Living with a ‘leaking’ bucket…

Every Zambian accepts that as a nation we are suffering from the brain drain problem. A lot of our best young men and women are sadly abroad and are using their skills to aid already richer Governments. Zambia’s development story is one of filling a leaking bucket. The more we educate our youth, the more we leak these fine individuals to the global economy. The Government can try and ensure the pool of educated Zambians improve, but until we find ways of accommodating the leaks we won’t develop at the pace that we need to lift our people out of poverty.

A number of solutions have been put forward to try and address this problem. They range from actively discouraging people by exposing them to the consequences of living abroad to more hard talk from Government. The President on one his tours to the UK once remarked that “people abroad are cowards”, simply as a way of trying to invoke that inner patriotism that would somehow get these individuals to go back and take up jobs at home.

It’s clear that these approaches have not worked and cannot be expected to work. They are built on the wrong presuppositions of what drives the brain drain problem. People are not abroad due to lack of patriotism, the reason is purely economic. It comes down to incentives. At the individual level, we are all trying to do what is best for ourselves and our families. If we can get a better job (even any job) abroad to help feed our families and look after our people in the villages back home, why not? Secondly, some people are abroad because they cannot entrust their welfare and those of their families in the hands of the current Government. It is possible that the current uncertainty of our political institutions with respect to the rule of law, undefined constitutional rights, culminating in weak Governance makes it difficult for people who are used to express and work in an unhindered way to go back and reside in Zambia. Finally, at the macro level, Zambia is a small ‘open’ economy in an increasingly interdependent world.

Zambia like many other developing countries in the global pond surrounded by big fishes must accept that this is bound to happen as countries continue to compete for scarce resources.
Having accepted this reality, and the impossibility of reversing or halting the trend in a global and interdependent world, the natural question is what can Government do to help cushion its impact? I believe the answer lies with finding ways of living with a leaking bucket. We cannot throw the bucket since it is our only one, we must finding ways of accommodating the leakage. A sort of the third way that focuses on tapping into the expertise that is outside Zambia without necessary asking people to come back home.

How could this ‘third way’ work? Well lets take for example X who is a economist, if the Government asked X to go back today, he is more likely to refuse because the personal benefits to X being abroad outweigh his personal benefits being at home in Zed. In economics this is a type of a market failure problem since the private benefits to the individual or being abroad are less than the social benefits of him being in Zambia, generating a ‘suboptimal’ outcome for our Zambian society. But if they asked X to lend Government a month each year to offer advice, X would readily do that because the personal costs of doing are probably outweighed by the personal gains [personal gains include his feel good factor for helping his people etc]. The key condition here is that this action comes at very little cost to X (since X need not quit his job to help Zambia). If the Government could find ways of allowing X to engage in the process at the limited cost, he would probably do it. This is the same for doctors abroad and people in other fields.

In my view, the Government needs to think of creative ways in which people can contribute to development without necessary asking them to move back. This could be through external forums, monthly programmes like above, or easing the way Zambians abroad invest back home. There's a lot the Government can do and should be doing to get around the brain drain problem. But the onus does not rest on Government only. It also rests on Zambians abroad. We need to start pushing Government to move towards this framework. A small network could clearly demonstrate to Government that its citizens are proactive and are thinking through issues.

A recent suggestion put forward by a Zambian abroad is to use a model based on the South African Network of Skills (SANSA). SANSA aims to links skilled people living abroad, in various domains including academic, cultural and commercial, who wish to make a contribution to South Africa's economic and social development and connects them with local experts and projects. As that Zambian pointedly notes "I believe that the business case for developing nations like Zambia to build a framework such as SANSA is compelling. The financial muscle of nationals living and working away from home cannot be ignored or underestimated…..Zambians living abroad can impart knowledge gained from their vast exposure to the outside world. They can provide consulting services in technology, medicine, real estate and business. The Diaspora can relay its knowledge on what skills are pertinent in meeting today’s global employment needs, they can provide information on college scholarships, they can make available research papers, provide social commentary, promote tourism – the list is endless. In turn members of the Diaspora can be kept abreast with real time events and opportunities in Zambia; what bills are going through parliament, opportunities for investment and employment, social trends etc" .

My question to Zambians abroad is – when are you going to do your bit to help our country live better with the leaking bucket ? When are you going to wake up and start lobbying Government to start thinking of creating such a framework?

I strongly plead with you to reflect on these thoughts, and consider getting in touch with like minded Zambians to create such a framework. Let us start today, for we are the Guardians of today, not of tomorrow.