February 23rd 2021 –  The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of technology to everyday life including the way we learn and work which has made it imperative that we adapt to meet the demands of the new age.

As part of its agenda to drive digital transformation and establish Sierra Leone as an innovation and entrepreneurship hub, the Government in its Medium Term National Development Plan has prioritized Human Capital Development with education as its flagship program. To deliver on this, the Government has sought to explore opportunities for human capacity development and to upscale and reskill the current workforce through digital learning platforms.

In support, DSTI on November 4th, 2020 announced its partnership with EDACY to launch a Digital Foundations For Public Service Program, a 5-week online program designed to equip government employees with the skills, knowledge and mindset needed to successfully navigate the “new normal” driven by digital technology and innovation. 

“At EDACY, we believe that access to great development opportunities in today’s digital world comes from the right learning experiences, mixing digital tools, collaborative learning and peer reviews. We launched the Digital Foundations for Public Services Program with the desire to help African governments with high-quality training. We are now delighted to have collaborated with the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) of Sierra Leone and supported their employees’ capability development.” Said Temitope Ola – Founder and President, EDACY.

The training and certification of 250 public service participants in digital skill courses does not only boost our international HCD credentials but similarly affirms the government’s commitment to achieving its Millennium Development Goals.

The Initiative has in more ways emerged not only as a success story but as a yardstick for determining the viability of successive initiatives of this nature. Following the launch, 250 public sector employees from over 40 government Ministries, Departments and Agencies successfully registered to undertake the program. 

Sierra Leone drives capacity building in the public sector with the Digital Foundation Program 

February 23rd 2021 –  The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of technology to everyday life including the way we learn and work which has made it imperative that we adapt to meet the demands of the new age.

As part of its agenda to drive digital transformation and establish Sierra Leone as an innovation and entrepreneurship hub, the Government in its Medium Term National Development Plan has prioritized Human Capital Development with education as its flagship program. To deliver on this, the Government has sought to explore opportunities for human capacity development and to upscale and reskill the current workforce through digital learning platforms.

In support, DSTI on November 4th, 2020 announced its partnership with EDACY to launch a Digital Foundations For Public Service Program, a 5-week online program designed to equip government employees with the skills, knowledge and mindset needed to successfully navigate the “new normal” driven by digital technology and innovation. 

“At EDACY, we believe that access to great development opportunities in today’s digital world comes from the right learning experiences, mixing digital tools, collaborative learning and peer reviews. We launched the Digital Foundations for Public Services Program with the desire to help African governments with high-quality training. We are now delighted to have collaborated with the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) of Sierra Leone and supported their employees’ capability development.” Said Temitope Ola – Founder and President, EDACY.

The training and certification of 250 public service participants in digital skill courses does not only boost our international HCD credentials but similarly affirms the government’s commitment to achieving its Millennium Development Goals.

The Initiative has in more ways emerged not only as a success story but as a yardstick for determining the viability of successive initiatives of this nature. Following the launch, 250 public sector employees from over 40 government Ministries, Departments and Agencies successfully registered to undertake the program. 

“ I really enjoyed this program, especially the TIMWOOD theory, which helped me to understand efficient use of time, movement of people’s equipment in performing duties. I also learnt proper management of resources to avoid wastage and gained adequate skills and training to improve employee performance in public service delivery.” Said Rhoda Spencer Cole- Records Assistant,  Office of the Administrator and Registrar General. 

During the virtual Certification Ceremony held earlier today, 75 participants from 26 MDAs were presented with a Certificate for successfully completing over 90% of the program.

  Certificate of Completion Awarded during the ceremony 

The trained and certified participants will contribute to nation building by exploring the new techniques they have gained, offering innovative insight into their organisation’s challenges and identifying new and sustainable solutions to existing problems.

As part of the ongoing drive to support the public sector workforce, DSTI announced a partnership with MIT GOV/LAB to design and develop a Governance Innovation Bootcamp. The  2-week program is designed to give public servants the toolkits needed to design effective and innovative solutions to governance challenges. As a further reward for completing the Digital Foundations Program, 15 out of the available 30 spaces for the Governance Innovation Bootcamp will be reserved for the participants who received a certificate of completion from EDACY.

