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The Loss of Zambian Skilled Talent Through The Brain Drain “Causes of Brain Drain Explained”
African countries like Zambia are continually losing the very people they need to facilitate their economic, social and technological progress. This is perhaps the main reason why President Michael Sata recently called on Zambians living in Botswana, and in all countries worldwide as a matter of fact, to return home and help develop the country.
Between 1974 and 1985, for example, over 12,146 technical and professional personnel were admitted to the United States from various countries in Africa. And between 1993 and 1995, the United States admitted 32,317 of the continent’s skilled human resources. According to the World Bank Group in a 2005 publication, nearly 70,000 qualified Africans leave their home countries every year to work in industrialized nations.
And, according to the Ethiopia-based United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African continent lost a third of its skilled professional personnel through emigration in less than two decades prior to 2005, and has had to replace them with over 100,000 expatriate professionals at an annual cost of US$4 billion.
Clearly, this represents a significant loss to a continent that is in dire need of skilled professionals to facilitate and expedite the process of socio-economic development. Without large pools of such technical and professional talent, African countries are not likely to attain meaningful levels of socio-economic development.
Causes of the Brain Drain:
There are many factors obtaining in countries which are affected by the brain drain which have contributed to the exodus of skilled talent, including poor conditions of service, human rights abuses, nepotism and favoritism, deliberate disregard for local talent, scarcity of jobs, limited access to education, poor health care services, a high level of crime and partisan civil police, and the fear of losing valued relationships developed in foreign countries.
Considered from the standpoint of the origin of trained and skilled emigrants, the foregoing causes may be referred to as the “push factors” of the flight of human capital. The inverses of the causes are essentially the “pull factors” from the point of view of emigrants’ host countries.
Effects of the Skills Drain:
The impacts of the brain drain phenomenon include its adverse effects on a country’s prospects for technological advancement, its numbing effects on politics and governance in the emigrants’ home country, and its ghastly effects on the provision healthcare.
One would perhaps do well to cite some of the salient benefits associated with the flight of professionals from the African continent. In Ghana, citizens working abroad are accounting for the fourth largest source of foreign currency after cocoa, gold and tourism. The foreign currency remittances to the country have become more significant than development aid, which is normally delivered with a lot of conditions attached.
Kenya provides another good example of an African country that is benefiting from huge foreign currency remittances to the country by citizens who are resident in foreign countries. In 2008, for example, the country’s central bank recorded a 6.6 percent growth in remittances by Kenyans abroad from US$573.6 million the previous year to US$611 million.
And, if the emigration includes an entire family, the family would generally be better off. Besides, the exposure of emigrants to outside ideas is itself an engine of growth, because having a significant portion of the population in foreign countries means that individuals who are resident in the emigrants’ native countries would benefit from information flows through visits, the Internet or telephone discussions with the emigrants.
Moreover, some of the professionals who may initially emigrate often return to their home countries with new skills and ideas to help develop the economies of their respective countries.
Further, emigrants generally work in diverse socio-economic settings where they interact with people from different cultural, ethnic and/or religious backgrounds. This is potentially benign for emigrants’ native countries where ethnic or religion-based conflicts are common as it is likely to make the emigrants less bigoted upon their return to their countries and contribute to the harmonization of relations among cultural, religious and ethnic groupings.
Additionally, unhindered migration of a country’s citizens is a reflection of its observance of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly, which provides for the following: (a) everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each country; and (b) everyone has the right to leave any country, including his or her own, and to return to his or her country.
It is also in observance of Article 12(2) of the African Union’s African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which states as follows: “Every individual shall have the right to leave any country including his own, and to return to his country. This right … [shall] only be subject to restrictions, provided for by law for the protection of national security, law and order, public health or morality.”
For governments and private institutions which hire trained personnel from other countries, professional flight is a benign phenomenon; it makes it possible for them to benefit from the knowledge and skills of people whose training they did not finance. They reap where they did not sow, so to speak!
