Should I Stay or Should I Go? Maximizing the Contribution of Higher Education to Development in Africa

International Conference, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University

Montreal, March 19-20, 2015

Since at least the 1960s, a number of programs have enabled promising students from developing countries to attend institutions of higher education in the global North. In many cases, these programs have sought to equip students to contribute more effectively to development in their own countries. The expectation, if not the formal requirement attached to such funding, was that alumni of these programs would return to their home countries for a minimum period of time. Their return was seen as the surest way to contribute to building needed human resources within developing countries while minimizing real and perceived “brain drain”. In the context of the Cold War, these returning students were seen as ideal ambassadors for the merits of competing lifestyles and political systems, which in turn helped legitimize large government expenditures for these programs, in both the East and West.

Today, the world is markedly different, and arguably more complex. Globalization has integrated national economies in unprecedented ways, through free trade agreements and largely unfettered capital flows, as well as more integrated global labour markets for highly educated people. It is no longer a given that Africans should study in the North, and funders increasingly are focusing their resources on enabling students to study in Africa. Regardless of where they study, the options available to highly educated Africans have grown, contributing to the emergence of “multi-directional brain flows” between the global North and South, including a growing number of students from developing countries who are able to fund their own education. The educational and career paths for African students are more fluid than ever before. Their ability to contribute to development in their home countries similarly reflects new options. These include the influence they may exercise from abroad through remittances, to the ways globalization has contributed to the ability of immigrants to rise to positions of power and influence in the North: roles that can have profound impact on the development prospects of their countries of origin.

Yet despite these trends, fundamental issues relating to the scarcity of skilled labor remain as true today as they were in the 1960s for many developing countries, as the Ebola epidemic reminds us. Indeed, there is an ambiguous mix of change and continuity which suggests that now is an ideal time to reconsider the basic assumptions undergirding past and current donor policies regarding how highly educated people from the global South might best contribute to the development prospects of their home countries. While both funders and scholarship recipients generally share the same goals, it is important to learn more about the factors that determine access to scholarships, the opportunities available to scholars to give back to their communities, and the role that funders, program implementers and educators can play in helping scholars to do so.

Conference Schedule

Thursday, March 19:

15:30-16:00: Welcome

Philip Oxhorn, Founding Director, Institute for the Study of International Development
Robin McLay, Director, Research, Strategy and Learning, The MasterCard Foundation
TBA

16:00-18:00: Inaugural Session: The Voice of Experience

William Otoo Ellis, Vice-Chancellor, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

Aissatou Diajhate, IREX-West Africa Regional Manager, Mandela Washington Fellowship- Young African Leaders Initiative

Chisanga Puta-Chekwe, Deputy Minister at Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration

Discussant and moderator: Michael Hawes, Chief Executive Officer Fulbright Canada

18:00-19:30 Reception

Friday, March 20:

9:00-10:45 Panel 1: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Find Out? Context, History, and Ongoing Research

Joan Dassin, Brandeis University
Aryn Baxter, Arizona State University
Mirka Tvaruzkova, Institute of International Education

Moderator and Discussant: Andre Costopoulos, McGill University

10:45-11:15 Break

11:15-13:00 Panel 2: The Experiences of Those Who Benefit Directly: Perspectives from the Scholars

Jackie Bagwiza Uwizeyimana, MasterCard Foundation Scholar, McGill
Jonathan Chirwa, MasterCard Foundation Scholar, McGill
Fatima Al Ansar, MasterCard Foundation Scholar, Trinity University, Connecticut
Emmanuel Mudakenga, World University Service of Canada scholar, the founder of African Trade Organisation (ATO), and McGill

Discussant and Moderator: Shona Bezanson, The MasterCard Foundation

13:00-1400 Lunch Break

14:00-15:45 Panel 3: Listening to Those Who Make It Possible: Funder Perspectives

Mary E. Kirk, Director, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Tillie Shuster, Canada Campaign Director, Rhodes Trust
Leanne Cooper, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development

Discussant and Moderator: Jorge Balan, Columbia University

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-17:45 Panel 4: The Experiences of Those Who Benefit Indirectly: Perspectives from Development Practitioners

Dolores Dickson, Camfed Uganda
Geraldine J. Fraser-Moleketi, African Development Bank
Jaya Murthy, UNICEF-Uganda