February 11, 2021 – In a bid to learn and draw lessons from the Sierra Leonean experience in successfully leveraging innovations for the delivery of the National Human Capital Development (HCD) agenda, a benchmarking mission from Burkina Faso led by Professor Nicolas Meda (Former Minister of Health and current Human Capital Development Advisor to the President of Burkina Faso), embarked on a 2-day visit to Freetown.

The first day of the benchmarking mission commenced with a courtesy call to the Office of the President at the State House, where they were received by the Chief Minister on behalf of the President. Next was a stakeholders’ consultation with several partners (DSTI, Ministry of Finance, Tony Blair Institute, HCD Secretariat etc). The consultation was centred around two things:

1. Recognising President Bio’s efforts in making the HCD initiative a priority in three sectors: Education (feed the mind), health (take care of the body) and food (feed the belly); with education being the flagship program of his administration.

2. The crucial role of Data and Digitization is to make informed decisions for national development in every HCD indicator.

This session was led by Mr. Luseni Dassama (Presidential HCD Flagship Coordinator) and Dr. Yakama Manty Jones (World Bank HCP Focal Person – Sierra Leone). This presentation included an overview of the HCD Portfolio, the HCD Structure in Sierra Leone, funding and resourcing, tracking activities and funding, economic response to COVID, Initiatives, Sector-Specific targets,  monitoring mechanism and demo of QAERP (Quick Action Economic Response Programme) Dashboard.

This was later followed by the HCD coordinator meeting and an overview of the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation by Ms. Michala Mackay (Director, DSTI) and Mr. PJ. Cole (Head of Projects Designs, DSTI). Ms Mackay expressed that “it was an honour to have the opportunity of hosting the mission from Burkina Faso especially at a time like this, knowledge sharing on human capital development endeavours stands to be beneficial to both countries”

Following this, the Human Capital Development Incubator (HCDI) team gave an overview of ongoing and future HCD projects as well as a comprehensive presentation on the status of the Education Innovation Challenge(EIC) and next steps.

 This was climaxed with the demonstration of the EIC baseline analytic tool.

Photo Includes (Left to Right): Donald Bambara (Tony Blair Institute), Michala Mackay (Chief Operations Officer / Director  DSTI), PJ Cole (Head of project Design and Delivery DSTI), Professor Nicholas Meda (Presidential Adviser HCD Burkina Faso), Nomtha Sithole (Tony Blair Institute), Luseni Dassama (HCD Coordinator), Mariama Anthony Williams (Tony Blair Institute), Benjamin Davies (Operations and Research Manager DSTI)

On the second day of the visit, the mission had a one on one discussion with Dr David Moinina Sengeh, the country’s Chief Innovation Officer and Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education to assess the role of the HCD strategy in understanding the successes and the challenges of the education sector. 

“We’re regularly sharing our ideas and challenges. We are one of the flagship countries in ECOWAS that was studied by McKinsey for a report to inform a regional HCD strategy last year.” – Said Minister Sengeh.

Photo include: Professor Meda, Dr Sengeh (CIO, DSTI and Minister MBSSE), Donald Bambawa (Tony Blair Institute) Jesseka Davies (Education Lead, Human Capital Development Incubator)

Professor Meda in his remarks at the meeting with Dr Sengeh underscored that “with the present-day consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in Burkina Faso, all Human Capital improvement associated sectors were critically impacted, causing delays across the HCD time desk.” 

He similarly commended Sierra Leone’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goal of providing universal primary education to all, eliminating gender inequalities and boosting the allocation of resources to the education sector.

Photo Includes; Professor Meda making his presentation.

Courtesy Call At State House

The second day continued with presentations from the Education Innovation Challenge (EIC) service providers (World Vision, EducAid Sierra Leone, National Youth Awareness Forum Sierra Leone (NYAFSL), Rising Academy Network and Save the Children) on the progress they have made with their thus far.