With respect to foreign currency remittances, however, it is perhaps important to note that such remittances have helped to fund terrorism, civil wars and liberation struggles in collapsed or failed states. During the 1980s, for example, a large portion of remittances by Somalia’s citizens in the Diaspora made it possible for rural guerrillas to procure arms used in toppling the country’s government in 1991.
Nevertheless, it has long been recognized that any adverse consequences of skilled emigration (including remittances which have been used to fund diabolical activities) might be partly or wholly offset by remittances intended to serve benign purposes, as well as the return of emigrants who could have migrated back to their native countries with enhanced skills.
The Solutions:
There are many ways in which countries affected by the exodus of their native professionals can address the problem, including the following:
1) Peace and Stability: It is not possible for any country to attain meaningful socio-economic development that would provide a satisfactory standard of living for would-be emigrants in the absence of sustained peace and stability. This should be obvious because the war effort disrupts productive socio-economic activities, and diverts essential resources away from the pursuit of a country’s goals and aspirations.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon each and every political, tribal and military leader in the African Union to be mindful of the need to find ways and means of forestalling war and instability. Among other things, there is a need for political leaders and their constituents to embrace the following elements of democratic governance: accountability, transparency, adequate checks and balances, a free press, respect for the rule of law, a viable mechanism for peacefully replacing incompetent leaders, and respect for human rights.
Moreover, there is a need for serious consideration of ethnic and other interests in the distribution of power, educational facilities, health services, and so forth.
2) Low-Interest Loans: The effort to stem the exodus of trained nationals to foreign countries may also require a country’s national and local governments to grant low-interest loans to professionals based in foreign countries so that they can return to the country to start and manage their own business undertakings. Such loans also need to be extended to locally based professionals to lure them from migrating to foreign countries for employment.
3) An Enabling Environment: Unless the factors that initially lead to migration are redressed, the exodus of skilled Africans will continue to haunt governments and employer-organizations on the African continent. There is, therefore, a need for African governments to find viable ways and means of tackling the problems of human rights abuses, armed conflicts, inadequate social services, and high rates of unemployment.
4) Feasible Policy Initiatives: There are many other important policy initiatives which countries affected by the exodus of trained personnel need to consider in their quest to address the problem and its effects on socio-economic development. Such initiatives may include the following:
(a) Tax proposals requiring native professionals trained through the public treasury to pay a certain percentage of their incomes earned abroad to their home-country governments;
(b) Generation of restrictive policies aimed at delaying emigration – such as by adding extra years to medical students’ training, requiring doctors and other professionals to stay on for a number of years to ‘pay back’ what they ‘owe’ to society, or to incorporate the delay within the training period, thus ensuring that certification follows rather than precedes a spell of public service;
(c) Initiation of international agreements requiring employers in foreign countries who may hire professionals trained through public resources to reimburse the home governments for financial and material resources committed to the training of the professionals;
(d) Introduction of retention allowances for skilled personnel on government payroll;
(e) Provision for research grants for academic staff in government-supported educational institutions;
(f) Provision for car-ownership and home-ownership schemes;
(g) Upward salary adjustments for employees on government payroll; and/or
(h) Assistance with passages for emigrant citizens wishing to return to their native countries by governments in such countries.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a proactive strategy for redressing the brain drain by African leaders is needed, because prevention of the exodus of technical and professional personnel is actually better than cure, so to speak. Such a strategy would require leaders to pursue initiatives designed to prevent the exodus of professionals rather than waste resources on bolstering the return of indigenous talent.
In all, African leaders are going to have to work extra hard in ensuring that native professional talent is enticed to work locally in order for such talent to contribute to the development of native countries. If leaders cannot step up their efforts in this endeavor, they should not be surprised when they continue to lose their highly trained natives to countries which are relatively more developed.
In passing, African leaders need to guard themselves against attributing their own failure and mediocrity in governance to what have become traditional and convenient scapegoats for some of them; that is: colonialism, neo-colonialism, globalization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others.
These are mere scapegoats which should not be faulted for the bloated national governments on the continent which cannot live within their means, the electoral malpractices which block cadres of competent potential leaders from the realm of national leadership, or the hemorrhage of public resources through corruption and misappropriation.
