The Journals
Project
Poverty in Africa…
- is not only about shortages of basic resources - water, food,
and medicine. In many rural areas one of the biggest problems
is a shortage of knowledge, training and expertise
- It has been recognised for some time that the poverty reduction
schemes that work best are small-scale, locally-based and targeted
at the needs of a particular community. But locally-based programmes
need locally-based experts - doctors and health workers, engineers,
agricultural advisers, administrators.
- Some African men and women manage to obtain professional
training of this sort, in their own countries or abroad…
- But what happens when they return to pursue their careers?
For example, a doctor, farm advisor or administrator in the
developed world can expect:
- opportunities for further study - to which the professional
or technician in rural Africa has no access
- colleagues with whom to share ideas and interests - while
the African in a remote rural area may work completely alone
- access to professional journals to keep him/her in touch
with new developments in the field - which neither those working
in Africa nor their institutions are able to afford.
The African professional is, too often,
intellectually isolated.
It's not surprising that many professionally-trained Africans
emigrate to wealthier countries, find other jobs, or insist on
working in the major cities where there's more support for their
work.
Meanwhile, the rural areas remain deprived
of the skills and expertise they need to make poverty reduction
schemes work.
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Project home page.