Page 317 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

Obstacles to progress

Distortions

You will see from the “m’zungu memories of NGO in Africa” in this volume just how much
DfID/FCDO need to take responsibility for UK people's small time INGO involvement in

Africa. Small time INGO resources can play a significant role in African development. To

achieve this, DfID/FCDO needs to provide the sort of leadership that is completely missing
at this time.

A leadership that can be implemented 'overnight' and without DfID/FCDO ever having
to leave their central London offices !

***** ***** *****

The Brain Drain

Researching this topic has been one of the most dispiriting tasks involved in assembling
this narrative.

The idea of a brain drain from poor countries to richer ones has been long understood
and acknowledged. However, in recent years the debate seems to have shifted to a sense

of it’s actually not all bad because poor countries get some benefits in terms of

remittances from their diaspora' and the like.
The really sad thing about this is that

• it assumes that poor countries are willing partners in this 'exchange'

• it reduces the concept of a brain drain to a 'cash transaction', a form of barter

• It also channels the debate on this issue into the realm of macro-economics, and in
doing so largely ignores the massive impact a continuous brain drain has on poorer

countries’ ability to build their own domestic robust professional institutions.

The reality is that recent Ebola and Covid-19 epidemics have shown just how badly
resourced many African countries’ health systems are - and no amount of macro-

economic calculations compensate for this.
And yet time and again across different issues affecting the development of the LIDC

countries, reports produced by different professionals from different academic disciplines

make reference to how the lack of robust institutions in these countries is a major
impediment to their development.

There is widespread recognition that the conditionality built into Structural

Adjustment Programmes have had a deleterious impact on poorer countries - not just in
key areas such as health and education services, but also in exposing domestic business