The people are fed up of the blame game, and, therefore, expect leaders who have lamentably failed to address the socio-economic problems facing their countries to guard against blaming external factors as having caused such problems.
Main Source: Kyambalesa, Henry, Emigration of African Professionals: Causes, Effects and Solutions (Saarbrucken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, April 2012).
Posted by Editor
on March 24, 2012. Filed under Forum, LATEST NEWS.
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Chief Mukonge
March 25, 2012 at 12:30 am
Boring :-q
Chief Mukonge
March 25, 2012 at 12:31 am
Boring
libido
March 25, 2012 at 12:35 am
THANKS FOR THIS REPORT.ITS A GOOD ONE.THANKS IN THE SENSE THAT IT DIDNT SINGLE OUT ZAMBIA.
NOW ,LOOKING @ THE BRAINS THAT ATTENDED SATA’S OUTING TO BOTSWANA,I THINK ZAMBIA DOES NOT NEED SUCH WITHIN ITS BOUNDARIES!
THEY ARE SELFCENTERED WHO ONLY THINK ABOUT THEMSELVIES AND NOT THE COUNTRY.
THEY DEMANDED THE FOLLOWING;
1.LAND,just for themselves.
2.DUAL CITIZENSHIP,just for themselves!
3.BRIDGE @ KAZUNGULA,so that they move fast themselves! But why not catching a plane?!!!!!!!!
4.PAINTING OF ONLY LUSAKA BUILDINGS!
again forgeting our people in other parts of the country! ETC…
NOW,NO COUNTRY CAN DEVELOP WITHOUT NATIONAL PRIDE OF ITS CITIZENS.
ALL THESE COUNTRIES RUN TO,WERE BUILT BY ITS PEOPLE.
PATRIOTISM IS KEY.
I PURELY ENDORSE ALL WORDS SAID BY OUR PRESIDENT MCS.
Jmc007
March 25, 2012 at 3:41 am
@libido, you have hit the nail on the head! All of us would want to go and work in developed countries were life is percieved to be better or actually is, but apart from this not being possible, the love of our Motherland supercedes our personal egos! PATRIOTISM and selflessness is what can help develop our nation.
shadreck
March 25, 2012 at 5:13 am
As long as zambian employers continue to offer poor conditions of service and low salaries,People will continue to leave for better conditions elsewhere.
comfused chicken!
March 25, 2012 at 5:25 am
Mwebantu brain drain kanshi chinama nshi?
Nchenga
March 25, 2012 at 5:35 am
I cant stay on fire for the sake of being home. Let the conditions of service be improved by the higher so that we stay home otherwise if chances are available i tell u pipo use them otherwise u ll regret in life.
oxmos
March 25, 2012 at 7:13 am
zambia will only be developed by zambians,our children will call us founding fathers if we find a new zambia by the way we create it…cuba has been built by cubans…so if you want a developed zambia leave a legacy to develope your own place
mr wendo
March 25, 2012 at 7:24 am
U cannot be patriotic to hunger. Stay u guys who support Sata’s statement if at all u r even educated. Some of u are good at supporting. U think this is football? Iyi ni njala… Some of u support just because u know there’s nothing u have to offer outside. And if u had to leave then on your part the country won’t be drained of any brains. Can u be waiting for the titanic to sink further when the life boats aree all over. U will die na njala just becoz u trust in politicians
mr wendo
March 25, 2012 at 7:26 am
U cannot be patriotic to hunger. Stay u guys who support Sata’s statement in Botswana if at all u r even educated. Some of u are good at supporting. U think this is football? Iyi ni njala… Some of u support just because u know there’s nothing u have to offer outside. And if u had to leave then on your part the country won’t be drained of any brains. Can u be waiting for the titanic to sink further when the life boats aree all over. U will die na njala just becoz u trust in politicians
Mwami
March 25, 2012 at 7:28 am
How was this good article published in APRIL 2012?
That. Aside, we have in Zambia today most of the suggested interventions. Sad that some of our govt workers borrow to drink or drive. Borrow to create value. I may appreciate what one can get from abroad. But am a richer Zambian tr going higher. @ Munkonge, If you find this. Article boring get icengelo and enjoy your Tona!!! That’s were you belong.
