AFRICAN BRAIN DRAIN عامر التواتي

AFRICAN BRAIN DRAIN

Amer Eitwati Ben Irhuma,*

"To this day we continue to lose the best among ourselves because the lights in the developed world shine brighter"

Nelson Mandela on Emigration

"African governments have a great responsibility to ensure that brains remain in the continent; otherwise, in 25 years ' time, Africa will be empty of brains."

Dr. Lalla Ben Barka

Deputy Executive-Secretary, ECA

Key words: brain drain, brain slavery, brain circulation, diasporas.

Introduction:

The term "brain drain" designates the international transfer of resources in the form of human capital, i.e., the migration of relatively highly educated individuals from developing to developed countries.

The issue of brain drain is there since the existence of man. The exodus of highly trained manpower from developing countries to industrialized nations is not a new phenomenon.^1,2

The brain drain from Africa to the Americas is a four centaury-old problem that began with the across Atlantic slave trading. The slave ships dropped off 20 million of the most able Africans in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. The United States is a nation that was developed with slave labor. The son of an African slave, Benjamin Banneker, was one of those who planned and designed the city of Washington, D.C. today there are 200 million Africans in the Diaspora with expertise which could be trapped to develop the continent.^l

The expression 'brain-drain migration' was popularized in the 1960s with the loss of skilled labor-power from a number of poor countries, notably India. Of particular concern was the emigration of those with immense professional skills, like doctors and engineers, who had been trained at considerable expense by means of taxpayers' subsidies to higher education. Likened to the slave trade period which involved physical movement of people, brain drain is a new type of slavery and better to be called "Brain Slavery".

"Nowadays, women are increasingly migrating as the main economic providers, or "breadwinners" for their households", the Director of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Carmen Moreno, said. Women constituted 49.6 per cent of global migratory flows, though the proportion varied significantly by country and could be as high as 70 to 80 per cent in some cases. The "feminization of migration" has also produced specifically female forms of migration, such as the commercialized migration of domestic workers and caregivers, the migration and trafficking of women for the sex industry, and the organized migration of women for marriage.

The problem is devastating to Africa and is getting worse over the years. The absolute loss of skilled labour varies from one country to another. In 1990, South Africa and Egypt accounted for three-quarters of professional Africans in OECD countries. Currently, about 30 per cent of all highly educated Ghanaians and Sierra Leoneans live abroad. In total, 7 per cent of Africa's tertiary-educated population are living in OECD countries - a massive drain for a continent already lacking human resources.

Emigration of Skilled Africans to Industrialized Countries (based on ION and ECA estimates)

Time period	Average annual rate	Total number
1960-1974	1,800	27,000
1975-1984	4,000	40,000
1985-1989	12,000	60,000
Sine 1900 20,000	20,000	-

*) Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Sebha University, Sebha – Libya.

The departure of health professionals has eroded the ability of medical and social services in several sub-Saharan countries to deliver even basic health and social needs. Thirty-eight of the 47 sub-Saharan African countries fall short of the minimum World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 20 physicians per 100,000 people.

It has been found that lower wages and higher HIV prevalence rates predicted significantly higher medical brain drain from sub-Saharan African countries. Also, higher medical brain drain rates were associated with greater number of deaths due to AIDS but the effects of medical brain drain on life expectancy were not evident in this time frame. Finally, the regressions for GDP growth rates indicated the need to take into account the underlying trends in population; investment in the economies and life expectancy were significant predictors of GDP growth rates.

Overall, the empirical results underscored the need for higher expenditures on HIV prevention and treatment, and for improving economic conditions of physicians for mitigating the adverse consequences of HIV pandemic on indicators of well-being in sub-Saharan African countries.⁹

The possible causes of brain drain can be summarized as follows:-

• Globalization and trade liberalization

• poor working conditions, lack of facilities and /or opportunities to implement specialized training.

• The attraction of better salaries in rich counties, which further exacerbated by growing economic inequalities.

• political upheaval, corrupted authorities and systems.

• Some countries have a surplus of expertise and a shortage of postings, particularly desirable (urban) ones.

• Many available posting are rural, where as one contributor puts it, the level of income and career development is in (pathetic).

• one contributor mentions that aggressive competition has crippled teaching, learning and professional information networking.

