The African Brains Drain - A
Bleeding on a Continental Scale

The main weakness of Africa, in terms of the
necessary move to the economic development, is
the lack of a strong manpower of local, highly
qualified individuals, engineers and academics. For
many reasons, including their persecution by local
rulers allergic to any uncontrollable intellectual
authority and to unauthorized speech, African
?brains? flee towards Western countries in search
of greener pastures. It is unquestionable that every
individual, including above all the ?brains?, is free
to seek bliss wherever s/he can find it. However,
once achieved, that happiness may be saddened by
the only news of hunger, diseases and despair
received from the mother continent Africa.
Therefore, instead of committing one?s entire life
to help fostering the development of a country of
asylum that is already developed, the first priority
should be reserved to solutions that maintain a link
of help to Africa. It would be very useful, if not
essential, for an MD that fled from his African
country to primarily seek positions with
international organizations in order to officiate as a
doctor in Africa (not necessarily in the African
country of origin) instead of taking a position in a
hospital in her/his country of asylum. All
considerations factored, a ?brain? that secures a
contract with an international organization enjoys
in Africa a buying power higher than the one s/he
could ever get for the same post in her/his Western
country of asylum. The African Diaspora of
highly qualified individuals is likely to remain the
only resource that can operate the move of Africa
to economic development. This Diaspora can
achieve this historical change only if every highly
qualified worker, engineer or academic links her/his
conception of bliss to African development. Read
more

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Ethiopia
Coffee production devastated

Cameroon:
Mongo Beti's Testimony about Cameroon's Oil

The populations do not have any official information
on this subject; they indirectly learn by the foreign
press or the World Bank that Cameroun produced
between 8 million and 10 million tons of oil each
year, for an annual income of 1 billion dollar. The
populations do not know anything about the amount
the oil revenue, which is deposited on an account of
the President of the Republic in Switzerland. These
sums are used to reinforce the dictatorship which has
significant means thus to be provided out with
weapons and to corrupt the local or foreign
politicians, even the intellectuals.
While the revenues from oil were deposited on an
account of the President, loans were granted
Cameroun, in particular in the Seventies. These debts
constitute an injustice, because the populations are
currently refunding them whereas the use of the oil
revenue would have made it possible to avoid these
loans.
That has as a consequence the vertiginous
impoverishment of the population, the
descolarisation of children, because the schools
became paying, as opposed to what the
Cameroonean Constitution envisages. Thus a third of
the children of Cameroon is not provided education,
for lack of loans the hospitals do not lay out any
more drugs, and the doctors settle in private sector.
However, Elf Company is the largest oil producer of
the gulf of Guinea, where it exploits 75% of the
crude. Read more

Nigeria: Economic and Social Rights
Prevailed in the Ogoni Case

The nine-member African Commission on Human
and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) having ruled on the
Ogoni people vs. Nigeria Government is a sweeping
affirmation of what the human rights community
calls ESC rights--defined by the UN's International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and, Cultural Rights.
The commission called on Nigeria to undertake a
"comprehensive cleanup of lands and rivers damaged
by oil operations." It must also ensure that the
social and environmental impact of future oil
development on its territory does not harm local
communities.
Human rights groups are hailing the commission's
decision as a major breakthrough in the battle for
international recognition of ESC rights, which have
long been given lesser
status--particularly by Western countries--than
political and civil rights. Read More

Economy/Finance

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AFRICA: IMF debt-relief programme under
scrutiny

JOHANNESBURG, 22 October (IRIN) - The International
Monetary Fund's
(IMF)
controversial debt relief programme came under scrutiny this
week
following an internal report showing that without further
foreign aid,
struggling economies in Africa could find themselves in a
debt trap
once
again.

In a working paper published in Washington, the IMF noted
that although
its Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative had
achieved
success
in some countries, the programme was "not a guarantee for
long-term
debt
sustainability".

The HIPC initiative was first launched in 1996 by the IMF
and World
Bank,
and entailed coordinated action by the international financial
community,
including multilateral organisations and governments, to
reduce to
sustainable levels the external debt burdens of the most
heavily
indebted
poor countries.

IMF researchers argued that while the HIPC initiative was
projected to
significantly reduce the total stock of debt, and generate
substantial
debt-service savings, the programme's emphasis on using
debt relief to
increase spending on the poor could in fact reverse
economic gains.

Debt relief campaigners have questioned the wisdom of an
exclusive
focus
on raising social spending in HIPC countries, arguing that
increased
spending on social services, such as health and education,
had not
always
been associated with improved social indicators.

This was due, in part, to inefficiencies in spending, and the
allocation
of these funds to activities that had relatively little effect on the
poor.

In 2001 the IMF suggested that a comprehensive strategy to
tackle
poverty
should focus not only on securing additional resources for
social
spending, "but on eliminating inefficiencies in these
expenditures and
reallocating funds to programmes that are most beneficial to
the poor".

Jubilee Research, an international debt-relief advocacy
group, said it
was
"unfair" that often resource-strapped HIPC countries were
expected to
spend more on poverty-reduction programmes, and
questioned whether
debt-relief savings had actually contributed to overall poverty
reduction
in HIPC countries.

"We welcome the fact that the IMF has acknowledged that
the conditions
it
places on countries under its HIPC programme are
unrealistic. We have
also
maintained that, even though debt relief under HIPC has
produced some
limited success, there remains a serious resource gap. It is
because of
this resource gap that many HIPC governments find it
increasingly
difficult to meet the demands to spend more on social
services, and
even
post-HIPC countries will experience this same shortcoming,"
Jubilee
Research senior economist, Romilly Greenhill, told IRIN.

The IMF report recommended that HIPC countries should
consider scaling
down "ambitious expenditure programmes", as an option, but
they faced
"daunting social needs".

"A tightening of spending programmes could actually generate
back-tracking
of reforms," the IMF noted.

Another recommendation to increase resources was a
broadening of the
tax
revenue base within HIPC countries. But while this was seen
as "a
worthwhile endeavour", the main drawback was the time it
would take
before
a significant impact would reflect in government coffers.
Moreover, in
some of the poorer countries, the tax base was too narrow,
with
economies
heavily dependent on largely informal activities.

The report concluded that while securing further grants from
the
international community would bolster efforts by HIPC
countries to
implement their poverty reduction strategies, this option was
not a
panacea for weak economies. A chief concern was that
some of the
countries
already "suffer" from aid dependency.

Should donors continue to financially engage with HIPCs,
these
countries
would have to promote an "enabling environment for higher
private non
debt
financing flows, for example, through foreign direct
investment," the
IMF
said.

But Greenhill stressed that further debt relief, instead of aid,
would
benefit the ailing economies.

"At least debt relief is predictable. Often, in the case of aid
donations,
although US $50 million is initially pledged, the country in
reality
only
eventually receives $20 million. The added advantage of
debt relief [as
opposed to aid disbursement] is the inherent sense of local
ownership.
Aid
often is assoicated with conditions imposed by donors, at
least with
debt
relief countries can spend the funds as they see fit," she told
IRIN.