Discussant and Moderator: Khalid Medani, McGill University

Conference Themes

1	How do African scholarship recipients understand their potential contributions to the development of their home societies? Does this differ among students who study in their home countries, in other African countries, or in the global North?
2	To what extent do scholarship recipients create their own opportunities for contributing to the development of their home societies?
3	To what extent do funders and institutions provide opportunities and guidance for scholarship recipients so they can contribute optimally to the development of their home societies?
4	What factors determine access to scholarship programs and how can funders increase access?
5	What factors determine the direction of brain flows, do they vary over the course of an individual’s stage in life, and how do these impact development possibilities in Africa?
6	Who is and is not finding employment in Africa? What can funders and educational institutions do to help students better integrate themselves into job markets?
7	For African students studying abroad, what role can social networks play in maintaining student ties to their home countries, helping them identify and exploit opportunities there? What approaches are funders and institutions taking with respect to building and maintaining alumni networks?

Speaker Biography

Biographies of Speakers

Jorge Balan

Dr. Jorge Balán is a Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. He was previously on the faculty of major research universities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the US and Canada, where he held appointments with the universities of Texas, Chicago, Dartmouth College, New York University, and the University of Toronto.

Between 1998 and 2006 he was Senior Program Officer responsible for the higher education research and policy portfolio at The Ford Foundation in New York, with major grant making responsibilities in the US and internationally, a member of a four-foundation team involved in the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa since its inception in 2000.

Dr Balan has published extensively in the fields of comparative higher education, academic and labor mobility, sociology of the professions, migration and urbanization, and social stratification. His recent publications on higher education include Latin America's New Knowledge Economy: Higher Education, Government, and International Collaboration, editor, New York: IIE, 2013; Research Universities in Asia and Latin America, co-editor, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007; and Politicas de Reforma de la Educacion Superior y la Universidad Latinoamericana Hacia el Final del Milenio. Mexico: UNAM, 2000.

Jackie Bagwiza

Jacqueline Bagwiza Uwizeyimana is a MasterCard Foundation Scholar at McGill University majoring in Anthropology and International Development Studies with interest in African women, Arts and Leadership. She is a Co-author for a book chapter of an upcoming book series Leadership for a Healthy World “Creative Social Change”: Women and Leadership in Rwanda 20 years of transformation: Evolving Values and Current Challenges, A volume in ILA Building Leadership Bridges series (BLB) published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley. she has provided research assistance on a research project on Women in Agricultural Development in Rwanda conducted by Dr. Myriam Gervais, Adjunct Professor and FemSTEP Director at McGill University and Dr. Eliane Ubalijoro PhD, Professor of Practice at McGill University as part of a phase I Innovations in Feedback & Accountability Systems for Agricultural Development Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Exploration grant. She has worked on many projects to motivate and encourage women and girls in her homeland Rwanda and elsewhere to engage in self-leadership. She led a workshop on the theme of “the Power of visual Art” for the students participating in the International Baccalaureate World Students Conference for the promotion of International Human Rights at McGill 2014. She presented and Exhibited “Art as Healing” on Growing up in post Genocide Society: the Challenges of Young Rwandan Women using auto-ethnography. Jacqueline uses her art to depict and suggest strategies to overcome the challenges young women face.

Aryn Baxter

Aryn Baxter is an international educator, researcher, and scholarship program administrator with a longstanding interest in the intersection of international education and socioeconomic development. As Director of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at Arizona State University, she leads a team that recruits, selects, and supports the transitions and leadership development of 120 undergraduate scholars from across sub-Saharan Africa. Aryn holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Development Education from the University of Minnesota. Her research examines the transformative potential and limitations of international scholarship programs and focuses on the experiences of mobile students in transnational education spaces.

Shona Benzason

In her role as a Program Manager on the Education and Learning team, Shona supports a portfolio of Scholars Program partners and leads several different initiatives within the team. Prior to joining the Foundation, Shona spent eight years working overseas in the child protection in emergencies sector. She has led programs for Save the Children in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad. She also worked for Right To Play and The Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees implementing programs for vulnerable children and youth in refugee camps in Thailand. Shona is particularly interested in themes of leadership, gender and youth engagement and is passionate about creating opportunities for all young people to realize their full potential. Shona completed a Masters’ degree in International Development Studies at Dalhousie University and a Bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science at Mount Allison University.

