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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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The brain drain dilemma in Southern Africa: The case of Zimbabwe
| Panel |
6. Zimbabwe: Callenges and Opportunities
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| Paper ID | 235 |
| Author(s) |
Mushonga, Munyaradzi
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | While the brain drain of skilled manpower is a universal problem, and a dilemma for many countries in southern Africa, for Zimbabwe, it is now a cancerous disease that has reached unmitigated levels. Skilled manpower is pouring out of the once prosperous and the once famed Africa’s bread-basket at alarming rates. This paper examines the phenomenon of displacement in southern Africa through the window of the brain drain. It uses Zimbabwe as its case study, and looks at the country’s education and health sectors, both private and public. It examines the extent to which dramatic differences in salaries, perks, allowances, and conducive working environments on the one hand, and low remuneration, political persecution, runaway inflation, declining currency exchange regimes and inadequate funding on the other hand, among others, can account for this massive flight in human resources. The paper also looks at the main regional and overseas destinations of this phenomenon of the brain drain, as well as the fate of the remaining professionals (the walking dead). The paper will also examine the consequences of the brain drain for Zimbabwe’s education and health sectors, as well as regional implications and impact. Possible ways of dealing with the phenomenon of the brain drain will also be examined. |
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