MOP is an umbrella concept evolving from research and teaching at Webster University in Geneva's, Refugee Studies Program. See: http://www.uia.org/uiata/smykeintro.htm

When applied to Africa, MOP referred to refugees and displaced people who were the responsibility of the United Nations and other international organizations. Until the 1990s few Africans occupied senior positions in this refugee work. The reason was clear, none of the 140 African universities provided graduate training for students to learn about their own refugee problems.

To address this lacuna, a Graduate Program for Humanitarian and Refugee Studies (GPHRS) was designed by a small team of African scholars, part of the European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI) - Working Group on Refugees, that I chaired. An outline for a GPHRS was sent to the Association of African Universities (AAU), in Accra, Ghana. Prof. Narciso Matos, AAU's distinguished Secretary General, arranged for the GPHRS to be included in the association's regular program and budget: http://www.aau.org/english/documents/anlrep981.htm

He later obtained funding to integrate the GPHRS into the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (CEPACS), at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, directed by Prof. J. Bayo Adekanye: http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/cds/metadata/ibadansuccess.html

"Brain Drain," by R. J. Smyke, published in Transnational Associations, 4-5/2001, http://www.uia.org/uiata/cont01.htm

Originating in a literature review for a study called: "University Education in Africa: A 3rd Millennium Agenda, it showed that African brain drain was nearly always treated pejoratively. Nevertheless, like most current issues, there are two sides to every story and this link gives both. The study, "University Education in Africa: A 3rd Millennium Agenda", was prepared at the request of Dr. Helen Kitchen, Director of the African Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.