Jonathan Chirwa

Jonathan Chirwa was born and raised in Malawi. He is currently a first year science student enrolled in the Biomedical & Life Sciences program at McGill University. He was recently awarded a MasterCard Foundation Scholarship to complete his undergraduate studies at McGill University. Before studying at McGill he volunteered as a mathematics teacher at one of the secondary schools in his community and served as the Vice President of a community youth organization, Initiative for Change. His passion for the academic development of youth has inspired young minds to aim to change their economic status and enhance their way of life for a better future. He aspires to not only change the working mentality of the youth in his community at a local level, but also to address the limited accessibility of medical services and health care that are available to Malawi citizens. With the help of the MasterCard Foundation Jonathan can now build an academic foundation for entry into the field of Medicine, and work towards his goal of implementing important social change in Malawi

Leanne Cooper

Leanne Cooper is the Deputy Director, Education, in Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). She was previously with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which merged into DFATD in 2013. She manages a program that includes funding to Canadian universities and NGOs implementing basic education and higher education projects in developing countries, along with two scholarship programs: The Canadian Francophonie Scholarship Program and the African Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Fund, commemorating Nelson Mandela.

Leanne joined CIDA in 2000. She has a broad range of international development experience, including 6 years (2002-2008) on the Mozambique and Southern Africa Regional programs, where she managed a portfolio of agriculture and rural development projects. As well, she spent 3 years (2008-2011) working on CIDA’s Business Modernization Initiative. Prior to joining CIDA, she worked in project administration on education projects in the Caribbean and in Asia, for a private sector consulting company.

Joan Dassin

Since July 2014, Dr. Joan Dassin has held the position of Professor of International Education and Development and Director of the Sustainable International Development Program at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. At Brandeis, Dr. Dassin teaches courses on Education and Development, Education for Development and Conflict Transformation, and International Youth Policies.
During the 2013-2014 academic year, Dr. Dassin was a a visiting researcher at the Centre for Latin American Studies and St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, where she worked on a study of how educational opportunity for young people in the developing world leads to personal empowerment and social transformation. The study is based on her experience as the founding Executive Director of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), a global scholarship program that operated from 2000 to 2013, enabling more than 4,300 social justice leaders in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Russia to pursue graduate-level studies at the world’s top universities.
In June 2011 Dr. Dassin received the Marita Houlihan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Education from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, an independent organization with more than 10,000 members. Between 1988 and 1996, she served as the Ford Foundation’s Regional Director for Latin America and Country Representative, Brazil Office, based in Rio de Janerio. Dr. Dassin has given many interviews in national and international media and has published articles and books on social justice in international education, leadership development, human rights, and freedom of expression.
Dr. Dassin earned a PhD from Stanford University in Modern Thought and Literature and has been the recipient of three Fulbright Scholar Awards for teaching and research in Brazil

Aissatou Diajhate

West Africa Regional Manager for the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), implementing agency for President Obama’s Young African Leaders’ Initiative (YALI)

Ms. Diajhaté is an International Development professional, with experience in several areas including Education and Health, Youth Engagement and Capacity Building and Organizational Development. She has managed partnerships with government organizations, academic institutions, funding agencies and community-based organizations. She has designed and facilitated the implementation of programs focused on the education and full participation of women and youth in rebuilding their communities. Her mission is to facilitate transformative interventions that alleviate poverty and lift victims and survivors to a position of leader and change agent.

Aissatou Diajhate has served as Director of Programs for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a Toronto based HIV/AIDS grant making Foundation overseeing programs and capacity building initiatives in 15 African countries. As well, Aissatou served as Director of Admissions for Suffolk University campus in Dakar Senegal, overseeing recruitment initiatives in Africa. Most recently Aissatou worked at the MasterCard Foundation where she managed the Scholars Program with universities in the US and Canada. Born and raised in Senegal, Ms. Diajhaté has studied and worked in the USA, Canada and Africa. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Spanish from the University of Dakar and a Master’s Degree in Development Administration (MDA) from Western Michigan University.

Dolores Dickson

Executive Director, Camfed Ghana

Dolores Dickson has over 12 years’ experience working in the development sector. She joined Camfed Ghana in 2007. She is a member of the Camfed International Executive team and has led high-level dialogue with the Ministry of Education including the signing of an MOU with the government, the development of a gender policy for education and the review of the Education Strategic Plan. She is currently providing advisory services to the Government of Ghana on the design and delivery of it secondary scholarship programmes.

Prior to joining Camfed she worked for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the UN Headquarters in New York and the British Red Cross Society in the UK. She completed an MA in Development Studies at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Dolores holds Executive Education certificates in Programme on Performance Management for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations (PMNO) and Women and Power from Harvard Kennedy School.

In 2013, Dolores contributed to the first Skoll World Forum online debate with an article on: ‘Applying a Silicon Valley mindset to social innovation.'

