Speeches and Talk
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Migrant Communities and Development: Transfer of Skills and Knowledge

The situation in the field of education in Africa:

  • Ageing teaching staff and no replacement of retired or deceased
    persons while it is a condition imposed by the institutions of
    Bretton Woods regarding structural adjustments of developing
    countries; 
  • Lack of teaching personnel and emigration due to lacking
    opportunities cause a growing gap between the demand and the supply
    of teachers in vital sectors for development, such as health,
    economy, social affairs ... 
  • Lack of documentation or of personnel teaching with modern
    scientific skills; coupled with many not-qualified teachers or
    teachers with insufficient skills; 
  •  Incapacity of the governments, in particular the Ministry
    of Education, to respond to the request or structured plan for
    training of teachers.

The lack of teachers has a direct influence on building national
skills in order to respond to the challenges of the socio-economic
development of the African countries. The lack of resources able to
develop and implement the development plans and plans aiming at
fight against poverty create the “vicious circle of
non-development" through missing policies and actions of good
governance, of good and balanced management as well as measurable
objectives, etc.



Why using transfer of skills and knowledge ?

  • The transfer of skills is new solution aiming at reinforcing
    the capacities of African public and private institutions, through
    the mobilisation of Africans living abroad.
  • Well managed, these transfers could create an added-value in
    searching for viable solutions in the sector of education: faster
    rhythm and increased number of teachers taking part in the
    education; but also in all sectors where human resources are
    missing: health, rural development, financial management, etc.

Example of the MIDA programme

  • The overall objective of the MIDA Programme is "to use the
    experience, knowledge and, if possible, the financial means or
    other resources, of the African diasporas for the socio-economic
    development of their countries of origin".
  • The Programme “Migration for the development of
    Africa” (MIDA) is a capacity building programme aiming at
    developing potential synergies between the profiles of the African
    migrants and the needs of African countries, by facilitating
    transfers of skills and other vital resources of the African
    diasporas to their countries of origin. It is based on the concept
    of mobility of the people and the resources and, in this way,
    offers options of reinvestment of the human capital, in particular
    in the form of sequential temporary returns, long duration or
    virtual.

Strategy applied:

  • Types of transfers:
    • physical transfers: with short-term visits, longer stays and
      permanent returns;
    • virtual transfers: telecommunication/services at distance;


  • Impact of these transfers: in order to maximize the impact, it
    is necessary to have a broader field of intervention than
    exclusively high education. That’s why the support to the
    private sector which allows the creation of local jobs would
    increase the positive impact on the development. The impact is also
    felt on the level of the reorganization of official structures and
    the national, provincial and local procedures, supporting amongst
    other things the autonomous and decentralized management, which is
    close to the citizens.
  • On the level of the country of origin: the elaboration of lists
    containing the main needs in terms of human resources is an
    essential pre-condition within the framework of the transfer of
    skills. A regional management of the transfers is an additional
    asset because it allows the renewal of the teaching practices and
    building synergies among educational programmes implemented in the
    same region or country. The needs shall be analyzed in view of the
    long-term impact of an intervention. This analysis requires a
    multi-sector approach. The intervention of the diasporas within the
    higher education or the health sector requires a review of the
    organization of the sector, an evaluation of the financial means,
    an investment in the infrastructures, a policy for national
    mobility facilitating the circulation of doctors, etc. The Africans
    from abroad could intervene on various levels: educational,
    administrative, organizational or to support the finalization of
    national development plans
  •  In the countries of origin and destination: The creation
    of databases to facilitate the provisions of human resources of the
    Africans from abroad is also a key element. These databases enable
    to put demand and supply in correlation. The reason for the success
    of the MIDA Programme is that actors and beneficiaries could easily
    access the mechanism and information quickly. The possibility to
    inscribe "online" is an essential tool within this framework. It
    allows a better appropriation of the mechanism by the national
    structures trained in managing the databases and the
    mechanism.

Consequences

  • The volunteers from the African diasporas see in the temporary
    transfers an opportunity to contribute to the development of their
    country of origin without losing the advantages (residence permit)
    obtained in the host country.
  • Advantages of the transfers of skills: to develop the capacity
    to “reproduce” officials by training in short and
    long-term; the impacts can be measured through the number of
    graduates and/or trained officials.

