HP, UNESCO launch joint project to counter brain drain in Africa

Hewlett Packard (HP) and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on Monday announced the launch of a new project "Piloting Solutions for Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa", which aims to help to reduce brain drain in Africa by providing grid computing technology to universities in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

A statement from the two organisations received in Accra said the project was launched in Paris. The project aims to re-establish links between researchers, who have stayed in their native countries and those that have left, connecting scientists to international colleagues, research networks and funding opportunities.

It said faculties and students at beneficiary universities would also be able to work on major collaborative research projects with other institutions around the world. "This project harnesses the enormous potential of information and communication technology to bring people together and to spread the benefits of research and development across the north-south divide," said the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura.

"We trust that such collaborative projects will enable us to significantly reduce the devastating effects of brain drain in developing countries," he said. "UNESCO and HP have a long-standing relationship, and we have worked together on projects throughout the world.

This new African Project builds on the success of the UNESCO-HP initiative launched in 2003 in seven countries in South East Europe to alleviate brain drain in the region," said Bernard Meric, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, HP EMEA.

The African Project was developed by UNESCO´s Education Sector in response to requests by Member States. Over the past decades, African countries have suffered greatly from the emigration of skilled professionals, scientists, academics and researchers, who are estimated to be leaving the Continent at the rate of 20,000 a year.

The Education Ministries of the countries involved, along with UNESCO, would choose the universities that would benefit from the Project. Preference would be given to university departments with important information technology components.

HP would provide equipment - including servers and grid-enabling technologies - and local human resources to the universities, as well as training and support, until the projects become self-sustainable. It would also donate PCs and monitors and fund research visits abroad and meetings between beneficiary universities.

UNESCO would be in charge of overall coordination and monitoring of activities; as well as administrative management; evaluation and promotion of results. After its first two-year implementation phase, the project may be extended to cover other countries.