 Among the ideas expressed during the Service Providers’ conversation with Prof Meda, EducAid Sierra Leone emphasized  that, “Through the Education Innovation Challenge, we have increased teachers’ professionalism and ownership of school and projects.”

Photo includes: EIC Service Providers 

The mission ended with reflections and discussions on charting a feasible course for the continued success of the HCD initiative. Both teams rounded up by agreeing that both nations can learn from each other and agreed that ideas should be shared starting with the signing of an MoU between both nations.  

This proved to be an intellectually stimulating session as it sought to reconcile the Sierra Leonean and Burkinabe perspectives on confronting harsh realities with innovative problem-solving strategies.

10 February 2020

The Government of Sierra Leone sees education as central to Human Capital Development and joins Giga to continue accelerating school connectivity and explore innovations to empower communities.

The Government of Sierra Leone, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have signed an agreement to collaborate on Giga, a UNICEF-ITU global initiative to connect every school to the Internet, and every young person to information, opportunity and choice.

Launched in 2019, Giga sets the goal of providing connectivity to every school and its surrounding community in the world. Some 3.7 billion people in the world are unable to access the Internet; a lack of access means children and young people are excluded from the wealth of information available online, limiting their opportunities to learn and grow and to fulfill their potential.

Sierra Leone has made significant progress over the past decade and is now firmly on the path towards long-term sustainable development; however, a combination of factors holds back economic recovery, including inequalities in gender, education, and income and a growing youth population facing youth unemployment. Approximately 70% of youth 15-35 (one-third of total population) are underemployed or unemployed; illiteracy remains a persistent challenge, and youth that lack skills and education find it extremely difficult to compete for the limited jobs available.

The Government recognizes the importance of education toward achieving its goal of Human Capital Development and contributing to not only the global digital economy but also its own national progress. Its Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has set forth a curriculum focused on empowering learners with foundational competencies and ICT skills; its Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) launched its Digitization for All Strategy to transform Sierra Leone into a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“’Digitization for all’ in Sierra Leone is not just a concept. It is a developmental road map that defines paths we already tread. While the country’s education flagship program is dripping in innovation and technology, connectivity has been a blockade,” said Ms. Michala Mackay, Director & COO of the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Through Giga’s school connectivity mapping and collaboration with the Government, it was found that while 80% of 11,200 schools in Sierra Leone are within 3G or 4G coverage, only 205 schools are connected. 43.3% of Sierra Leoneans cannot connect to the Internet due to cost and digital literacy constraints, while 40% are not covered at all by existing infrastructure — preventing them from accessing the wealth of educational resources and opportunities toward development.

“Connectivity is critical for our lives, our learning and prosperity; however, 960 million people living in Africa are still offline (ITU Facts and Figures 2020). In Sierra Leone where there are 86 mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, and 84 percent of households are without internet access, connecting all primary and secondary schools to the internet will allow more inclusive access to young learners, enabling them to access the wealth of information available online and opening up future opportunities to them,” highlighted Doreen Bogdan Martin, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau.

“Minister Sengeh and his teams have been global leaders on open source technology for the public good,” said Chris Fabian, Co-Lead, Giga. “Financing and monitoring the connectivity of every school, with Giga, can support Sierra Leone’s leadership in digital public goods by helping get better, affordable connectivity into everybody’s hands.”

Sierra Leone joins Giga to expand school connectivity efforts and explore where innovations, such as digital assets, can play a role in empowering entire communities. Giga has already worked with the Government to identify several activities to support the cost-effective connection of approximately 11,000 schools — equipping a further 3 million in their local communities with the tools and skills they need to empower their nation.

“Developing digital skills and infrastructure are fundamental in reinventing education in Sierra Leone. Connecting 1000 pilot schools would no doubt leapfrog national efforts to bridge the digital divide,” said Ms. Mackay. “We are elated to be offered this opportunity and intend to take the fullest advantage of it.”