The UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard Pilot Project to Reverse Brain Drain to Brain Gain in Africa

As the UNESCO has stated, the ‘brain drain’ has yet to be stemmed, since it continues to deprive the developing countries and those in transition, of the high-level expertise necessary to accelerate their socio-economic progress. Efforts must be directed towards a process of ‘brain gain’ through collaboration programmes that, by virtue of their international dimension, enhance the building and strengthening of institutions and facilitate full use of endogenous capacities.

In this contexts, the two-year project UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard Pilot Project to Reverse Brain Drain to Brain Gain in Africa, launched in November 2006, aims to help reduce brain drain in Africa by providing grid computing technology1 to universities in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe (Grid Computing lets you bring together all your heterogeneous computing resources and allocate them efficiently to form a virtual supercomputer on which users can work collaboratively). Technology represents a powerful tool in facilitating brain gain or brain circulation. It has the potential to help create environments for the sharing and exchange of knowledge among scientists who remained in their home country and those in the Diaspora. But more importantly, access to joint research and development collaboration and to the worldwide distributed scientific community through high performance technology could prove to be a strong incentive for experts to continue to work in their home country.

The African project brings together five institutional projects selected from a wide range of impressive proposals in disciplines ranging from biotechnology to renewable energy: Réseau virtuel des énergies renouvelables, Algeria; Mobilizing the Ghanaian Diaspora for Renewable Energy Research and Development, Ghana; Strengthening Local Biotechnology Capacity in Tissue Culture through ICT-based Research and Training Collaboration with Nigerian Scientists in the Diaspora, Nigeria; Mise en place d’une grille de calcul à l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) de Dakar, Senegal ; and The Energy-Technology-IT Interface : Developing and modelling sustainable biomass-based energy systems in Zimbabwe.

The project provides equipment, including servers and grid-enabling technologies, training and networking opportunities as well as operational funds.

One of the major achievements to date is the setting up of a grid node at the UCAD. The UCAD’s grid node is the fruit of a joint effort by the UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard project and the Grid Computing Institute of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is the first Sub-Saharan African component of EGEE (Enabling Grids for E-sciencE), the grid infrastructure created in 2004 by the European Union to develop cooperation on a global scale for many scientific applications. Launching this first link represents an important step in bridging the digital divide between North and South. It will facilitate international scientific cooperation for Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole and for in particular. Thanks to this link, scientists at the University of Dakar now have access to considerable information technology resources.


Other expected outcomes of the UNESCO/Hewlett-Packard project include: the five institutions are connected to networked resources in Africa and beyond; virtual organizations formed and effective R&D collaboration in place, independently of the geographical location; exchange, mentoring, and collaboration with the African Diaspora; an infrastructure established for highly skilled people to address high priority local issues; and thereby complement existing efforts to stem the loss of skilled manpower from participating African countries.

2006; complete