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10th Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference
Addis Ababa , 8-10/1/2003

Item 6 on the agenda

BRAIN DRAIN FROM AFRICAN AND ARAB
COUNTRIES AND ITS CONSQUENCES

The migration of experts and specialists or what is called "Brain Drain” constitutes one of the big economic and social problems from which developing countries have been suffering since they began drawing up programs for promoting their deteriorating situations inherited from long periods of colonialism and foreign hegemony.

As for African and Arab countries the problem of Brain Drain represents an obstacle on the way of development through the drain of the most precious factor among the factors leading to a real sustainable development.

It would be quite suitable to refer to some figures relevant to Brain Drain in order to realize the dimensions of this problem and its dangerous impact on the situation of African and Arab countries and on the future of their development.

Statistics taken from the studies made by the Arab League (AL), the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the UNESCO and some other regional and international vocational organizations interested in this phenomenon refer to the following facts:
    - 37% of the world migration of experts and specialists come from African and Arab countries;
    - 54% of doctors, 26% of engineers and 17% of scientists graduated from African and Arab universities migrate, in particular to Europe, the United States and Canada where they stay and work;
    - More than half of African and Arab students who study abroad do not return to their homelands;
    - Three rich western countries, the U.S.A, Britain and Canada, hunt 75% of African and Arab experts;
    - During the seventies African and Arab countries lost about 13 billion U.S dollars because of Brain Drain.

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Main Reasons of Brain Drain from African and Arab Countries
All studies dealing with the question of Brain Drain from African and Arab countries refer to several political, economic, social and personal factors which lie behind that drain. These factors are classified in two categories:

I. Reasons stimulating migration:
    1. The weakness in or the inability of absorbing experts and specialists in their countries owing to the retardation of development projects in these countries, so that the experts find themselves either jobless or obliged to accept jobs far from their specialization.

    2. Low income of the experts in their countries.

    3. The inbalance in the educational system or the absence of the correlation between educational systems and development projects in most African and Arab countries.

    4. The political and social instability and the complications of democratic life in African and Arab countries which make some experts and specialists suffer from estrangement in their countries and consequently resort to migration in search of circumstances with more freedom and more stabilization.

    5. In addition to the above mentioned factors there may be other objective and personal reasons which urge experts or specialists to migrate. Among such reasons are the following: administrative bureaucracy, civil service systems, certain legislations, financial bails and some other personal or family reasons.
II. Factors Attracting migration
    1. The great scientist and technological progress and the atmospheres of freedom in the receiving countries.

    2. The material temptations and high salaries offered to experts and specialists.

    3. The chances offered to experts in the field of scientific research, so that new prospect is open in front of them to develop their skills on the one hand, and to offer more results, on the other.

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NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF BRAIN DRAIN ON AFRICAN AND ARAB COUNTRIES
African and Arab Brain Drain to Western countries lead to several negative impacts on the process of development and progress in the African and Arab countries. The most prominent of these negative impacts are the following:
    1.The deprivation of the process of development and the programs of promoting economy and education from national scientific and productive capacities which flow -after emigration- in the veins of western countries.

    2.Wasting large amounts of African and Arab human and financial resources which were spent for educating and training experts and people of competence who are taken by the western countries freely.

    3.The weakness and deterioration of scientific production and researches in African and Arab countries in comparison with the scientific production of African and Arab emigrants in the receiving countries.

    4.The strange paradox here is the fact that with the increase of the rates of Brain Drain from African and Arab countries there is an increased dependence of these countries on Western experts in different fields and with high and even exaggerated economic cost. This means that African and Arab countries bear twofold loss because of this Brain Drain.

    5.Brain Drain also leads to widening the gap between rich and poor countries because the migration of specialists to rich countries provides these countries with direct economic benefits, whereas it constitutes pure loss to the countries from which those specialists have migrated.
The UNESCO considers the Brain Drain is an odd form of scientific exchange among states because it is characterized by one direction flow (towards developed countries) or by what is called the adverse transfer of technology.

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TOWARDS AN AFRO-ARAB STRATEGY TO CURB BRAIN DRAIN:
The serious danger of Brain Drain on African and Arab development programs requires solutions to curb this phenomenon. The ideal solution is to draw up an integral Afro-Arab strategy. Such a strategy may be drawn up by: the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the League of Arab states (LAS) and other African and Arab non-governmental economic organizations interested in this question. The following proposals may also contribute to the achievement of this end:
    1-Setting up a joint Afro-Arab institution to deal with the question of Brain Drain in the framework of cooperation between the OAU and the LAS.

    2-Making a comprehensive inventory of migrating African and Arab people of competence in order to know their numbers, positions, specialization and their work conditions.

    3- Drawing up a central Afro-Arab policy of manpower on the basis of Afro-Arab complementarity. This would help African and Arab countries which face suffocation in manpower can get rid of their surplus, and enable other African and Arab countries which suffer from insufficiency in this field to meet their needs.

    4-Working out national programs to face Brain Drain, setting up research centers for scientific and development aims through cooperating with concerned international and regional bodies to issue the necessary documents and regulations which organize the lives of migrating scientists and experts.

    5-Urging African and Arab governments to set up societies and organizations that absorb migrating people of competence, eliminate all obstacles which hinder their linkage with their original homelands and facilitate their contribution to development and modernization.

    6-Organizing conferences for African and Arab migrants and seeking their help and expertise whether in technology transfer in participation in building national projects.

    7-Cooperating with the UNESCO to set up projects and scientific centers and contribute directly to their activities.
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