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| Former UNESCO boss cites reasons for Africa's brain drain
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Dakar, Senegal (PANA) -
The poor living condition of African
intellectuals remains a major factor propelling brain drain on
the African continent, a former head of the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has observed.
"Our academics, our intellectuals are extremely poorly paid," ex-
UNESCO director General Amadou Mahtar Mbow told an inter-
generation discourse convened on the sidelines of the first
conference of intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora holding
6-9 October in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
Thursday's meeting between "elders and youths" to share knowledge
and experiences was attended by African Union Commission chairman
Alpha Oumar Konare at a local university here.
Responding to a series of questions from the youths on brain
drain in Africa, Mbow lamented the poor atmosphere in which
intellectuals fare, coupled with the lack of freedom of
expression and means for researchers to pursue their work.
The former UN official, who once served as minister of culture in
Senegal, summed up that these factors contributed to the reasons
that push the African intelligentsia to seek greener pastures for
their material and intellectual development.
Mbow said when Western countries spot the potential of African
intellectuals, they offer not only possibilities to earn more
money, but also opportunities to pursue research and reach higher
heights.
In the early 70s, Mbow, then deputy-director of UNESCO for
education devoted a number of studies to brain drain issues,
seeking to address causes for the flight of human capital from
Africa.
He said it was a sad state of affairs for African countries to
fund the education of their nationals only to see them end up
contributing to the growth and development of Europe, America and
other industrialised countries.
"The African farmers, through their work and taxes, are those who
fund the studies of these Africans who later stay and work in
Europe or in the West instead of returning home to contribute to
developing their countries," Mbow stated.
Today, as conditions in African countries were yet to improve,
even though they are better than the 1970s, Mbow said the
continent lacked the attraction to stem the rising brain drain or
lead students back home at the end of their studies abroad.
He said while strict immigration policies could help check, if
not stop, the massive flow of African intellectuals to Europe or
America, it was worth noting that the West would "always chose
the best to pull into to their countries."
"But it also rests with us to set conditions so that the best
remains in our countries," he countered.
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| Dakar - 09/10/2004 |
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