In December 2020, African Women in Media (AWiM), in partnership with the African Union (AU), International Labour Migration (ILO) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) held the Labour Migration Media Awards ceremony.

Wagdy Sawahel won the the top spot in the Labour Migration Governance category. 

In this interview with AWiMNews, Wagdy discusses his experiences as a journalist and the story that won the prize.

1. Please introduce yourself

I’m an award-winning journalist, biotechnology expert, senior lead consultant and advisor with about 15 years of experience working as a freelancer reporting about higher education, science, technology, innovation, and knowledge economy for developing countries with a focus on Africa.

On the journalism side, I have published about 800 reports on science, technology, innovation, higher education and knowledge economy. I’m also the author of the first Arabic encyclopedia in genetic engineering “15 books”.

I have 10 scientific programmes recorded with Egyptian, Arab and international TV channels that deal with policy and development of science, technology, innovation and higher education.

I have been recognised for my journalism work by obtaining the 2020 Labour Migration Reporting award in the category “Governance of Labour Migration”, the first runner-up in the 2019 Continental Journalism Award on the African Union Charter; and the Dr. Ahmed Zahran prize in scientific culture from the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research & Technology in 1999.

I have published 300 reports about science and technology development with the UK-based science and development network – the world’s leading source of reliable information about science and technology to help individuals and organisations apply science to decision-making in order to drive equitable, sustainable development and poverty reduction. along with about 10 reports about intellectual property right with Switzerland-based intellectual property watch http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/?s=wagdy+sawahel

I also published about 615 reports with London-based University World News http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&writer=Wagdy%20Sawahel and Al Fanar Media – News and opinion about higher education – http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/contributor/wagdy-sawahel/ focusing on

monitoring, analyzing and developing higher education policies, strategies and action plan as well as designing initiatives for reforming higher education and establishing innovation and knowledge-based economy along with developing higher education and scientific research performance indicators.

This work also examined neglected or taboo topics including impact of COVID-19 on universities, academic freedom, university corruptions, student’s illegal migration, dissertation mills, student’s suicide, student’s dress codes, student’s anti-government protests, extremism, religious radicalization, cyber-crimes, university in prisons, and higher education diplomacy.

This work helped in highlighting the problems of the academic community and provided information for policy-makers for designing new initiatives for higher education improvement.

2. What was your first career choice and what inspired you to go into journalism?

My first career choice was on the academic side. I obtained my PhD from Leeds University in the UK in 1994 and at present, I’m an associate research professor at the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt.

But because, I have a passion for writing, networking, gaining new perspectives, inquiring new information and asking “why?” I decided to go into journalism especially in the fields of higher education, science, technology, innovation, and knowledge economy for developing countries with special focus on Africa and the Middle East as both play key roles in promoting knowledge-based sustainable development.

3. Please tell us a little about the story that won the award and what was your inspiration going into it?

The story that won the 2020 Labour Migration Reporting Award is titled, “AFRICA-GLOBAL: COVID-19 drives medical brain drain – is it all bad?”, published in University World News (African edition) on 25 June 2020.

The story unveils a new and different trends of migration governance in the globalised landscape by probing the mobility and outward migration of health workers from Africa to the Western hemisphere during the coronavirus pandemic.

The story indicated that Western countries are luring African medical professionals and healthcare workers to migrate as they seek to bridge the gap in medical personnel created by the coronavirus outbreak. In addition, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages of such a migration trend for Africa. Furthermore, it provides experts’ views on retention strategies, universities role, global brain capital and brain circulation. Finally it calls for the creation of a global health-keeping force – along the lines of the UN peacekeepers.

I chose to write the story because African academic migration and the consequent flow of remittances are like a double-edged sword; while contributing in scientific workforce development, they can also result in further brain drain and demographic imbalance for the countries especially during crises such as the coronavirus pandemic where medical professionals and scientists are needed.

Thus, African universities must not only produce talent but also circulate and retain them for sustainable economic growth.

It is important to advance the African academic migration governance by establishing African Academic Diaspora Alliance for Development (AADAD) to monitor African academic migration with the aim to translate the African brain drain into brain gain and brain circulation through accessing the knowledge held by African experts from all fields and utilising such knowledge in the interests of Africa and the development of its technological and higher education system.

AADAD must seek to build partnerships with local universities and African scholars and their universities abroad along with mobilising the African academic diaspora to support teaching as well as scientific and technological research in national universities and strengthen the linkages between academics in the diaspora and local higher education institutions.

AADAD must also benefit from national, regional and international best practices in using academic diaspora communities, as well as diaspora-centred initiatives.

4. What is the best thing about the story and what is the most difficult thing?

The best thing about the story is the focus of the experts interviewed on the movement of African health workers during the COVID-19 era along with presenting innovative initiatives that could form a far more effective strategy to combat brain drain of African medical professionals than the often circumvented pleas by the World Health Organization and the origin countries in Africa for practicing ‘ethical recruitment’.

The most difficult thing was to get the correct and updated data along with comprehensive views from African scholars working inside and outside Africa which I managed to get successfully.

5. What do you think is the one main form of support women journalists in your region need in order to produce similar stories?

I think that barriers and challenges facing women journalists in my region (Egypt, North Africa) in the professional and personal life cycles would be similar to Sub-Saharan but with lower levels including job stagnation and salary discrepancies for women in the media, disparities between men and women in the distribution of job roles, sexual harassment, bullying and sexism, Family Life, and women in media and leadership.

Based on mission and priority of African Women in Media (AWiM), I think AWiM must extend its work to cover all African regions and enhance its contributions in projects and research studies that aims at producing of media content which could help in changing the narrative about African women including African women status and challenges in higher education and knowledge economy sectors.

6. What advice would you give to journalists looking to explore the themes you are looking at in their own work?

My advice to journalists is to keep your eyes open to all development surrounding you, think out of the box, be innovative in reporting, be multi-skilled, develop contacts by networking, remember that there are always two sides to everything. Never assume you know what is happening, always keep your audience in mind, check everything including names, dates, quotes, figures, addresses etc. Always remember that practice makes perfect. Finally, develop a thick skin and “don’t let anyone get you down!”.