It costs $60,000 to train a doctor or $12, - 15,000 to train a nurse or allied health professional in Africa. When you consider the fact that 20,000 health professionals are leaving Africa every year - the financial implications are enormous.

It is with this in mind that Africa Recruit a London based organisation that links Africans abroad with jobs at home held an African Diaspora health conference - mobilising healthcare professionals and resources for capacity building in Africa.

The turn out was impressive with a wide cross section of people attending both working in the public and private sector. There were also high level guests such as Mary Robinson - President of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative & Former President of Ireland and Dr. Mohan Kaul Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council.

Mary Robinson in particular highlighted the way in which the diaspora can continue to enhance the growth of their home countries - while she was Irish President she put a candle in the kitchen window of her official state residence for all those Irish people who had left home to tell them that their country still awaited them. The symbolic gesture was astounding - during her presidency the Irish economy turned around taking it into Europe and making Dublin one of the most vibrant and dynamic capitals in the world. This was largely in part due to the effect of the diaspora investment.

It is well documented that Africans in the diaspora are committed to remittances and send money home regularly. In fact some countries economies are bolstered by these remittances. However, it has become clear that the involvement needs to be increased.

In the industrialised nations, countries such as the UK are also getting concerned with the number of health professionals that they feel they are gaining from countries that can literally not afford to lose them. Creative initiatives need to be established to understand not just the ‘pull factors’ luring people to countries such as the UK, US etc. but also the ‘push’ factors that are luring people away from countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.

The answers that came out of this conference were not always the obvious ones. Apart from the issue of money many health professionals were lured away from Africa countries for things like -
- continuing professional development
- in order to do research that they might not be able to cary out in their home countries
- to develop opportunities they see abroad
- for personal reasons such as joining spouses and so on

On the other hand factors that ‘pushed’ professionals away from their home countries included
- lack of professional encouragement and poor government policies
- crime and insecurity
- political unrest
- tribalism

The inequalities faced by African health professionals was sometimes astounding. One such example was given by Dr. Adboulaye Bagnou the Co-ordonnateur of the Cabinet du Premier Ministre in Niger. Dr. Bagnou as a public Servant earns just $400 a month while his assistant whose job is funded by the WHO earns $5000 a month. This is a clear example of how some of the ‘push’ factors can operate.

Some of he creative solutions that were being offered at the conference are already being practised. Programs that allow health professionals to work in their home countries for up to 3 months at a time are being devised though at present more often than not in the private sector where is there is more flexibility.

Other programs include cross cultural exchanges allowing health professionals from African countries (such as Malawi) to come and work in the UK for a brief time while UK NHS staff go to work in Malawi simultaneously. This enhances both continuing professional development, learning and dialogue.

One thing was clear form the conference and that is that Africans in the diaspora still have their hearts at home. As they continue to make their global mark - they are looking for inspiration that will allow them to translate it into a reality for a continent they dearly love.