Downgrading Knowledge Reason For African Brain Drain Panafrican News Agency <http://www.africanews.org/PANA/news> February 23, 2000 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - A regional director for the International Development Research Centre in Africa Wednesday argued that Africa's brain drain problem was a result of the act of "downgrading" knowledge on the continent. Sibry Tapsoba, called for a voluntary approach to "improvising knowledge generation" conditions in Africa in order to slow the flight of trained manpower. Tapsoba, regional director for West and Central Africa, highlighted at the conference on Brain Drain and Capacity in Africa what he termed the link between "brain drain" and the general value attached to knowledge in any given society. "In Africa, it appears as if we are doing everything to downgrade knowledge. In fact, those who seem to possess it are sidelined and even persecuted," said. He noted that Africa was spending less and less on higher education system, and research laboratories in many Africans countries are in a state of decay "with equipment and documentation material not regularly renewed." Tapsoba pointed out that Africa cannot possibly keep its best "minds" if countries continue to pay less for top researchers and skilled. But he noted that the development of a country is built on the basis of the "best people that can be mobilised." He stated that this was particularly so in this day and age of development based on technology. "When wars are not making living conditions impossible for populations, we are doing everything possible to keep the best minds out of Africa. In fact, it may seem that we are more secure when they are not in the country, and then complain that they have left," he explained. Tapsoba said that "to keep African brains in Africa requires a voluntary approach to improving knowledge generation conditions and policies." He added that Africa at present lacks the necessary human capacity to compete with the other continents "in this new era of technological development, where skilled human resources are at the core of development." He observed that the problem of "brain drain" was not just a simple matter of migration, but "it is the migration of what Africa has best to compete in this very sophisticated and technological society." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------