Brain Drain in Africa
“The emigration of African professionals to the West is one of the greatest obstacles to Africa’s development.”United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
“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 BarkaDeputy Executive-Secretary, ECA
“[By] failing to offer greener pastures for its own intelligentsia, [Africa] is committing suicide.”Professor Edward Ofori-SarpongPro-Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana at Legon
The exodus of highly trained manpower from developing countries to industrialized nations is not a new phenomenon; however, the magnitude of the problem in Africa and its alarming increase presents a growing urgency for action as the consequences of brain drain threaten to stunt the overall development of the continent.
The Brain Drain in Figures: a Bleak Picture
Statistics on the brain drain from Africa are scarce but troubling. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Africa has already lost one third of its human capital and is continuing to lose its skilled personnel at an increasing rate, with an estimated 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals leaving the continent annually since 1990.There are currently over 300,000 highly qualified Africans in the Diaspora, 30,000 of which have PhDs.At the same time, Africa spends US$4 billion per year (representing 35% of total official Development aid to the continent) to employ some 100,000 Western experts performing functions generically described as technical assistance. For example, 90% of private firms in Gabon are managed by expatriates. Africa as a whole counts only 20,000 scientists (3.6 % percent of the world total) and its share in the world’s scientific output has fallen from 0.5% to 0.3% as it continues to suffer the brain drain of scientists, engineers and technologists. The problem of brain drain has reached quite disturbing proportions in certain African countries, with Ethiopia ranked first in the continent in terms of rate of loss of human capital, followed by Nigeria and Ghana.
Over the past 10-15 years, about 50% of Ethiopians who went abroad for training did not return after completing their studies. According to the IOM, Ethiopia lost about 74.6% of its human capital from various institutions between 1980 and1991. While Ethiopia has 1 full-time economics professor, there are more than 100 Ethiopian economists in the United States.
Ethiopian 