[afro-nets] Plain grain or brain drain? (3)

[Peter burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

Plain grain or brain drain? (3)
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Dear Colleagues

I agree with Santuah Niagia that it is time to move from ques-
tions to answers.

And I must say that I do not like the answer proposed. However,
there is no question that the answer lies not just in Africa,
but also in the rich nations. Bottom line is that almost every
economic transaction in the last 200 years has moved value from
Africa to the global "north". It was meant to get better with an
end to the slave trade. It was meant to end and get better with
independence and the end of colonial empire. But it has, in
fact, never ended. Huge resources are still being exploited and
exported, and local communities remaining in desperate poverty.
It is a failed situation.

Part of the answer is information... and I say part, because in-
formation without action based on the information is worthless.

Good small donors can be mobilized to support good things. But
they need to know about these good small things, and they need
to have 100% confidence that the information is valid and not
just another scam. There are thousands and thousands of good
small things all around Africa (and other parts of the
"south")... but who knows about them? Hardly anybody.

In our view, there has to be an easy way of knowing about needs
are, and what is already being done on the ground to address
needs, especially local informal activities that are not getting
resources. We need community centric information originating
from the community. At the moment almost all the information
about the situation in Africa is researched by experts and aca-
demics on short term visits to the country (well paid) who then
write it up and have it printed in Washington, or London or
Paris or some University Press. It is a value destroying exer-
cise.

Surely a better way is for local people to contribute the infor-
mation, including checking it out so that it cannot be a scam,
and getting it into a database that really tells the story of
what is going on in the community, the resources that are coming
in, and the progress that is being made. This information is the
foundation for sustainable support from people of good will in
rich countries. An essential part is the relationship between
resources being used and progress being made ... transparent ...
accountable.

How many health care workers could be paid by international
friends of Africa if there was a way of doing it easily? I sub-
mit the number is huge. How huge? I don't know.

And I will argue that in terms of efficient use of scarce re-
sources, the value is tremendous. I will argue it is 10 times or
100 times better than the way most official relief and develop-
ment assistance (ORDA) resources are used.

So why don't we do it. It would be a tremendous use of ICT.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

PS... Tr-Ac-Net is working on this as a high priority, and would
be happy to cooperate with like minded individuals and organiza-
tions that see value in such an initiative. We would have done
it more quickly but we are having to address issues like confi-
dentiality, security, reliability and so on that are not really
easy but are now very essential.

--
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel.: +1-212 772 6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
With Kris Dev in Chennai India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com