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APRIL 12, 2024

Africa needs scientific excellence to compete globally with medical research. But a brain drain means the best leave for overseas labs, leaving the continent with a know-how shortfall.

Also in today’s edition: Prices of medicines in Nigeria have soared, Samantha Power faces Gaza protests, and the concerns raised at the Skoll World Forum.

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Africa’s brain drain

A biochemical research scientist using a microscope

Africa is betting the farm on creating a world-class health- and medical-research system that will make it self-sufficient enough to avoid relying on overseas pharmaceutical giants. It’s making incredible headway. But how will it compete if its talent heads to the very places it competes with?

Brain drain has always been an issue for low- and middle-income nations. But last month, at a regular “Scientific Happy Hour” — no drinks, alcoholic or otherwise were served at the oddly named gathering — organized by the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, the topic was front and center of discussion, writes Paul Adepoju for Devex.

Tulio de Oliveira, the new deputy director of the genomics surveillance unit at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, told the happy hour participants at Stellenbosch University’s Biomedical Research Institute in South Africa that his team had adapted and successfully used its COVID-19 sequencing platform for dengue and chikungunya.

It was big news, but those present raised significant concerns over a gaping chasm in human expertise that threatens to stunt this blossoming potential.

The continent requires more experts skilled in genomics and bioinformatics if it wants to surge ahead with its audacious expansion goals. So despite strides, a lamentable exodus of skilled scientists are heading to greener pastures, threatening progress.

“Aspiring scientists frequently seek educational and career opportunities abroad, leading to a substantial loss of talent and expertise from the continent. This talent migration, referred to as ‘brain drain,’ exacerbates the existing training gaps and hampers the sustainability of research within Africa,” de Oliveria co-wrote in a piece for the Science journal.

At a lab about 7,000 kilometers away in Nigeria, Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, described similar advances in genomic sequencing. Over the past few years, ACEGID has trained more than 1,600 young scientists from 48 African countries. But they are leaving, Happi says. “We're dealing with all these brain drain,” he tells Paul. “As we are training they are leaving and it is difficult to replace.”

Africa simply doesn’t have the financial war chest or academic opportunities to keep them.

Read: Is brain drain limiting Africa’s genomics potential?

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Nigeria’s drug perils

While pretty much every country is grappling with a cost of living crisis, when it comes to medicine, the situation is grave — a matter of life and death.

In Nigeria, medicines are becoming unattainable as prices hit staggering heights. It’s a perfect storm of factors — high inflation, a weakening national currency, hefty import duties, and the departure of multinational companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi due to foreign currency shortages.

And the repercussions are dire, writes Pelumi Salako for Devex. Some essential medications have soared by as much as 1000%, leaving many sick people frightened for their health. The crisis as usual disproportionately affects low-income earners, who must navigate Nigeria’s economic hardships while coping with illness.

Faced with exorbitant costs, consumers are left with limited options; resorting to cheaper alternatives or traditional herbal remedies. But experts caution these substitutes don’t yield optimal results and they pose health risks. In a country where life expectancy hovers at a mere 56.05 years, the inability to access affordable, quality medication compounds the challenges.

Read: Drug prices soar after pharma giants GSK and Sanofi exit Nigeria

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Skoll warnings, what can be done?

The world has seen humanitarian need more than double in the last few years. Spending has risen to address this, but the world has struggled to keep up. So what can be done about it?

That was one of the issues under discussion at the Skoll World Forum, the annual event for social innovation, taking place in Oxford, England, this week. Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth was there.

Shamil Idriss, chief executive of Search for Common Ground, a peace-building organization, laid out a five-point plan.

First, he said, don’t wait for things to go wrong, but look for ways to prevent conflicts. Search for opportunities during conflicts to find ways to stop them reoccurring. Build coalitions of people from all sides of the conflict. Engage with regimes, rather than isolating them. And seek peace-building expertise outside the usual suspects.

He talked about the important role that philanthropy can have in funding these initiatives around the immediate work of saving lives. But he also warned about the future and a growth in conflict — which by some measures is at its worst point since World War II — and how humanitarian response is now increasingly toward human-made crises rather than natural disasters.

He also warned that the United Nations, increasingly the main responder to humanitarian issues, was not designed for this role, and is coming under strain as it does more and more.

The weakness of the U.N. and its institutions, and the rise of new countries seen as having moral leadership, has been a regular theme in the discussions at Skoll this year, with several speakers arguing that change in the global governance structure is needed to make progress on the big issues the world faces.

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Palestine Power protests

As Samantha Power spoke before the United States Congress this week, dozens of red-painted hands shot up behind her. Even as she pressed for more humanitarian access to Gaza — and pushed lawmakers to ensure Israel follows through on its commitments to let aid through the territory’s borders — some 15 protesters in the gallery weren’t buying it.

One started singing about genocide as soon as Power began speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, my colleague Elissa Miolene, who was there, tells me. Another shouted as Capitol police forced her from the room, screaming that the USAID administrator had blood on her hands.

Protests occurred at both of Power’s meetings that day — one to address the agency’s 2025 budget in the House and the other in the Senate. Power, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the U.S. government has failed to act on genocide, has faced continued heat for her role within the Biden administration, and — critics say — not using her influence to end Israeli attacks in Gaza.

When asked whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law in the besieged territory, she declined to answer, stating there was a report underway from the State Department to answer that question.

But despite repeated claims that Power is complicit in genocide, she stayed cool, calm, and collected, seemingly showing frustration only while holding up her fingers in a quarter-sized circle — the diameter of children’s arms whittled to bones in Gaza.

“This is not something that can wait,” Power told lawmakers in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Food must flow. And food has not flowed in sufficient quantities to avoid this immense famine.”

ICYMI: More than half a million Gazans are a 'step away from famine'

Listen: Tune in to the latest episode of our weekly podcast series in which Devex’s Raj Kumar and Colum Lynch sit down with Aude Darnal of the Stimson Center to discuss Israel’s efforts to dismantle the U.N. main agency for Palestinian refugees and other top global development stories from this week.

USAID grant money

In 2021, Power made her bold pledge: by 2025, a quarter of USAID’s budget would be directed toward local partners. Since then, it has taken steps to solidify its localization commitment. From defining the scope of “local” to introducing a comprehensive 14-point metric for tracking progress, USAID has laid the groundwork for a future where half of its programs will be locally led by 2030.

Our data expert Miguel Antonio Tamonan delved into the data from the U.S. federal spending database to gauge how much of USAID’s total grants and cooperative agreements went to local partners in low- and middle-income countries last year.

Read: How much of USAID’s money went to local grantees in 2023?

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