418 nurses left Uganda in 2003
By Martin Luther Oketch
July 9, 2004
KAMPALA- Statistics available at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council indicate that some 418 nurses and midwives left the country for work in other countries.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development Mr Ralph Ocan has said.
This was in a presentation made for him by the director of Labour, Mr Claudius Olweny at Hotel Africana in a sanitation seminar for the nurses and midwives who want to work in England yesterday.
�Information available at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council indicates that as of October 31, 2003, it had 33,831 members. Out of this 12,580 were serving the public in state managed institutions.
A total of 418 nurses and midwives are reported to have left for work in other countries. The rest are either employed in the private sector, self-employed or unemployed,�� Ocan said.
He said on average 1,400 nurses and midwives qualify every year from institutions. Unfortunately, the domestic labour market cannot absorb them all.
He said the Ministry is in the process of formalising migration of labour by establishing modalities through bilateral agreements and regulatory framework with other countries.
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
Mwaami Ssemakula,you have just dissected the issues that this
article pretends to solve.
Everyone is most stable where they and only extrenous forces push
them away from their put positions.
If the AU,like her predecessor the OAU had just gotten all these issues
right,these utopian desires for compensation of the brain drain would
actually be a stilborn issue.
The biggest problems facing the continent of Africa is not lack of compenstions for the wrongs committed against our ancestors but rather
lack of proper responsible,responsive and acccountable governance.
Should these be cultivated in the place,I am sure there will be no room for Africa to accomodate all her professionals.
Thank you.
Kipenji.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
J Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sounds like throwing good money after bad.
If nothing else, in this pipe-dream the powerfull influence of PUSH-FACTORS in an individual's decision to emigrate.
IF these so called poor countries had freedom of speech, true democracy, progressive governance, respect for human rights, security, transparency, accountability, merit-based access to jobs & services, etc, it would not much matter how poor they are: home is home, and most of us prefer it to anything else.
Instead, what do we exprerience? Technical know-who ~ secterianism that has been perfected to a science by Museveni (anyone recall a popular song that has a chorus to the effect all good jobs are held by Banyankole?) ~ cronnyism, insecurity and wars that last decades, autocracy masquarading as pseudo-democracy, shameless and massive corruption everywhere, life-presidents with "a-vision" -- whatever that is, greed, patronage based political systems, lack of institutionalizing anything that smacks of true national interests -- self-interests always being d
isguised
as "national interests", etc, etc.
No amount of money can get rid of the above.
Such deficiencies are due to real poverty in character in the crooks that manage to grab power in Africa from time to time.
Economists tell us that capital (money) is a coward, but so, it would seem, skill with gainful employment potential.
Does any of this take a rockect scientist to figure out?
----Original Message Follows----
From: Owor Kipenji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ugnet_: Poor states to get brain drain pay-AU.(Is this one of those utopian ideas yet again from the Continent???)
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:46:19 +0100 (BST)
Poor states to get brain drain pay - AU
By Paul Udoto
June 4, 2004
NAIROBI � Developing countries, which lose their health professionals to rich countries, will be compensated under a new deal.
Health Assistant Minister Gideon Konchella said members of the African Union won the concession from rich member states of the World Health Organisation.
The two groups struck the deal at the just ended 57 World Health Assembly. Konchella led the Kenyan delegation, which included the Director of Medical Services, Dr James Nyikal and three senior officials from the Ministry of Health.
�The African Union pushed the agenda of compensation as one voice and we will jointly negotiate the terms like the European Union does,� he said.
He was briefing journalists recently at his Afya House office, Nairobi, about the resolutions reached during the WHO meeting held in Geneva from May 17 to 22.
Other key issues discussed at the assembly included scaling up HIV treatment, improving reproductive health, road safety ad tobacco control.
Konchella said it was now the government's job to negotiate alongside other African states on how they can be compensated for spending on training doctors and nurses.
Kenya was elected to the WHO board for this year, a post to be held by Dr Nyikal. Dr Kenneth Chebet, the National Aids and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme director, was appointed the Aids coordinator for the Commonwealth Secretariat for East, Central and Southern Africa and will be based in Arusha.
Delegates at the assembly also resolved that WHO would regulate the migration of health professionals for rich nations to �offset the effects of migration on health systems in developing countries�.
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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