Addressing Africa’s Brain Drain: Solutions and Challenges

The exodus of skilled professionals and researchers from the continent of Africa to Western countries for better paying jobs is becoming a major political and economic issue. A recent report released by the Pollution Research Group in South Africa shows that “brain drain” is costing the continent $4 billion annually. Brain drain has also nurtured poverty and delayed economic development. The financial cost to the continent is huge. Several political factors can be attributed to the outflow of skilled professionals and researchers from the continent. Poor human rights practices and arbitrary arrests coupled with a backlogged judicial or court system, intolerance of political dissent, lack of academic and political freedom, civil conflict, nepotism based on blood relations and ethnic affiliation are among the political factors for the brain drain. All of these factors in addition to others occur somewhere on the continent today. Expert studies of the brain drain point to a mosaic of economic reasons for causing the problem. As daily living conditions become more difficult, many skilled professionals will look for opportunities elsewhere. A country with a weak and stagnant economy, high unemployment, low wages and tenacious poverty is a prime candidate for a major brain drain. Until recently, many African countries expressed little concern about the exodus of skilled professionals, while development lending partners compounded the problem by obliging recipient countries to hire foreign expatriates as part of the conditions attached to these loans. But the rapid increase in skilled emigration and the serious human resource constraints confronting the continent have forced many countries and leaders to rethink their views. At the general level, countries that are serious about curtailing the outflow of skilled professionals need to strengthen their economy across the board, improve governance and increase political and academic freedom. This obviously calls for a long-term program. Addressing the seemingly intractable problem of brain drain requires a comprehensive approach that provides a legitimate debatable ground for all stakeholders.