So the question to be raised for medical professional is why Migrate? The ready and easy answer by which the emigrant would defend their situation is that we migrate:

• For academic pursuit.

• To acquire advanced knowledge

• For economic prosperity

• For enhance social standing

• For easy job opportunity

• Craze for foreign land

• Due to socio political reasons

• For fellowships/scholarships.

Furthermore, in most poor African countries (source countries) there is a limited number of residency positions. If the migrating physicians had stayed home, they might not have attained the qualifications they now hold. This would have left a workforce of minimally trained doctors with even fewer jobs befitting their qualifications.

Second, a reversal of the "fatal flows" of doctors from poor to rich countries, would not necessarily lead to an effective increase in the number of practicing physicians, given the unequal geographic and socioeconomic distribution of physicians within source countries. Anecdotally, we know many such physicians who, out of frustration, have left medicine altogether.

The third point is that the real effects of physician migration cannot be captured by static (stock-of-manpower) indicators. We need to quantify the effects on flows and distribution of physicians within the source countries.⁸

The most difficult question is how should we solve this problem?

"Brain drain" is widely considered as one of the therapeutic options for the prevention of "scientific brain death. This means that the migration is a normal issue and plays effective role in cultural exchanges among nations. However it should not exceed its normal limits.

Governments of countries which suffer from brain drain stress on the importance of :-

a) Improvement of the academic standards of schools and universities; b) modernization of libraries; c) the employment of modern technology; d) more exchange visits between the students and those in other countries in line with this objective.

Stressing that elites who travel abroad are not after fun but, rather, after knowledge, if their thirst for knowledge is satisfied inside their countries they would not look for facilities abroad.

Conditions should be such as to make elites feel secure and hopeful of the future and thereby erase frustration and the desire to leave their countries.

The officials have to find the main causes that lead to brain drain, and the system should precisely study financial, educational, political and social factors that are involved in this respect.

"Brain drain" prevention programs

Many States and metropolitan areas have implemented "brain drain" prevention programs to retain young college-educated workers—who are more entrepreneurial and take more risks than older workers. These programs include:

(1) Internships designed to familiarize promising students with local companies or fields;

(2) Loans that are forgiven if a student settles in the home State; and

(3) Scholarship or tuition policies that attract local high school students to local universities, following the empirical observation that those who go to college in state are more likely to take their first job there.⁶

One potential solution to Africa's brain drain is virtual participation. Virtual participation is participation in nation-building without physical relocation. It also shows promise as a means to engage the African Diaspora in development efforts. Mercy Brown of the University of Cape Town notes that virtual participation "... sees the brain drain not as a loss but a potential gain... Highly skilled expatriates are seen as a pool of potentially useful human resources for the country of origin... the challenge is to mobilize these brains."⁴

It has been shown that virtual participation has tremendous potential to channel the untapped intellectual and material input from the African Diaspora. Moreover, it recorded a growing awareness among the African Diaspora of its moral, intellectual, and social responsibility to contribute to Africa's development efforts.⁴

References:

1. Africa: Education and brain drain, www.emeagwali.com/interviews/brain-drain/ education-in-africa-brain-drain-problem-worldnet-africa-ioumal.html.

2. Brain Drain in Africa. Facts and Figures http://web.ncf.ca/cp 129/factsandfigures.pdf.

3. Wisdom J Tettey. Africa's options: return, retention or diaspora? May 2003.SciDev.net

4. Ainalem Tebeje. Association for Higher Education and Development (AHEAD), ahead (a), aheadonline.org.

5. Commission on Population and Development. Feminization of Migration. Remittances, Migrants' Rights, brain drain among issues,As populationcommission conclude depates.5 April 2006. http:// www.un.org/ News/ Press/docs/2006/pop 945. doc.htm.

6- Paul Gottlieb. The Living Cities Census Series, Brookings Institution Press, January 2004.

7- The precedent stresses prevention of brain drain. www.netnative.com/news/01/feb/ 1155. html.

8- Uzor C. Ogbu, M.D. Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences 3000 DR Rotterdam, the Netherlands uzorcofgjyahoo.com

9- Alok Bhargava. HIV Pandemic, Medical Brain Drain and Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa. Research in Progress Seminar.2007. http://healthpolicv.stanford.edu/events/hiv pandemic medical brain drain and economic development in subsaharan africa/.