The brain drain is wreaking havoc in Africa. Most of the skilled and talented citizens are leaving the continent for Western Europe and North America. While some go there to play sports, many have made these regions their homes and ply their trades in some of the most critical sectors of our modern civilization. And they are not coming back.
A recent study on the Nigerian healthcare industry shows that the nation is underserved for its medical staff, mainly due to the emigration of its doctors abroad. So while there are many medical schools graduating thousands of doctors, the nation is steadily losing the best of these experts each year. Unfortunately, the story is the same everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa and this has become a continental tragedy.
African soccer (yes, soccer) leagues have been destroyed by the movement of our talented players to Europe. Local games are poorly attended and not very exciting for the locals. European African gamers are disproportionately popular and wealthier than their counterparts who play in Africa. In most national teams, up to 90% of the players play internationally.
In the field of engineering, most of the best students are attracted by scholarships for graduate study in the United States. These students are supposed to be the future technical leaders of the continent. Upon graduation, they are drawn to good jobs and prospects abroad and spend their working lives outside of Africa.
The emigration of skilled workers from developing countries to developed countries in search of better opportunities in trade, education, work, etc. has been well documented. Many scholars at the World Bank, the IMF, and countless nongovernmental organizations have examined this trend. The theoretical exam is not scarce; What is missing is a solution to this problem.
So what can the continent do? We can simply harness the power of technology to mitigate the impacts of the brain drain. There are many enabling technologies and strategies that Africa and indeed all developing nations experiencing brain drain can implement to turn brain drain into brain gain. It is necessary to understand how these nations can develop infrastructures to connect and collaborate with these people in the diaspora for their national developments. And technology could be the solution.
It is understandable that Africa prefers the physical presence of these experts in their countries of origin. Unfortunately, some of them work in industries that have not spread to Africa. For those who are experts in genetic engineering, robotics, etc., they can discover limited opportunities at home. In addition, there is a potential “demotion” that occurs when someone moves from the seat of ideas to stay in the corners. In other words, telling an MIT microelectronics professor to move to Kenya and practice will mean that in five years, he could be seriously behind his peers in the US and his professional value will be downgraded by place to be appreciated
Therefore, the continent must follow a paradigm in which they honor the need for these experts to stay abroad and potentially contribute to their home countries. Physical presence, while useful, is not really necessary as long as there are enabling technologies and policies that can foster interactions between them and these nations.
The challenge will be to understand how technology can reduce the brain drain problem and turn it into brain gain as these experts continue to develop their skills in developed countries and use the enabling tools to share and interact with their partners in their respective native countries. We need technological strategies that can connect people across borders and help modernize national programs for health, education, research, training, etc.
Comprehensive research on contemporary issues related to enabling technologies and strategies that can turn brain drain into brain gain is urgently needed in Africa. Based on the outcome of the study, we should develop a technology-driven continent-wide roadmap to offset the knowledge imbalance created by the brain drain. The continent needs to understand the following areas:
• Challenges of the brain drain of the 21st century
• Brain drain and globalization
• Evolution and Opportunities in the Brain Drain
• Distance and web-based education
• Technologies for Telemedicine, Security and Technological Management
• Deployment of telepresence technologies in developing countries
• Economics of Brain Drain, Political and National Technological Infrastructures
• Design and implementation of support technologies
• Legal and tax issues for the intercontinental workforce
• Open source technologies
• ICT technologies
• Collaboration in research and distance education
• Role of regional networks and organizations in standardization and other
Africa must work hard and invest resources to see how it can use technology to improve the quality of its education and healthcare through tele-education and telemedicine. That will require looking at the communication facilities available on the mainland and upgrading them accordingly. The African Union should consider forcing member states to have Diaspora Technology Networks in all regions so that the constant flow of information and ideas can be shared through quality networks, telepresence and other video technologies. Universities should be anchors of this initiative since they are the most vital instrument for the diffusion of technology.
We must find ways to harness the experience of our citizens in foreign countries. It is time that we start looking at the technology of this process instead of focusing on the academic aspects of it. As technologies break boundaries, we must seize the advantages and build Africa.
In short, the exodus of highly capable Africans to North America and Europe due to a lack of institutional preparation at home must be seen as a threat to Africa’s prosperity and wealth. As these adoptive nations work to improve their education, medicine, sports and all other major fields, African governments must find ways to harness these skills. The technologies are readily available and we have the ability to turn this brain drain into brain gain. It is about developing and deploying the right technology with the aim of not asking these diasporas to return to Africa but rather to stay in their adopted countries and support their natives in education and training.