Results of the MIDA Great Lakes programme

  • Within the framework of MIDA GL, it was observed that the
    programme created working practices and ideas that continue to
    exist till today. The relations between the African volunteers and
    the employers in the countries of origin continued through
    internet. 
  •  MIDA GL: over a period of 20 months: more than 190
    qualified Africans took part in a total of 221 physical transfers
    (111 Congolese, 80 Burundians and 30 Rwandan). The level of
    education of the MIDA volunteers is very high (approximately 80% of
    the 46% of the transfers allowed the reinforcement of the academic
    sector in the three countries, whereas 21% were related to the
    health sector, 31% to rural development and 2% to management
    structures, either centralized or decentralized.




How to increase the impact of the transfers of knowledge?



The method of the e-learning

  • The e-learning is a way to respond to the lack of university
    teachers noted in some disciplines because of the brain drain and
    the ageing teaching staff. It can cause also a renewal of the
    teaching practices and thus be a growth factor in the quality of
    higher education.

Some examples of partnerships for the e-learning in Africa


  • MIDA GL: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in
    collaboration with the MIDA Programme organized a course of
    anesthesiology at the University of Lubumbashi, DRCongo, including
    the provision of the necessary equipment (15 computers).
  • MIDA GL II: IOM, in collaboration with the National University
    of Rwanda (UNR) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
    organized a Round Table Discussion at Butare, Rwanda (31 January
    – 1 February 2006) on "Information and Communication
    Technologies in the field of Education (TICE) and the role of the
    diaspora”. Partners: Agency of Universities from French
    speaking countries, UNESCO, The Institute of The World Bank and the
    Interuniversity Council of the French Community in Belgium. The
    round table resulted in recommendations and an action plan, shared
    at national and regional levels to be implemented in 2006 and 2007
    with all relevant international partners.
  • The African Virtual University: Initially created within the
    framework of a project of The World Bank, it became an independent
    intergovernmental organization, with its headquarters in Nairobi.
    The African Virtual University takes part in the reinforcement of
    the capacities through face-to-face teaching and e-learning in more
    than 57 training centers of 27 African countries.
  • On 26 January 2006, the Minister for Higher Education and
    Universities of the DRC, the President of the African Virtual
    University and the Vice-chancellors of the Congolese universities
    handed over the first diploma achieved through studies via
    elearning. Thanks to a videoconference, a professor of the
    University of Limoges, France, took part in this ceremony. This
    year, more than 30 Congolese students follow a bachelor or a master
    studies via e-learning.

Challenges:



Technical challenges

  • To have computer terminals in a sufficient number. A minimum of
    infrastructure is a precondition to envisage e-learning; 
  •  Monopoly of the operators and the unilateral fixing of
    the costs in terms of network; 
  •  Maintenance of the infrastructure.

Political challenges

  • Necessity of the beneficiary countries to take this kind of
    transfers in their hands; this ownership is necessary in order to
    ensure the sustainability of the whole process;
  • Necessity for the beneficiary countries to inscribe the
    transfers and their follow-up within their annual national
    budgets
  • MIDA GL is a programme that intended the integration of its
    concept and of migration, in general, in the PRSP. The 3 countries,
    DRC, Rwanda and Burundi are inserting the model into their PRSP
  • To create interuniversity agreements within the same country,
    to develop regional exchanges in the context of a South-South
    co-operation or with the international institutions: Agency of
    Universities from French speaking countries, African Virtual
    University, UNESCO, IOM etc
  • To create a network of the diasporas living in the developed
    countries and the experts in the countries of origin in order to
    improve the sustainability of education programme and as a
    consequence retain talents, labour force, and prevent skills and
    knowledge to leave their countries 
  • To create synergies between the various organizations working
    in the field of elearning and the diaspora in the developed
    countries
  • Use the conclusions of the meeting of Tunis (World Summit on
    the Information Society 2005) to reinforce the capacities of the
    countries of origin.
  • To measure the impact of this type of teaching within the
    policies of university education, PRSP etc... 
  • Support of the academic and governmental authorities