Agency rests on belief
Agency is scarce and powerful. Building it in a person or a region looks a lot like building self-efficacy: belief that action can still matter.
Agency is significantly more powerful and more scarce than raw intelligence. The practical question is not only whether we admire agency, but how we build it. I think belief forms a major part of agency. Without a lived sense that action can change outcomes, people wait for luck, institutions, or someone else to move first.
How to strengthen agency in a region is then partly the same problem as building self-efficacy: repeated experiences of competent action, honest feedback, and environments that do not punish initiative into silence. Educating only for marks without that loop leaves capability brittle.
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