A United Nations conference on stemming the emigration of African professionals opened this week in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. According to the UN Economic Commission on Africa, this brain drain proves one of the greatest impediments to African development.
Some experts estimate that at least thirty percent of Africa's skilled labor force works abroad.
According to Lalla Ben Barka, deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, every African country has been faced with high rates of unemployment and under-employment of their university graduates. This phenomenon has created a massive emigration of the intelligentsia to Europe and North America. For instance, a recent UNDP human development report stated that there were 21,000 Nigerian doctors in United States while Nigeria's health sector is afflicted by chronic lack of medical personnel. Experts place Africa's share in investment in research and development at 5 percent. Ben Barka said that Africa could not benefit from globalization unless it develops and takes full advantage of existing opportunities to adopt and utilize science and technology.