Brain Drain in Zambia

Brain Drain, perhaps not the most commonly used term in daily vocabulary. However if you are lucky enough to be a student of the professors who teach International Relations and Social Studies, you’re likely to come across that term at some point. In short terms, Brain Drain is the emigration of skilled labor from developing countries to developed countries. It is a growing problem where the developing countries disadvantage from having their skilled workers lured away, hence draining their brain. We thought it might be something to investigate, and seeing that it’s a current problem in Zambia whilst KG at the same time operates the Zambia group, we decided to make this our third year project.

Poverty, corruption, lack of sanitation, fatal diseases such as HIV and malaria are quite well known problems of many countries in Africa. In this case Zambia is no exception. It is in fact one of the poorest countries in the world. And in addition, a great number of the people who make it through the school system (which is in fact difficult) are subject to the concept of Brain Drain. That’s to say, they choose to leave the country once they are qualified for work, such as engineering and teaching. Both in developing countries such as Zambia and developed countries such as Sweden, the tasks are for the most part similar, with respect to the present environment of course. But it’s here the emphasis on the subject lies.

 If a person has the opportunity to select a location of employment with the choices of countries like Sweden and Zambia, it’s not too difficult to conclude which spot will be chosen. This is with regard to the fact that Zambia is one of the globes most negatively affected countries in terms of wealth, while Sweden on the other hand is the exact opposite. We did in fact interview a man who lived through this system and moved to Sweden; Mr. Lushomo Mundenda Elijah. 



In Sweden, today’s youth have a wide range of opportunities regarding education. Students have the luxury of taking re-exams should they fail the course. In Zambia however, it’s a bit different. Students practically compete with each other subconsciously. The system in Zambia is basically set up to weed out “slackers” and welcome the “smart people”. The way it’s judged is through having annual National Tests which encompass all subjects and were you to fail; you are expelled from the school, quite a comfortable privilege for the average Swedish student in that respect.

Primary school has recently been shifted from years 1–7 to the years 1–9. In other words, it is an improvement. An improvement because they had always had to shorten the number of people, the amount of classes, and the number of years of which someone can be educated. When you reach high school the hope is that about 80% of all students who initially started since 1st grade have been expelled. However, if it happens that a majority of the students pass, they still have to continue dismissing students until at least 80% of them are gone. As Mr. Lushomo himself devised it, in other states of practically the same living standards as Zambia, the criteria is very different where a pass, in for example Angola would be considered a fail in Zambia.

(If you’ve kept reading up to this point you’ve officially proven yourself as a dedicated student of International Relations and Social Studies. Mr. Bäckström will most likely be happy!)

It seems as if we here in Sweden take education for granted, whilst in Zambia it is always a struggle. Acceptance into high school has always been considered a privilege. Nowadays however, the problem has shifted from lack of schools to lack of accessibility. And instead of focusing on education the government shifted its priorities and directed them towards private investors so it’s not difficult to see why education has become such a struggle. Those who will receive the best education that can be used both nationally and internationally are the few that can afford the private system. As a result, the gap between people attending public schools and private schools is huge as the difference of students range up to be thousands.

Accordingly, those who wish to achieve a successful career have to do either two things. Move out of the country or work corrupt. For the majority of Zambians none of these choices are possible. They will instead have to struggle to achieve any form of work, to earn enough money to support family and these terms apply to all members of the family regardless of age or sex.

The “intellectuals” are then the most needed in the country and are therefore used in the private sector, which rarely ever contributes to the Zambian standard of living. Yet today this is the case. The country is also plagued with an internal drain where the Zambian private sector, fused with corruption, takes upon the same role as the developing countries in terms of immigrating skilled labor.

It appears that Zambia has many structures to overcome and Brain Drain is quite an important one but the question is – How? As brought up in this article, there are many conditions that set up a basis for Brain Drain in Zambia. And this is where our investigation comes in. A pamphlet extending the content of this article is the final part of the project. It will of course involve possible solutions but also practical things such as interviews with various people such as the head of MSU (The Moderate Youth) Kasper Gieldon, and KUR (Kungsholmens Young Leftists) Babak Mostafaee are included, all with the aim of assisting us conclude how to end Brain Drian in Zambia.

As he retells the story of his life, Mr. Lushomo of Uppsala University believes that a better future will emerge from Zambia. The process is slow, but progressive and the hope is that it, one day, will not be a necessity to constantly leave if you want a successful career and a happy future.

Text: Patrick Conde and William Ondusye
Photo: Rui-Xin Li