Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio and Education Minister David Moina Sengeh are Co-Chairing #SDG4 Education High-Level Steering Committee.

Dr. David Moinina  described the appointment ”And the world turned to (small) Sierra Leone for Leadership”

Minster Senge Further Stated ‘‘Now, some days I have to pinch myself. Today was one of those days. The UNESCO High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC) on SDG:4 is the highest body for helping the world accelerate towards the achievement of SDG 4 Quality goals, and I successfully co-chaired our first Sherpa Group Meeting.

This is because Sierra Leone is the Co-Chair of the HLSC. H.E President Bio Co-Chairs the Leaders Group with the UNESCO DG and I Co-Chair the Sherpa (Ministerial / Technical) Group with the UNESCO ADG- Education. As Co-Chairs, President Bio and UN Secretary General will also lead the Transformation Education Summit 2022 this September, and we as Sherpa Co-Chairs will work with the UN Under-Secretary General Amina Mohamed to shape the agenda.

I pinch myself because we are just 8 years to 2030, and we just completed the SDG 4 benchmarks last year. With 1.6b kids out of school during covid and increased commitments to education, now more than ever is when we need to transform the world through education. And the world turned to (small) Sierra Leone for leadership! (Pinch).”

The education Minister believes  the world didn’t turn to Sierra Leone unanimously because of our size or because of our economic prowess (China, France, Portugal, and other countries are bigger and have more). They did because  ca there are not many countries that have dedicated transformational leadership in education more than Sierra Leone, among which are:

– 10% population added to schools
– Radical Inclusion Policy roll out
– Updated curriculum at all levels fit for 21st Century
– Expanded teaching workforce, incentives, and training
– Increased learning outcomes at all levels (EGRA/EGMA and WAEC results)
– Increased domestic financing of Education (22% of budget)
– Youth and community voice inclusion
– Bold roll out of data and technology systems at scale
– Committed high-level leadership

In his statement to the public, Dr Sengeh concludes that ”Yes, we have many, many, many challenges, but by God’s grace, every day in this country, Education is better than yesterday. That’s our commitment in our global leadership role. We will ensure that there’s a new global collaboration mechanism to help the world accelerate towards SDG:4

To imagine that today, I would be Co-Chair UNESCO High-Level Steering Committee; Chair UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report; Executive Committee Board Member Global Partnership for Education and at the same time… #Blessings.”