Dolores sits on the board of various social enterprise organizations.

Geraldine J. Fraser-Molekti

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi is Special Evoy on Gender of the African Development Bank (AfDB) as from September 2013. She previously served as Director of the Democratic Governance Group of the United Nations Development Program. Ms. Fraser-Moleketi oversees UNDP’s efforts to increase good governance practices in countries worldwide. Ms. Fraser-Moleketi was appointed to the group’s directorship in January of 2009, after 14 years in the South African government, including nine years as Minister of Public Service and Administration A former member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, Ms. Fraser-Moleketi was one of ten South Africa ministers who resigned their positions in September of 2008, after the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki.

Ms. Fraser-Moleketi’s experience with global and local issues was forged in South Africa and outside her native country. She spent ten years in exile from South Africa beginning in 1980, when she left for Zimbabwe to join the African National Congress, which was the main opposition group during South Africa’s apartheid period. During her exile, Ms. Fraser-Moleketi worked in areas of Administration, Communications and Development, received military training, and became a member of the South African Communist Party. In 1990, with the unbanning of the African National Congress, Ms. Fraser-Moleketi returned to South Africa, where she established the first legal national office of the South African Communist Party. She was elected to, and served on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress from 1998 until 2007. Born in Cape Town to a father who was a teacher and a mother who was a factory worker, Ms. Fraser-Moleketi has a Masters in Administration from the University of Pretoria, and was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Micheal Hawes

Dr. Michael Hawes is a professor of political science, a tireless advocate of international education, and a proud alumnus of the Fulbright program. He is Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States of America, Executive Director of the Canada - U.S. Fulbright Program, and Executive Director of the Killam Fellowships Program. Under his direction Fulbright Canada has witnessed dramatic growth in its programs and in the number of students and scholars that the program supports.

Since 1985, he has been a professor of international relations (currently on leave) in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston. He has held fellowships and visiting professorships in Canada, the U.S., Japan, Mexico, and Sweden. He currently chairs the board of the Institute for Studies in International Development at McGill University, is a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, and is a member of the ACSUS Advisory Board.

Mary E. Kirk

Mary E. Kirk is the Director of the Office of Academic Exchange Programs in the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Ms. Kirk, who assumed her position in September 2012, comes to the State Department with extensive experience and leadership in the international education/exchanges field.

Ms. Kirk previously served at the Institute of International Education (IIE) for over twenty years, including as Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Eurasia, based in Budapest and Moscow, Executive Director of the Fulbright and Academic Services Division, Vice President for Student Exchanges and Senior Counselor for Academic Exchanges. Before joining IIE in 1989, she served as a program officer at IREX for the Graduate Student/Young Faculty Exchange Program with the USSR Ministry of Higher Education.

As the Director of the Office of Academic Exchange Programs, Mary Kirk is responsible for directing the worldwide Fulbright Program for students and scholars and overseeing other key State Department academic exchange programs, including the Critical Language Scholarship Program, Study of the U.S. Institutes, the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program, and the YALI Washington Fellows Program.

Ms. Kirk holds degrees in history from Harvard University and Oxford University (Somerville College).

Khalid Medani

Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani is Associate Professor of political science and Islamic Studies here at McGill University. Prior to his arrival at McGill, Dr. Medani taught at Oberlin College and Stanford University. Dr. Medani received a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University, an M.A.in Development Studies from the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Medani has published on a wide variety of topics related to Islam and politics including the role of Islam and informal networks in Egypt, Islamic banking and civil conflict in Sudan, and the role of migration, informal finance and Islamic militancy in Somalia, and the role of Islam and youth in the politics of the Arab uprisings. Dr. Medani has also worked as a researcher on Islamic topics at the Brookings Institution and at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). He has also served as a consultant for a variety of international development organizations and governments on issues related to Islamic politics in the Middle East and Africa including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), US AID, the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, the Canadian IDRC, and the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway.
In August 2007 Dr. Medani was named a Carnegie Scholar on Islam by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Jaya Murthy

Jaya has 13 years of international humanitarian/development experience with UNICEF in Uganda, Iraq, Somalia and DRC (’07-present), UNHCR in DRC (’04-’07), and NGOs in Ghana that included work across West Africa (’02-’04).
He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Communications (’93-’00), including his Masters degree from McGill's Graduate Program in Communications (’98-’00), where he completed his Master’s thesis Evolution of the Internet and its Impact on Society (’00).
He has also published on the Responsibility to Protect in Oxford’s Forced Migration Review (’07) and Tufts’ Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (’07) and currently joins us from his current post as Chief of Communication with UNICEF in Uganda.

