By Annette Hanciles
In 2018, President Julius Maada Bio launched Sierra Leone’s first Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI). Sierra Leone’s Chief Minister Professor David Francis, who presided over the creation of DSTI, stated that DSTI was meant to use science, technology and innovation to deliver essential government’s businesses in the areas of e-health, e-government, e-education and e-security. The directorate, headed by Moinina David Sengeh, Sierra Leone’s Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) who also doubles as Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has operated now for close to two years.
The DSTI through the Office of the President has embarked on several techno-centric projects in the bid to digitize and effectively make the running of government electronic rather than the now heavily paper-based dependent system. Since the establishment of DSTI, here are two top projects that if implemented effectively, would do well in giving a big win to the President’s technology agenda.
Ease of Doing Business
According to DSTI official website (www.dsti.gov.sl), the Ease of Doing Business in Sierra Leone is an integrated and coordinated Presidential initiative for facilitating an effective and transparent business environment. Though there isn’t much information on Ease of Doing Business in Sierra Leone from the side of the DSTI, it is easy to guess what the project is all about. It is likely that DSTI project on Ease of Doing Business has to do with the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, which measures regulations directly affecting businesses by looking into factors such as better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights.
Since Sierra Leone scored a lowly 47.7 and was placed 163 out of 190 in the 2020 Doing Business ranking, it is very likely that DSTI is working on some technological intervention to help place Sierra Leone higher in the rankings. These rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate scores on ten topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The topics are starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
With an already high and irregular electricity supply in the country, most heady electricity dependent companies often do not come to Sierra Leone to do business. Other frequently encountered challenges with doing business in Sierra Leone are: Getting credit, construction permit and enforcing contracts. Due to the crucial impact of business on the economy as in the creation of jobs and provision of goods and services to support ease of living, DSTI’s Ease of Doing Business project is worthy of mentioning as one of the top crucial projects needed by Sierra Leone at this moment.
Education Data Hub
The Education Data Hub’s primary purpose according to DSTI is to connect the Annual School Census (Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, 2018) and the National Examination Results (West African Examination Council, 2016-2018). The hub seeks to serve as a tool to support decision making through an evidence-based and data-driven process for research, informed policy, planning and evaluation of interventions across schools. In other words, stakeholders in the education sector like teachers, parents and students can now have access to knowing exactly the performance of schools and be able to use that data to make decisions that could overall support the continual improvement of education in Sierra Leone.
Given the constant worsening of education in Sierra Leone with the spate of examination malpractices and unbelievable mass failures in public examinations, this particular project fits quite well with the President’s flagship Free and Quality Education program. Exploring the data portal, one can easily identify the Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) facility available at schools, for instance. This would particularly empower parent as stakeholders, for example, to ensure that they can take up WASH concern with school heads in a situation where they are not satisfied with the data they find.
It is also easier now to see the passing rate in many schools in the country, thereby enabling school heads and government education officials to take necessary steps to ensure that schools are working to see their students perform well in exams. The reason why the Education Hub is one of the top picks is due to the potential impact it will have on shaping and reclaiming the standard of education.
Apart from the above two picks, DSTI continues to do well in developing several project ideas to help push Sierra Leone to a digital nation. As a show of commitment to technology, the President recently launched Sierra Leone’s National Innovation and Digital Strategy (NIDS) at Bintumani Conference Center. According to the official document, NIDS is a 10-year National Innovation and Digital Strategy (NIDS) (2019-2029) aimed at guiding Sierra Leone’s investments, policies, and governance frameworks for her present and future development. The document further states that a NIDS positions Sierra Leone among regional and global leaders in the field of agile digital governance by focusing on effective service delivery, citizen engagement, and the digital economy driven by innovation and entrepreneurship. As a national strategy, its overarching aim is to reduce the cost of governance and reduce corruption while increasing national productivity.