Tonga Bull
March 25, 2012 at 8:07 am
the man who wrote this, Prof Kyambalesa is a very bright man and can be a good leader if he came back from the USA. we are in short of bright people like him, all we have in govt are dull recycled politicians.
ngwa
March 25, 2012 at 8:14 am
For as long as the politician feels and acts as those only he is of substance. we’ll continue leaving our beloved country. patriotism will not feed or clothe my children, but a job will. ask yourself how many qualified ZAMBIANS have our present and previous governments CONDEMNED TO AIMLESSLY WALKING THE STREETS (mind you its the SAME people ruling under different names- they failed us under UNIP,MMD and i guarantee u it’ll be the same under PF).
WAKE UP AND SMELL REALITY: LIKE IT OR NOT CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND US.
So if the Zambian government offers u stones 4 a salary whilst a foreign offers u bread. u’ld be ****** to accept stones.
solwasolwa
March 25, 2012 at 8:39 am
Bane this country will continue losing the most educated pipo coz of the leadership .Look at thepipo appointed to priside 0ver our national issues. Chines to be a Guard at Indipendece stadium. south africa to be welder.tazania for a falklifter opparator.a Scotish for a republican vice president. .SO THE TYPE OF PIPO WE CHOOSE TO MANAGE OUR NATIONAL RESOURCES HUMAN INCLUSIVE HAVE A DIRECT BEARING TO THE LOSS AND IF YOU HEARD WHAT MR SC SAID IT DOENOTINCOUAGE ANYONE TO GET BACK HOME. EVEN WHAT GIVEN SAID IS NOT EXPECT FROM THE LIKES OF HIM BUT JUST COZ HE IS IN A WRONG COMO WITH WRONG COMMANDER HE HAD TO SAY JUST IMPPRESS SOMEBODY..SO ZAMBIANS CAN YOU WAKEUP.
The king
March 25, 2012 at 9:24 am
Guys here in zambia its the politicials who gets money on behalf of fellow zidians,so if u hve opotiunit go after all the siblings of this politicia gets there education abroad ,so go my dear zidians soas your siblings can get da best.look a zidian mining engineer gets 15million zmk while a white southafrica with out qualification let me say operator gets 80 million zmk but paid in dollas
Mulongoti
March 25, 2012 at 9:30 am
pipo are supporting sata as if it is football. Even when he is wrong, they are still supporting. Sport and politics are different. Support at election time and afterwards we are all one and we need to be objective because its our development we are after. As long as we continue having poor salaries, nepotism, no jobs,etc – brain drain will continue. Ukwa should read the article above and act on it.
chizutule
March 25, 2012 at 9:53 am
think of the collosal sums our govt pays so called expatriates,some with lesser qualifications! if these sums wher spread across the board to benefit citizen professionals,who wud want to go nd suffer in the diaspora? policy makers r just so selfish.
Sumbu
March 25, 2012 at 9:59 am
confused chicken,
Brain drain is a loss of experts to another country. So u can now submit yo comment.
TruthHurts
March 25, 2012 at 12:25 pm
If you read a book called “Rich Dad Poor Dad”; you will find what Sata said to be correct. Its not support for the sake of supporting; the problem was the spin put on what he had said. I have a recording of what he said on MP4; [email protected], I will forward you. I am in Diaspora, but the opportunities back home in Zambia are so immense that I could not resist attempting a few activities. I need not say much; but i can assure you its great to sit abroad and check your account blossoming.
Perception is what matters. If you think government will standup and do something for you great; keep waiting. Sata did not say come home at all costs; he said, “if all the 2000 were to do something in your respective places of origin; imagine the impact that would make on Zambia”. Yes brain drain is bad; but if we can do thing back home, we are the people to facilitate the job creation, and the like, while enjoying western passports to get us around the world without hustle.
