Kampala — UGANDA is among African countries most hit by 'brain drain', the emigration of skilled workers to rich countries. In 2000, one in five Ugandans who finished tertiary education, or 21.6%, left for greener pastures, according to the just released report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Brain-drain went down compared to 1990, when almost one in three Ugandan professionals left the country. Nevertheless, it is still higher than in other countries of the East-Africa Community.

Rwanda and Burundi lost 19% of their skilled people in 2000, while Tanzania saw 15.8% of its intellectuals move abroad.

Overall, brain drain from the least developed countries went up from 16.5% of tertiary educated people in 1990 to 21.4% in 2000. Gambia tops the list in Africa: 64.7% of its educated people left in 2000, followed by Somalia (58.6%), Eritrea (45.8%), Mozambique (42%) and Sierra Leone (41%).

Both pushing and pulling factors are to blame, says the report. "In countries of origin, the main reasons for emigration of qualified personnel are limited employment possibilities, poor working conditions and weak career paths."

In addition, it points at slow economic growth, rapid population growth, political instability and conflict, the low pay and the widening gap between earnings in poor countries and rich countries for the same careers.

At the same time, there is an increasing demand for skilled manpower in industrialised countries. This, the report says, is due to an ageing population, the information technology revolution, which calls for more computer and ICT engineers, and shortages in certain jobs which people in rich countries shun, such as nurses, teachers, technicians, electricians and plumbers.

Countries both lose and gain from the migration of skilled persons, the report points out.

They lose in terms of human resources, considered to be the basis for economic, technological and social development. "Out-migration of skilled persons can impose severe economic and social costs in sectors such as health," says the report.

This is more so in countries where the number of skilled personnel is already limited. A case in point is the emigration of doctors to the US.

"In 2002, there were 175 Ugandan doctors living and practising in the US, compared to 722 in the whole of Uganda."

"This might not be a problem if the stock of doctors remaining in their country of origin was sufficient to meet the needs, but this is not the case," the report says.

It points out that Uganda has only three doctors per 100,000 people, much lower than the African average of 13 per 100,000.

Countries, however, gain in terms of the money people in the Diaspora send back to their families. Uganda's remittances from abroad doubled in the past seven years, from $238m in 2000 to $500m today.

Total remittances for the least developed countries went up dramatically in the past years, totaling $67b in 2005, the report notes.

"They have grown faster than foreign direct investment and official development assistance over the past decade, increasing by close to 10% per year between 2001 and 2005."

Interestingly, unskilled workers tend to send more money home than skilled workers.

"Qualified emigrants have higher earnings abroad than unskilled ones but are more likely to become permanent immigrants with weaker links to countries of origin.

Eventually, this leads to smaller remittances", according to the report.

Other possible benefits are higher enrolment in tertiary education in the countries of origin, 'brain gain' and technology transfer through the return of emigrants and the creation of business, trade and knowledge linkages between emigrants and home countries.

Those positive effects, however, occur only once countries have reached a certain level of development and economic growth, the report notes.

"That situation is obviously not the one prevailing in the least developed countries. Those countries are therefore the most likely to suffer from brain drain rather than benefiting from the positive effects associated with migration."