Sierra Leone’s David Sengeh on Digital Innovation – IMF F&D
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- Authors: ADAM BEHSUDI
- Published: March 1, 2021
National digital innovation strategy and governance
- National Innovation and Digital Strategy guides implementation of innovation across government and supports the medium-term national development plan.
- Directorate of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI) objective: ensure government delivery of the national development plan and design an innovation ecosystem centered on total digitalization.
- Core digital priorities: digital identity, a digital economy, and digital governance.
- DSTI leads ICT and data efforts for the national COVID emergency response center; chief innovation officer advises the president and sits on the presidential task force for COVID.
COVID-19 digital responses and technical tools deployed
- Information dissemination channels: an app, mobile phone solutions (text messaging), and online travel portal for tracking tested passengers.
- Health and monitoring tools: quarantine app to manage monitoring of service delivery to quarantine facilities and homes; synchronization of districts’ health information systems; application programming interfaces (APIs) build dashboards for decision makers.
- Surveillance and analytics: drones monitored and evaluated compliance with stay-at-home orders; anonymized call data records and surveys used to understand effects of government policies.
Education policy, digitalization, and statistics
- Education as flagship program: "Some 22 percent of our budget is devoted to education."
- Coverage and enrollment:
- "Thirty percent of the population is receiving free public education."
- "We added 9 percent more students to the total in-school population between 2018 and 2020."
- "The country’s 11,400 schools employ about 80,000 teachers."
- "When schools finally reopened in July 2020 for examination classes, we brought back over 450,000 students for in-class learning and supported them via radio and online instruction."
- Service delivery: government pays tuition for every student in government and government-assisted school and pays exam fees for all students; school subsidies, learning materials, and school meal programs coordinated using data and digitalization.
- Digital learning access tools: expanded radio teaching program (revamped from 2014 Ebola crisis); procured new radio transmitters and worked with community radio stations to reach nearly all districts.
- Mobile access and low-tech innovation: launched an SMS and USSD accessible dictionary; "Some 87 percent of our people, however, do have mobile connectivity."
Inclusion, gender, and vulnerable groups
- Policy of "radical inclusion": ensure every child—regardless of family origin, location, gender, or disability—is educated.
- Overturned ban on pregnant girls attending school to avoid repeating exclusion experienced after Ebola.
- Targeted social support during pandemic: expanded and revamped social welfare base; provided direct cash to women in various informal sectors; "the support is ongoing."
- Increased consideration for people with disabilities and vulnerable groups in policy and program design.
Health system investments and operational changes
- Expanded information publication and measures to allow facilities to make more beds available.
- New travel portal system in place at airports and borders enabling connection with people entering the country by air and land.
- Investments framed as contributing to a more robust health system and epidemic control capacity.
Lessons, priorities, and personal perspectives
- Key lesson for policymaking: design solutions that work for everyone, not only in emergencies—"solutions should work for everyone, not just in emergencies."
- Recognition of unpaid care and labor burdens during lockdowns: pandemic revealed labor and loss of time for stay-at-home parents.
- Personal motivation: Sengeh draws inspiration from music and public service; album "Love Notes to Salone" intended to inspire young people and convey hope and civic empowerment.
Source: Sierra Leone’s David Sengeh on Digital Innovation – IMF F&D
Content in this bundle
- الإدماج الجذري
- 前 沿 - 将包容进行到底 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 -2021年3月号·第58卷
- Inclusion radicale
- Inclusion radicale