• So, the question to be asked are the followings:
• First, what is the rationale behind the new Human Capital Project, and the
Human Capital Index
• Second, what are the practical challenges that countries may encounter when
making these long-term investments?

5. • The index is designed to highlight how improvements in current education
and health outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of
workers. It assumes that children born in a given year experience current
educational opportunities and health risks over the next 18 years. A focus
on outcomes—and not inputs such as spending or regulation—directs
attention to results, which are what really matter. It also makes the Human
Capital Index relevant to the policy makers who design and implement
interventions to improve these outcomes in the medium term.
• Making the most of this evolving economic opportunity will depend on
prioritizing the development of individual capacity. High-order cognitive
and sociobehavioral skills like problem-solving, teamwork and skill
combinations that are predictive of adaptability such as reasoning and self-
efficacy require strong human capital foundations and lifelong learning.
• Using examples from high performers like China, Japan and Korea, we
observed many dangers that are associated with the fact that workers are
leaving in informal sectors and also the importance of large firms in
accelerating growth, adopting new tech and increasing productivity

6. • Moreover, workers in emerging economies face lower payoffs to work experience than
their counterparts in advanced economies do. In the Netherlands and Sweden, one
additional year of work raises wages by 5.5 percent while in Afghanistan, the
corresponding figure is 0.3 percent. This raise the needs to create room for a long life
learning experience for all.
• Researches indicates that people continue to learn valuable skills while working but
different types of workers learn differently.
• Also, current legal, social and geographic constraints negatively affect women,
marginalized groups and rural workers disproportionately, creating inequities and
economic losses.
• In light of changing labor markets and persistent informality, adjusting to the next wave
of jobs also requires social protection efforts that will include social inclusion, state
support through social programs, universal insurance and jobs.
• With that being said, governments can increase productivity by doing four things:
• Decrease informality in the economy
• Remove blockages to women in the workplace
• Enhance training for agricultural workers
• Put in place social programs for the workers.

7. Personally, I think, governments should do whatever it takes to move toward a renewed social contract if they
don’t them to fall apart. And this can be done in three different ways:
First, by encouraging universal provision of social assistance, social insurance, and basic quality services.
Second, by promoting equal protection of all workers, regardless of their type of employment.
Third, by improving the fairness of the tax system by supporting progressivity of a broad tax base that
complements labor income taxation with the taxation of capital.
In fact, there are other strategies that governments can use to keep this social contract alive:
1) Fixing a societal minimum that provides support independent of employment;
2) Expanding overall coverage that prioritizes the neediest people in society;
3) Placing community health workers on the government’s payroll;
4) Fixing a universal basic income;
5) enhancing social assistance and insurance systems that reduce the burden of risk management on labor
regulation.
Therefore, all this will require the creation of a new fiscal space for public financing of human capital
development and social protection because with insufficient tax revenues, governments can’t deliver the
current social contract.
We will probably say, where will the governments find the means to do that? I think they can develop several
methods to finance such programs. The list is not exhaustive but they can levy new taxes, enforce corporate
taxes, eliminate energy subsidies, close tax exemptions and ensure that the wealthy pay their share.

8. The nature of work is changing. People will need to adapt and readapt.
That is why it is important for the government to invest early childhood
education and health. Therefore, they can build a lifelong learning
system that will allow the adults to be reskilled and/or upskilled. Also,
they must build a social protection system that will promote a renewed
social contract. To do, they do tax forms to finance such programs.
I hope that this presentation has helped you get ready for the new
challenges that your country will be facing.
Thank you !