Ghana lost 12,365 Health Professionals 1993-2002 (5)
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Dear Friends:
I will put the root causes of Africa's brain drain in the fol-
lowing order: Bad governance and poor pay, period.
If you have undemocratic, horrible and unaccountable government,
all bad things will follow automatically. The late great African
American jurist, Justice Thurgood Marshall, stated that if the
Gods do not like you, they first give you a corrupt judiciary.
Since I am not too qualified to talk about politics, I will
stick to economics: poor pay.
In Africa, the average pay for an educated middle class worker
is perhaps US$ 300.00 per month. A physician in USA can make, on
the average, US$ 7,000 to US$ 10,000 per month in the teaching
hospitals. Some of these physicians are Africans and they are
doing pretty well. If, for example, Ghana pays newly minted phy-
sicians from Legon and KNUST about US$ 1,500 per month, plus ac-
commodation, I am sure a lot will opt to stay at home. The same
applies to the other disciplines. Take the university professors
as an example. An associate professor makes about US$ 6000 - US$
10,000 per month at the middle to top research universities Out
of this amount you pay local, state and federal taxes, mortgage,
tuition for your kids, etc., and you will be left with a net of,
say, US$ 4,000. We have not yet deducted all the imputed costs
of the disamenities, such as, life in the cold weather, absence
of any meaningful contacts with your friends and family back
home, and the guilt from 'abandoning' your mother land. I guar-
antee you that professors, for a pay of US$ 1,000 per month, +
or - subsidized accommodation will likewise opt to be in Africa.
Do the math: estimate all the physicians we will need to staff
the hospitals and clinics and the professors we will need at the
universities in Ghana in a year, multiply by the estimated an-
nual incomes stated above, and you are talking a couple of mil-
lions. For example, if Ghana needs to employ a 1,000 lectures (a
very ridiculous number for a year) next year and 1,500 physi-
cians (a more realistic number) next year, we are talking about
a total of US$ 39,000,000. This is a very low number compared to
the cost to society of all the diseases that go untreated, im-
pacts on productivity, personal and household income, etc. Add
to that the cost of poor human capital due to lack of qualified
professors. The cost benefit ratio of the above proposal is ob-
vious.
Why is the IMF/World Bank not proposing such a simple solution
to attract and retain our qualified expertise? I have no idea.
Your guess is as good as mine. They are willing to hold long
conferences on the causes of the brain drain rather that propose
solutions to this important problem. How many experts in the di-
aspora -- physicians and professors and technical folks, are in-
vited to these conferences? Has anybody ever circulated a simple
questionnaire asking the experts in diaspora how much they are
willing to forgo of their privileged lifestyles or willing to be
paid in (US$ 400, US$ 500, US$ 600.......US$ 2,000) etc.,) per
month to move to Ghana? Please try asking these questions at
your next meetings, and you will be surprised at the response.
Comments invited.
Regards,
Edward Mensah, PhD
Professor
Chicago, USA
mailto:dehasnem@uic.edu