While Algerian Project Management Association is applying for IPMA membership, the French think tank Cread (Centre de recherche en études appliquées pour le développement) in collaboration with the ILO (International Labour Organisation) in Geneva has recently published a book with the title “From brain drain to competence mobility’.

The book gives an interesting analysis on a phenomenon that empties Algeria from its substance and addresses the fundamental question: what is the role and weight of a well-qualified and experienced population living abroad in the development of their country of origin. One of the strategic goals addressed by the Algerian Project Management Association is to increase the mobility of well-qualified and experienced Algerians living outside their country of origin. The objective is to have well-qualified people back in Algeria (at least temporarily) to share in various strategic fields (including project management) competence, i.e. knowledge, experience and professionalism. APMA as a national association recognized by the Algerian government is certainly a platform that strives to also become more visible outside the country in the future to attract Algerian experts to their country of origin. This will work, if one understands the intrinsic motivation of many of these experts that determines their mobility. It is not money that will make them move and travel to “Alger la blanche”, “Ouahran el Bahia” or any other place of Algeria. What will bring Algerian experts back for some time are competences they can and are allowed to share with people able to value and recognize these competences. To be pragmatic, a forum such as events, workshops and training sessions, articles in journals etc.. will help to prepare an audience for Algerian experts from aboard. This audience is desperately longing for competences to prepare for the challenges it faces on a daily basis to develop the country.

Algeria is the largest country in Africa at just at 20 minutes flight distance from Spain. It is a young country with a growing population of 40 million inhabitants (50 million by 2030) with an average age of 35. The country is desperately lacking professional role models in many sectors of its economy and society. Some statistics show what happened in some sectors over the past years:

Brain drain of Algerian qualified professionals to France per area of activity in percentage (source: Cread, 01-2016)

The endogenous reasons for this brain drain can be found in many countries:

• searching for better employment opportunities abroad
•  being attracted by universities and schools for higher education with international reputation
•  looking for a professional working environment where work is better valued an recognized
• avoiding a bureaucratic environment with many administrative stumble blocks
• non-recognition of qualification and hard work as means for climbing up the social and professional ladder (nepotism and corruption are distorting the “classical” success criteria of social success/climbing up the ladder)
• searching for cultural fulfillment and freedom of thought and action -striving for a better future for their children

There are also exogenous factors for brain drain:

•  a systematic brain drain policy developed by countries in search of qualified labor in areas where the work force is insufficient (ex. doctors and engineers in France, banking and other service sectors in Canada and USA, etc..)
• the offer of green cards and study grants at some consulates in Algeria (Canada, USA, Germany etc..)ž the international search and competition for talents
• the information about success stories from people who ‘made it abroad’ after having tried hard in the country with no success.
  

A new analysis shows that the brain drain of Algerian qualified experts sharply dropped over the past years, as the chart regarding Algeria and OECD countries shows. One of the main reasons for this trend is that there are not many experts left in the country.

Source: Cread, 01-2016

APMA (as any other member associations of IPMA) can address this sensitive topic with clear measurable metrics (e.g. number of experts of Algerian origin attending workshops and conferences, number of certified project managers, number of publications admitted in Algerian journals etc..) and observe this evolution over time. This will help to measure APMA’s contribution to a strategic topic: increase competence mobility and how to share it with people’s country of origin. This in turn will give hope and confidence to future generations to develop national competences for the development of the country as a whole.

Finally, one can underline that the lessons learned from competence mobility goes in both ways. Algerians living abroad would learn a lot from an evolving society where they have roots since many generations. Whatever their field of expertise is and particularly as project managers leading the way and having a critical role in society, competent people living abroad far from their roots of origin can only know where they go and be credible in moving forward if they understand where they come from.