TruthHurts
March 25, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Mmmm there is even an issue of “sensoring”; sorry twaya kanshi. Will read but not comment. thanks
TruthHurts
March 25, 2012 at 1:27 pm
If you read a book called “Rich Dad Poor Dad”; you will find what Sata said to be correct. Its not support for the sake of supporting; the problem was the spin put on what he had said. I have a recording of what he said on MP4; [email protected], I will forward you. I am in Diaspora, but the opportunities back home in Zambia are so immense that I could not resist attempting a few activities. I need not say much; but i can assure you its great to sit abroad and check your account blossoming.
Perception is what matters. If you think government will standup and do something for you great; keep waiting. Sata did not say come home at all costs; he said, “if all the 2000 were to do something in your respective places of origin; imagine the impact that would make on Zambia”. Yes brain drain is bad; but if we can do thing back home, we are the people to facilitate the job creation, and the like, while enjoying western passports to get us around the world without hustle.
Charles
March 25, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Zambian people do not appreciate local talent: Profesionals go and work where they are rewarded. It is that simple. Let your president employ Pakis as he has threatened. Biggest loser are the poor people of Zambia as the decision makers fly overseas to treat their colds
Watchman over Watchdog-Galileo Galilei is back!
March 25, 2012 at 3:01 pm
As the article states, there are push and pull factors as to why trained personel at high expense leave Zambia. You have catalogued and explained many. But to zero-in on the Botswana incident, I tend to think Sata was right. You may not like his way of speech, but truth is you guys in Botswana should have been talking ideas for the welfare of all Zambians. Not land for you, Zambians in Botswana. What about land for a Zambian in Zambia? After all you purpot to earn more money, why cant you buy land on the same terms as a Zambian back home? If you understand Sata, he threw away a letter from HH talking about HH’s properties. Sata expected a high profile leader to be talking policy issues that affect the larger Zambia. That is Sata for you. Love him or hate him, he does not know diplomacy. He speaks his mind.
Zambian in Malawi
March 25, 2012 at 3:12 pm
The problem is that we Zambians do not wish each other good.Instead of Zambians given first priority,the foreigners are. How then do you expect a well educated Zambian to stay in such an environment where his credentials are deliberately being undermined? Ba WENDO,you are very right!To some of us sages,we cant be here watching these bulldogs urinate on our laudable credentials. Those of you who want to die while watching the Titanic sinking notwithstanding the availability of lifejackets,let you be! Am in Malawi pursuing my second degree and once I graduate,I’ll fly Westwards!
From Kitwe
March 25, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Mpelembe school has been operating for close to 30yrs now. The pass rate for that school has always exceptional. We have not heard alot from students from that school, maybe because its mostly engineers the school produce who are not partaking in politics.
abyei
March 25, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Brain drain can be likened to a child whose father can not afford a good house,car and three square meals a day and this child says i will be staying with our neighbour then.Now for how long can this be feasible? I will expect this child to ponder and work hard so that next time things can turn around.Can you imagine that at independence zambian kwacha was almost 50 50 with a pound.Can you farther imagine if KK,NYERERE,NKRUMA,KENYATTA,NKUMBULA brain drained.
Legit
March 26, 2012 at 9:24 am
Zedians will continue migratn if the policies are not changed. Locals are xploited whilst foreigners are favoured & the govt turns a blind eye to all of this.
My brotha is planin 2 leave & as family we r behind him.
Godwin
March 26, 2012 at 10:13 am
Even a dog if one does nt feed it well none will stop it from migrating to other caring homes. How about a human being? Graduates are languishing in streets with good degrees, diplomas etc no jobs then an opportunity arises across the boarder or ocean and you call it brain drain, this is rubbish!!
Let Zambia have industries, Skills centers etc that will retain qualified Zambians from going out of the country other than this pipo will continue moving for greener pastures
vankestelrooy
March 26, 2012 at 12:15 pm
with what i’ve read on top, then i can safely support my presidents statement that he made in bots, coz he’s got the passion for this country.
its only zambians who can develop zambia the expatriates just come to make money from zam, go back to their homes and build their nations.
Phiri
March 26, 2012 at 1:18 pm
I am paid R25,000 per month as an Electrian in a factory here in RSA. I was trained at Lusaka trades and at Zimco instituite. I am ready to come home if i am paid the same amount and that is if that company is there. So President Sata create and biuld factories you are wasting time by apointing and firing.
