| |
|
 |
Report
shows brain drain cost country dearly
BRAIN DRAIN COSTS
AFRICA $4 BLN ANNUALLY: UNDP |
 |
| |
ADDIS
ABABA(April 29,2007) -
Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4 billion in the
employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually where Ethiopia
is among those countries in Africa which suffer the most , a United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report revealed last week.
"300,000 professionals reside outside Africa. Ethiopia lost 75
per cent of its skilled workforce between 1980 and 1991. This large
exodus of qualified Africans is a huge burden on the African economy.
African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise,
UNDP Administrator Kemal Deris, said at the ILO 11th International
Conference here.
Dervis said that since the year 1990, Africa has been losing 20,000
professionals on a yearly basis.
"To fill the human resource gap created by brain drain, Africa
employs up to 150,000 expatriate professionals at a cost of $4 billion
a year," he told the meeting.
He said brain drain, coupled with the loss of trained professionals
due to HIV/AIDS, "erodes the valuable human capital critically
needed for economic growth and human development,"
Dervis said there was a widespread consensus that unemployment represents
one of the greatest challenges to the development of the continent,
"turning the current pattern of growth into pro poor, employment
centered growth is vital if extreme poverty is to be halved by 2015,
he noted.
Economic policies need to focus on employment generation as the critical
link between growth and poverty reduction," he said.
Deris said the living conditions of Africans in connection to the
world overall per capita growth for the first time since 1960's, has
been growing at a rate slightly exceeding world economy standard.
"Despite these welcome advances, growth in sub Saharan Africa
remains below the levels of other developing regions, and even in
those countries that have seen considerable economic growth, this
has not so far had much of an impact on poverty levels.
"The recently released World Bank 2007 global monitoring report
indicates that sub Saharan Africa remains the poorest developing region
in the world, with about two fifths of its people living on less than
$1 a day," he said.
|
| |
|
