1266 



1. Realization by the African governments of the need to establish short- and 

 long-term economic development programmes. 



2. Recognition by those governments of the need to establish scientific research 

 and industrial research programmes, both short term and long term. 



3. Recognition by the governments of their responsibility for the organization 

 of scientific research and for the encouragement of research by creating an 

 atmosphere favourable to it. 



4. Recognition by scientists of their responsibilities towards their own coun- 

 tries. Respect for academic freedom and the right to a free choice of methods 

 and techniques are vitally important to the activities of research workers who, 

 however, in choosing their subject of research, must keep in mind the needs of 

 their respective countries. 



5. Recognition of the need to establish a proper balance between fundamental 

 and applied research. The African countries are aware of the importance of 

 fundamental research and oriented research, knowing that their development 

 is indispensable to progress in applied research and that they constitute the 

 base of the pyramid of research activities. 



6. Recognition of the need for scientific collaboration, at both the regional and 

 the continental levels, in order to solve common problems. 



7. Recognition of the need to establish at the highest level a body that will be 

 responsbile for the elaboration of the national scientific policy and the coordi- 

 nation of research activities. The structure of such bodies will vary from country 

 to country according to the prevailing structures and conditions in each. 



8. Recognition of the need for studies and research on natural resources and 

 the co-ordination of the activities of the bodies responsible for them. 



9. Recognition of the need to train a suflScient number of research personnel as 

 rapidly as possible, and recognition of the essential role of the universities in this 

 regard. 



10. Recognition of the need to include in all national budgets a special chapter 

 for scientific and technical research.**^ 



PERSISTING DIFFICULTIES AND DILEMMAS 



Reducing the development gap by creating a scientific-technological 

 infrastructure would appreciably diminish the "push" factors in brain 

 drain from the LDCs. Economic development, rationally planned, en- 

 ergetically carried out, and successful in its designs and purposes, 

 could create market conditions for engaging the services of any sur- 

 plus professional manpower. A developing science and technology, 

 flourishing in this environment, could also provide the instrumental- 

 ities for accelerating the pace of development and transforming tra- 

 ditional, static societies into dynamic modern states. 



But there are persisting difficulties that reduce the scale of probable 

 success; they derive from three sources: economic deficiencies, prob- 

 lems in institution-building, and inherent difficulties in the changing 

 of attitudes of traditional societies. 



Economic Deficiencies. — As shown in the next chapter on the for- 

 eign policy implications of brain drain, the developm.ent gap between 

 the LDCs and advanced countries is widening, not diminishing. Yet 

 success in reducing brain drain depends upon quickening the pace of 

 economic development and reducing this gap. Ironically, the acute 

 energy crisis in early 1974, generated by the Arab countries of the 

 Middle East, themselves LDCs, aggravated the chronic economic situa- 

 tion in the LDCs throughout the world — particularly in the case of 



««i United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Outline of a Plan 

 for Scientific Research and Training in Africa, International Conference on the Organiza- 

 tion of Research and Training in Africa in Relation to the Study. Conservation and Utiliza- 

 tion of Natural Resources, Lagos, Nigeria, July 28 t(» Aug. 6, 1964, pp. 10-11. 



