AFRIKA: WHAT PRICE A BRAIN?

The attached two articles report on the on-going International Labour Organisation’s 11th Africa Regional meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While the first puts a price on the brain drain affecting the continent, the second blames the International Financial Institutions (IFI) for the poverty caused by lack of jobs in African countries.

Are the two interrelated? One would think so, although the causality links are not as clear cut as it might seem at a first approach. In fact, it is not entirely clear that stemming the brain drain is an item, let alone a priority, in both the IFIs and African governments agendas. And this is so because while much is made of the brain drain, little is seriously investigated about its root causes in the societies where it occurs – and these are a complex mix of social, political, economic and cultural factors that cannot be exclusively blamed on the IFIs' policies.

Interestingly enough, in the first article, a UNDP Administrator says that "African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise"... Has anyone ever cared to look closely at the recruitment practices of African institutions such as the AU, the ADB or any of the regional organisations spread across the continent? Has anyone asked why is it that such organisations (just like the member states that constitute them) are so reluctant, if not absolutely averse, to recruiting Africans in the diaspora, giving absolute preference to expatriates from other regions of the world, even when such Africans are more qualified both technically and culturally for many of the internationally advertised posts both in their headquarters and country or regional offices? Even when such posts are subsidised, or fully paid for, by institutions such as the EU, within programmes specifically aimed at repatriating Africans in the diaspora?

No one can truly understand the full dimension of this problem until they experience the institutional (or, in some cases, casual but not less hard-hitting) levels, open or disguised, of xenophobia and active systemic exclusion practices - to the point of denying them their own nationality of origin, even when they were forced by the very systems that institute such practices to leave the country and remain abroad - directed at African expatriates by the residents in their own country of origin, the self-entitled "insiders", all self-justified in their self-righteous "more african than thou" attitude... their fellow nationals or not! Clearly indicating that the average African brain, even if under-used and also treated as an "outsider" in the host countries, might be more valued/valuable, or just better preserved, out of Africa, particularly if it does not belong to someone clearly affiliated to the prevailing political system in their country of origin. And so the brain drain goes!

The attached two articles report on the on-going International Labour Organisation’s 11th Africa Regional meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While the first puts a price on the brain drain affecting the continent, the second blames the International Financial Institutions (IFI) for the poverty caused by lack of jobs in African countries.

Are the two interrelated? One would think so, although the causality links are not as clear cut as it might seem at a first approach. In fact, it is not entirely clear that stemming the brain drain is an item, let alone a priority, in both the IFIs and African governments agendas. And this is so because while much is made of the brain drain, little is seriously investigated about its root causes in the societies where it occurs – and these are a complex mix of social, political, economic and cultural factors that cannot be exclusively blamed on the IFIs' policies.

Interestingly enough, in the first article, a UNDP Administrator says that "African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise"... Has anyone ever cared to look closely at the recruitment practices of African institutions such as the AU, the ADB or any of the regional organisations spread across the continent? Has anyone asked why is it that such organisations (just like the member states that constitute them) are so reluctant, if not absolutely averse, to recruiting Africans in the diaspora, giving absolute preference to expatriates from other regions of the world, even when such Africans are more qualified both technically and culturally for many of the internationally advertised posts both in their headquarters and country or regional offices? Even when such posts are subsidised, or fully paid for, by institutions such as the EU, within programmes specifically aimed at repatriating Africans in the diaspora?

No one can truly understand the full dimension of this problem until they experience the institutional (or, in some cases, casual but not less hard-hitting) levels, open or disguised, of xenophobia and active systemic exclusion practices - to the point of denying them their own nationality of origin, even when they were forced by the very systems that institute such practices to leave the country and remain abroad - directed at African expatriates by the residents in their own country of origin, the self-entitled "insiders", all self-justified in their self-righteous "more african than thou" attitude... their fellow nationals or not! Clearly indicating that the average African brain, even if under-used and also treated as an "outsider" in the host countries, might be more valued/valuable, or just better preserved, out of Africa, particularly if it does not belong to someone clearly affiliated to the prevailing political system in their country of origin. And so the brain drain goes!