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Should I Stay or Should I Go? Brain drain versus promoting African development

Published: 11 March 2015

Since the 1960s, a number of programs have enabled promising students from developing countries to attend institutions of higher education in the global North with the goal of equipping them to contribute more effectively to development in their own countries. But, how do African scholarship recipients today 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?

The McGill Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) with the support of the MasterCard Foundation will bring together global experts to debate the principal challenges faced by funders and scholars alike at its conference, Should I Stay or Should I Go? Maximizing the Contribution of Higher Education to Development in Africa. The two-day event will be held at the McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St., Montreal, on March 19-21, 2015.

Speakers include:

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

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

Michael Hawes, Chief Executive Officer Fulbright Canada

Thierry Zomahoun, Current President and CEO, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Group

Dolores Dickson, Camfed Uganda

Geraldine J. Fraser-Moleketi, African Development Bank  

Jaya Murthy, UNICEF-Uganda

Available for French interviews: Aissatou Diajhate, IREX-West Africa Regional Manager, Mandela Washington Fellowship- Young African Leaders Initiative

Shona Bezanson, MasterCard Foundation  

MasterCard Scholars Jackie Bagwiza Uwizeyimana, Jonathan Chirwa, and Fatima Al Ansar

What:              Conference: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

When:             March 19-21, 2015

Where:            McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St., Montreal

Full program: https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/seminars-and-conferences/march-conference-2015.

The conference will be translated simultaneously in French

“After decades of experience with scholarship programs, the rise of “multi-directional brain flows” between the global North and South and the growing role of Southern diaspora communities in the North make it an ideal time to reconsider the basic assumptions undergirding policies regarding how highly educated people from the global South might best contribute to the development prospects of their home countries,” says ISID Founding Director Philip Oxhorn.

More about ISID: https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/

 

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