William Ooto Ellis

Professor William Otoo Ellis is the 9th Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi Ghana – West Africa. He had his first degree in Biochemistry from KNUST and his Ph.D. in Food Science from McGill University – Montreal, Canada.
After his studies, he went back home to join the service of KNUST in 1993 as a Lecturer and rose through the ranks to become a Full Professor in 2007. He has served in several capacities at KNUST including being the Hall Master of both Unity and University residential Halls. He has and continues to serve on several statutory and non-statutory committees and boards of the University. He was also the Head of the Biochemistry and Biotechnology Department from 2003 – 2007, and served two consecutive two-year terms as one of the youngest Pro Vice-Chancellors of KNUST from 2007 – 2010 until he was appointed Vice-Chancellor (or President) of the University in 2010.
Professor Ellis is a distinguished scholar with several publications; (journal articles, refereed/edited conference publications, technical reports, and book chapters/handbooks). He is also well exposed and has co-ordinated several national and international research projects together with other scientists. He has won training grants for international research training programmes with other international scientists to build the capacity of young scientists.
Externally, he has worked as adjunct faculty for some universities; served as external examiner/assessor to some national and international institutions and organisations and continues to serve on boards/committees of national and international organisations. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Vice Chancellors Ghana, the umbrella body of all Vice-Chancellor or Presidents of State Universities in Ghana.

Professor Ellis is married and has two lovely daughters.

Chisanga Puta-Chekwe

Chisanga Puta-Chekwe attended Sir William Borlase School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, before studying law at the University of Birmingham in England. A Rhodes Scholar, he received graduate degrees in law from the University of London, and in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

In 1994, he served as adjudication officer and United Nations observer support officer monitoring the South African election, and in 1996 served as election supervisor in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He served as Executive Director of Oxfam Canada between 1997 and 1998.

Chisanga Puta-Chekwe was the founding Chair and CEO of the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal.

In 2004 he was named Executive Chair of Ontario’s Social Benefits Tribunal and remained in that capacity until assuming the responsibilities of Country Manager for Zambia for the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals Limited.

In 2009 Chisanga Puta-Chekwe became Deputy Minister for Citizenship and Immigration as well as Women’s Issues in Ontario. In July 2013 he was given additional responsibilities as Deputy Minister for Seniors’ Affairs, taking on further responsibilities as Deputy Minister for international trade in 2014.

Chisanga Puta-Chekwe is president of the Masomo Education Foundation, a charity that helps young women and men attain higher education in Zambia.

Chisanga has published an essay on the universal declaration of human rights and is also the author of An Election to Remember, a book about the 1994 South African election, and Getting Zambia to Work.

Tillie Shuster

Tillie Shuster is a fundraising executive with over 20 years experience leading the growth and success of charitable organizations across Canada, New York City and currently as Canada Campaign Director for the Rhodes Trust in its $150 million capital campaign. She has led the Advancement Offices of independent schools and universities, as well as been a “hands-on” consultant and project manager often helping organizations move beyond stalled campaigns by recruit high performing staff, establish new and successful fundraising initiatives and engaging leadership in support of mutually agreed goals.
Ms. Shuster has lectured on non-profit best practices in both New York and Canada, published articles and presented at local and national forums and co-founded and held senior Board and volunteer posts for organizations in education, health, housing, employment, and justice. She holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University, Bachelor degrees from the Universities of Calgary and Alberta.

Mirka Tvaruzkova

Mirka Tvaruzkova leads the evaluation team in the Research and Evaluation Division at the Institute of International Education (IIE). Mrs. Tvaruzkova specializes in quantitative and qualitative evaluation of international education programs, with a specific interest in higher education and international scholarships and fellowships. At IIE she has managed evaluations for several clients including the Alcoa Foundation, Cargill Foundation, U.S. Department of State, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Mrs. Tvaruzkova is currently the Project Director of a ten-year alumni tracking study of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP). She is also leading a quasi-experimental study of the comparative effects of IIE’s Higher Education Readiness (HER) Program in Ethiopia. In her prior work Mrs. Tvaruzkova worked for the Aguirre Division of JBS International, an evaluation consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. She has also worked with the UN Millennium Villages Programme and the Open Society Justice Initiative. Mrs. Tvaruzkova received her Masters of International Affairs (MIA) from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

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