Sierra Leone, originally called Serra Lyoa in Portuguese meaning “Lion Mountains” owing to the range of hills that surrounds the harbor, rich in the supply of natural resources including diamond, gold, rutile, iron ore and bauxite fairly well distributed across the country. Accounting for almost half of the Country’s export and forms a greater part of the livelihood of Artisanal and small-scale miners.

Mining methods range from mechanical grab lines with washing and separator plants owned by a handful of large companies to crude hand digging and panning methods commonly adopted by small scale Artisanal miners for which the extraction process is time consuming, labor intensive and sometimes perilous. After sieving through a few hundred tons of soil, a single carat of gemstone is found. What a sigh of relief and a moment celebration for that miner or even a group. Though rough and uncut, for the lucky miner or group of miners, such discovery means a better life for their families and bring hopes nearer. Today, scarcity of certain natural resources and use of crude mining methods have made hopes more difficult to pass and finding a gemstone such as diamond is a wide berth indeed. Among youthful Sierra Leoneans in predominant mining areas, the hope of bringing a better life to their families is clouded and farfetched. What has been slower to emerge also is how a seeming global clamor for and concepts of innovation and creativity are quickly embraced by these youth and in these communities where mining remains the be-all and end-all.

For four weeks, the Accelerator Lab in Sierra Leone engaged in a grassroot solution mapping training exercise; meeting with community leaders-Councilors, Regional and District council representatives and youth leaders to provide them with catalytic insights relevant to positively influence and drive local innovation that addresses the development challenges meted in their respective communities. The switching of lenses led to Aha moment! Identifying and explaining how members of the communities have devised ways in which they’re tackling eminent challenges without just being into mining gemstone.

LIGHT SALONE is an example of a grassroot innovation group in Serra Leone made up of young innovators. In a bid to address poor TV coverage in some remote areas in the country, the group recently launched a ‘Made in Serra Leone’ TV Antenna called ‘’LILI’’. Now, poor TV reception is a thing of the past and residents can now watch all national TV stations anywhere anytime. The group has also developed prototypes of wind turbine and a fuel less and silent generator-a clean alternative energy source. Next Generation Innovators are also young innovators who created prototypes of a Mobile Money ATM to reduce security risks and improve on privacy for both customers and agents, and an electrical safe to secure valuables. Innovation pathways to the physically challenged have been silent. Next Generation Innovators have also launched a re-designed manual tricycle to ease mobility of physically challenged pupils and or students.

Community leaders had believed that finding a single carat of diamond is a means to an end. UNDP’s Accelerator Lab interactive sessions came handy to provide clarity of goals, gain community ownership and participation. Alas! Leaders can now see local innovators as their gemstones; ‘another means to a possible end to development challenges that the rest of the community is facing’. This new approach means collective application of solutions by introducing protocols, supported by evidence and best practices.

Leveraging on Country Office existing partnerships with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGGRD) and National Youth Commission (NAYCOM), the first batch of 438 community leaders have been trained to identify, document and report on local innovations as they pop-up within their localities. Social media chat groups have been set up per region. UNDP Accelerator Lab is already testing a toll-free line that will make notification cost-free for callers irrespective of the type of phone and mobile network provider.

Calculated actions by the Lab in collaboration with the Government

UNDP will work closely with the GoSL to encourage creativity and problem-solving thinking from within the different communities across the country.

All efforts are geared towards creating and maintaining the first local innovation database in the country thereby enhancing our experimental capabilities to provide tested solutions guided by informed decision- making processes with timely impacts that are scalable.

GoSL is expected to leverage on the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network as a strategic development platform for the country national development plan that will bring together the government, private sector, civil society, philanthropy, academia, and young people with creative minds to inspire and co-create development for this country.

Together with the people of Sierra Leone, UNDP’s Accelerator Lab will answer complex questions so that collectively we can better understand challenges facing people from community to national, regional to global level.