The situation in the field of education in Africa:

• Ageing teaching staff and no replacement of retired or deceased
  persons while it is a condition imposed by the institutions of
  Bretton Woods regarding structural adjustments of developing
  countries; 
• Lack of teaching personnel and emigration due to lacking
  opportunities cause a growing gap between the demand and the supply
  of teachers in vital sectors for development, such as health,
  economy, social affairs ... 
• Lack of documentation or of personnel teaching with modern
  scientific skills; coupled with many not-qualified teachers or
  teachers with insufficient skills; 
•  Incapacity of the governments, in particular the Ministry
  of Education, to respond to the request or structured plan for
  training of teachers.

The lack of teachers has a direct influence on building national
skills in order to respond to the challenges of the socio-economic
development of the African countries. The lack of resources able to
develop and implement the development plans and plans aiming at
fight against poverty create the “vicious circle of
non-development" through missing policies and actions of good
governance, of good and balanced management as well as measurable
objectives, etc.



Why using transfer of skills and knowledge ?

• The transfer of skills is new solution aiming at reinforcing
  the capacities of African public and private institutions, through
  the mobilisation of Africans living abroad.
• Well managed, these transfers could create an added-value in
  searching for viable solutions in the sector of education: faster
  rhythm and increased number of teachers taking part in the
  education; but also in all sectors where human resources are
  missing: health, rural development, financial management, etc.

Example of the MIDA programme

• The overall objective of the MIDA Programme is "to use the
  experience, knowledge and, if possible, the financial means or
  other resources, of the African diasporas for the socio-economic
  development of their countries of origin".
• The Programme “Migration for the development of
  Africa” (MIDA) is a capacity building programme aiming at
  developing potential synergies between the profiles of the African
  migrants and the needs of African countries, by facilitating
  transfers of skills and other vital resources of the African
  diasporas to their countries of origin. It is based on the concept
  of mobility of the people and the resources and, in this way,
  offers options of reinvestment of the human capital, in particular
  in the form of sequential temporary returns, long duration or
  virtual.

Strategy applied:

• Types of transfers:
  • physical transfers: with short-term visits, longer stays and
    permanent returns;
  • virtual transfers: telecommunication/services at distance;
    
    
    
• Impact of these transfers: in order to maximize the impact, it
  is necessary to have a broader field of intervention than
  exclusively high education. That’s why the support to the
  private sector which allows the creation of local jobs would
  increase the positive impact on the development. The impact is also
  felt on the level of the reorganization of official structures and
  the national, provincial and local procedures, supporting amongst
  other things the autonomous and decentralized management, which is
  close to the citizens.
• On the level of the country of origin: the elaboration of lists
  containing the main needs in terms of human resources is an
  essential pre-condition within the framework of the transfer of
  skills. A regional management of the transfers is an additional
  asset because it allows the renewal of the teaching practices and
  building synergies among educational programmes implemented in the
  same region or country. The needs shall be analyzed in view of the
  long-term impact of an intervention. This analysis requires a
  multi-sector approach. The intervention of the diasporas within the
  higher education or the health sector requires a review of the
  organization of the sector, an evaluation of the financial means,
  an investment in the infrastructures, a policy for national
  mobility facilitating the circulation of doctors, etc. The Africans
  from abroad could intervene on various levels: educational,
  administrative, organizational or to support the finalization of
  national development plans
•  In the countries of origin and destination: The creation
  of databases to facilitate the provisions of human resources of the
  Africans from abroad is also a key element. These databases enable
  to put demand and supply in correlation. The reason for the success
  of the MIDA Programme is that actors and beneficiaries could easily
  access the mechanism and information quickly. The possibility to
  inscribe "online" is an essential tool within this framework. It
  allows a better appropriation of the mechanism by the national
  structures trained in managing the databases and the
  mechanism.

Consequences

• The volunteers from the African diasporas see in the temporary
  transfers an opportunity to contribute to the development of their
  country of origin without losing the advantages (residence permit)
  obtained in the host country.
• Advantages of the transfers of skills: to develop the capacity
  to “reproduce” officials by training in short and
  long-term; the impacts can be measured through the number of
  graduates and/or trained officials.

