Brain Drain and Its Effect on Ethiopia’s Institutions of Higher Learning, 1970s–1990s

During the past three decades Ethiopia has been noted for political turmoil, drought, and famine. The country’s 63 million people, the second largest population in Africa, have a per capita income of $110, one-fourth the average for the continent. At all levels, it has the lowest school attendance rate in the world: 30 percent at primary, 13 percent at secondary, and less than 1 percent at the tertiary level. The country’s health sector, too, is in no better condition: health expenditure between 1990 and 1995 was 1.7 percent of GDP. Life expectancy at birth is 49 years. The country also has one of the highest HIV-AIDS infection rates in the world (9.3 per 100 adults).