Published by the government of Zimbabwe
14 May 2008
Harare — CHINHOYI University of Technology has been selected among five universities in Africa to spearhead a project designed to reverse the effects of brain drain on the continent under the Unesco-initiated "Pilot Solutions for Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa".
The project will see CUT leading other national institutions in facilitating the creation of knowledge in a way that benefits both Zimbabwe and the countries receiving its professionals.
The other selected universities in the project, that is being sponsored through a partnership between Unesco and Hewlett Packard, are in Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.
The project gives preference to research that addresses relevant technological and scientific areas that are pivotal to the development of both the host and sending countries.
In a statement, Unesco said CUT has completed the initial phase of the project, which entailed the familiarisation and ownership of the brain gain concept as well as technological training.
It said the university project staff were confident that it has taken off and
everything was going according to schedule.
Based on the same concept as the World Wide Web, the project will build virtual networks using Grid Computing which allows the sharing of processing and storage of huge amounts of data.
"Ideally, the project reverses brain drain through mobilisation and internationalisation of human capital in the global economy to enable both the sending and receiving countries benefit from the skills and experience of migrating professionals," read the statement.
Although Chinhoyi University is spearheading the project, the objective was to nationalise the project by getting a total institutional buy-in by involving other universities in the country.
"To this end, CUT recently took on board other universities in the country inviting them to take part and benefit from the project. Presentations of the project to vice chancellors of universities were taken in March.
"Multi-disciplinary teams have been put in place to drive the project at institutional level as well as linking up local and international partners," it read.
Key stakeholders in the project are Zimbabwean professionals in the Diaspora, local academics and students as well as local and international partners.
The Zimbabwe Academic and Research Network will be the local partner while the African Network of Scientific and Technical Institutions, African Energy Policy Research Network and the International Council for Science Regional Office for Africa will be international partners.
Brain drain is a global phenomenon, which has been associated with loss of skilled human capital labour. Preferred destinations are the United States of America, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, among others. An estimated 500 000 skilled Zimbabwe are in the Diaspora while nearly 20 000 skilled people leave Africa annually.
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