Results of the MIDA Great Lakes programme

• Within the framework of MIDA GL, it was observed that the
  programme created working practices and ideas that continue to
  exist till today. The relations between the African volunteers and
  the employers in the countries of origin continued through
  internet. 
•  MIDA GL: over a period of 20 months: more than 190
  qualified Africans took part in a total of 221 physical transfers
  (111 Congolese, 80 Burundians and 30 Rwandan). The level of
  education of the MIDA volunteers is very high (approximately 80% of
  the 46% of the transfers allowed the reinforcement of the academic
  sector in the three countries, whereas 21% were related to the
  health sector, 31% to rural development and 2% to management
  structures, either centralized or decentralized.

How to increase the impact of the transfers of knowledge?



The method of the e-learning

• The e-learning is a way to respond to the lack of university
  teachers noted in some disciplines because of the brain drain and
  the ageing teaching staff. It can cause also a renewal of the
  teaching practices and thus be a growth factor in the quality of
  higher education.

Some examples of partnerships for the e-learning in Africa

• MIDA GL: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in
  collaboration with the MIDA Programme organized a course of
  anesthesiology at the University of Lubumbashi, DRCongo, including
  the provision of the necessary equipment (15 computers).
• MIDA GL II: IOM, in collaboration with the National University
  of Rwanda (UNR) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
  organized a Round Table Discussion at Butare, Rwanda (31 January
  – 1 February 2006) on "Information and Communication
  Technologies in the field of Education (TICE) and the role of the
  diaspora”. Partners: Agency of Universities from French
  speaking countries, UNESCO, The Institute of The World Bank and the
  Interuniversity Council of the French Community in Belgium. The
  round table resulted in recommendations and an action plan, shared
  at national and regional levels to be implemented in 2006 and 2007
  with all relevant international partners.
• The African Virtual University: Initially created within the
  framework of a project of The World Bank, it became an independent
  intergovernmental organization, with its headquarters in Nairobi.
  The African Virtual University takes part in the reinforcement of
  the capacities through face-to-face teaching and e-learning in more
  than 57 training centers of 27 African countries.
• On 26 January 2006, the Minister for Higher Education and
  Universities of the DRC, the President of the African Virtual
  University and the Vice-chancellors of the Congolese universities
  handed over the first diploma achieved through studies via
  elearning. Thanks to a videoconference, a professor of the
  University of Limoges, France, took part in this ceremony. This
  year, more than 30 Congolese students follow a bachelor or a master
  studies via e-learning.

Challenges:



Technical challenges

• To have computer terminals in a sufficient number. A minimum of
  infrastructure is a precondition to envisage e-learning; 
•  Monopoly of the operators and the unilateral fixing of
  the costs in terms of network; 
•  Maintenance of the infrastructure.

Political challenges

• Necessity of the beneficiary countries to take this kind of
  transfers in their hands; this ownership is necessary in order to
  ensure the sustainability of the whole process;
• Necessity for the beneficiary countries to inscribe the
  transfers and their follow-up within their annual national
  budgets
• MIDA GL is a programme that intended the integration of its
  concept and of migration, in general, in the PRSP. The 3 countries,
  DRC, Rwanda and Burundi are inserting the model into their PRSP
  2 
• To create interuniversity agreements within the same country,
  to develop regional exchanges in the context of a South-South
  co-operation or with the international institutions: Agency of
  Universities from French speaking countries, African Virtual
  University, UNESCO, IOM etc
• To create a network of the diasporas living in the developed
  countries and the experts in the countries of origin in order to
  improve the sustainability of education programme and as a
  consequence retain talents, labour force, and prevent skills and
  knowledge to leave their countries 
• To create synergies between the various organizations working
  in the field of elearning and the diaspora in the developed
  countries
• Use the conclusions of the meeting of Tunis (World Summit on
  the Information Society 2005) to reinforce the capacities of the
  countries of origin.
• To measure the impact of this type of teaching within the
  policies of university education, PRSP etc... 
• Support of the academic and governmental authorities