For the past six (6) years UNDP  Sierra Leone has been organizing an innovative youth-focused Social Good Summit (SGS) to be marked alongside the flagship event that is held annually during the United Nations General Assembly week, in September.

The event, which is dubbed the National Youth Innovation Award, is a competition that provides a platform for creative young minds to showcase and articulate  innovative ideas that can accelerate the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while accentuating the silver linings of youthful contributions that may have been considered gloomy

Past winners of these competitions have used the SGS  platform to go on to do great things in Sierra Leone and improve lives of regular Sierra Leoneans. Notably, the first award winner Salton Massally pitched an online job portal; www.careers.sl portal. This young innovator follows this up with the development of an Ebola response workers’ e-payment system and development of the Justice App which is currently being used by the Sierra Leone Judiciary to aid speedy, effective, and efficient case management.

The 2017 winner Mohamed Kamara developed a renewable generator from scrap metals while the female star prize was won by Fanta Konneh, who developed a “So-wind” (short for solar and wind) power generator. Both winners teamed up to scaleup their prototypes and indeed provided renewable electrification to Serabu, a rural community in Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone. Mohamed Kamara is now the CEO of Light Salone Innovation, a business that focuses on renewable energy, solar and wind power.

We only have one planet, let’s rally to save it!

The 2019 edition was held in November at the Eastern Polytechnic, Kenema District, with the local theme in Krio, “na wan environment wi get, mayk wi join an for protect am” meaning in English: we only have one environment, let’s join hands for its protection. This theme couldn’t have been more suited to the Sierra Leone context, a Country ranked as one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Consistent with SGS national theme, the 2019 Human Development Report warns that rippling effect of climate change could aggravate inequality.

Numerous applications from budding innovators and inventors came from different parts of the country, and were narrowed down to a field of eight (8) contestants who pitched their ideas during the final event in Kenema. A panel of judges made up of individuals with background in the banking, energy, technology and innovation and environment protection sectors, presided over the competition. The eight (8) contestants, passionately pitched their ideas in front of a vibrant crowd of students and invited dignitaries. They competed in two categories, Male and Female, each with a winning prize of SLL 15,000,000 and runner-up prize of SLL 7,500,000.

The ideas pitched

·         Eco-sustainable homes – Michaela Kargbo

·         Recycled plastic construction materials – Famata Miatta Kanneh

·         Eco-friendly char-briquette – Mohamed Bangura

·         Hydroponics – a system of growing plants in water – Samuel Mattia

·         Self-supply water filter hand pump – Benson Kandeh

·         Renewable energy plastic bulb light – Aminata Amara

·         Solar powered electric tricycle – Monica Jackson

·         Solar powered auto-irrigation pump system – Osman Yaah

The stories behind winning innovations

The two star-prize winning ideas interestingly were from the same district, Kono. Kono District, arguably the most affected district when it comes to environmental issues owing  to  widespread  mining activities, and the devastation caused by a decade long civil war fueled by its blood diamonds. One echoing question that may have been lingering in the minds of the patrons is   whether marginalization and desperation of the youth in Kono hasled to it becoming a hotbed for innovation and innovative thinking?

  “my inspiration for working on this project was fueled by a friend  who had his leg amputated  as a result of an accident.” Says Monica Jackson, the female category star prize winner.

Even though her current locally made manual wheelchairs are not user-friendly for  long distance journeys, especially for school-going children, Monica remains ever hopeful and resolved to innovate more aiding locally made manual wheelchair for lactating mothers, pregnant women, and persons with bilateral amputation

The male category prize winner, Osman Yaah’s auto-irrigation pump system was the highlight of the event and stole the show during his pitch. The pure novelty of his invention had the crowd in a frenzy during his demonstration.  The irrigation system used Internet of Things (IoT) technology to operate the water pump. With his mobile phone, he simply dials a number to switch the pump on and off. The audience were amazed and skeptical in equal measure. To remove every ash of doubts clouding Osman’s exceptional display, and using his mobile phone the moderator dials the assigned phone number in full view of the crowd  and behold, the water pump irrigated his miniature garden.

So, what are the next steps?

How are we going to ensure these ideas are not just that? Ideas!! As the Accelerator Lab, our role will be to go through the learning cycle of sense, explore, test and grow for these ideas, to understand current situation and issues surrounding disabled mobility and agricultural irrigation in Sierra Leone. And the next steps will be to test the prototypes rigorously and see how best they can be upscaled to create the impact that was intended in the dreams of Osman and Monica. How can these go from novel ideas to making a difference in the community? This will be part of the Accelerator Lab’s focus in 2020.