Kanjani
March 26, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Ba Gerabo ebashala ku zed
mwewa
March 26, 2012 at 7:57 pm
you cant go to university only to become poor as a graduate. everybody need a descent life, period. give it to them they will come back!
ZinCA
March 26, 2012 at 9:35 pm
We treat muzungu’s better than our our own people. What do you expect? It was such an embarassment, to see the way Sata talked to Zambians living in Botswana – this is the reason we’ll never develop, and no they are not being selfish, these people want to come home often and in same and fast mannner. Waht you need to realize is that when they are home they spend money. Look at countries in West Africa, Ghana, Nigeria etc. – they all give dual citzenship to their citizens living abrorad, as a result, these people are not afraid to go back home and invest. How far ahead are they of Zambia? Ifwe ngatwaya ku Zambia, kuku chuchunganya as if teko wafyelwe. Come now!
Watchman over Watchdog-Galileo Galilei is back!
March 27, 2012 at 6:18 am
Continue lamenting. Elyo nga ni Phiri he is earning a lot of money in RSA, we expect you Mbuya Phiri to come and build a hotel in Chipata where we can eat tu mbeba. That way you shall create employment. You people must understand Zambia’s development context, from a historical point of view to now. Unemployment was accelerated when we liquidated, privatised and pruned or downsized. Chiluba knew this well and there were reasons. The situation as it is now needs men and women of valour. Men and women who can stand up to the Challenge like Prof. CHIRWA tried to do. At least he tried. Many of you in the diaspora are cry babies who should keep quiet and watch things happening.
muntu usiya
March 27, 2012 at 12:23 pm
brain drain will always be there coz of an african tendecy to glorify politicians at the expense of professionalism.think about it, the word permanent means not easily and frivolously removed, but what hapens to a permanent secretary after change of govt, your gess is obvious!!!!!!Again zambians have tendancy to espous equlity as in being and having the same materils, atributes and tastes, which is very wron. imagine i spend 20 long years and money to get the skills while the other guy is drowning himself in tujilijili,then ishud be patriotic and be hungery while de other chap is doing nothing about patriotism in jils on rocks!!!!!this is ridiculous
Watchman over Watchdog-Galileo Galilei is back!
March 27, 2012 at 1:18 pm
A policy to create technical universities where people go to learn life skills for self employment is what we need. ENTREPRENUERSHIP, INNOVATION,SUPER ENGINEERING, BIG BUSINESS GURUS and FINANCE MAGNETS is what we need.
Africa lacks men like those who could go to convince a king to give them money to go sailing around the Globe. The Ferdinand magellans, The Vasco da Gamas. The Captain James Cooks and all of them great inventors and explorers. The French man who built the SUEZ canal sweated to find financing for his near impossible task. Yet he did it. WHY CANT WE “DID” IT?
We have no risk takers yet we would make a lot of noise from a comfort zone. That is what some of you in the diaspora are doing.
khoi Khoi
March 27, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Am in SA,i send money to my mother more than her monthly salary(primary school teacher)that which i failed to do when i was in ZED.
Brain drain in Zed is a fairy tale,we hav never run short of professionals in zed,in every field,i can easly find 15 of them unemployed at a time becouse our industry base cannot accomodate them unlike SA where there is shortage of manpower.
AM
April 2, 2012 at 10:38 pm
Good effort to try to explain a complex situation but unfortunately the same things we hear time and time again which unfortunately does not carry any merit.
Why should you be given soft laons if you have emigrated to make money Zambia cannot give you?
Car loans-we do not need car loans we need to be paid well commesurate with our work hard to buy vehicles ourselves or arrange our own loans, communism left along time ago!
Mediocrity is another. Foreigners come to work here because they are paid good money, we go to work in their countries to rejoice over the crumbs they have left behind.
The only thing I agree with is disregard of local skills. This is what needs to be addressed.
I hope were you are you negotiate for good slaries instead of accepting everything that is given to you just because it is out there.
It is late I could have gone on and on. In short your research has not added any value am afraid.