Dr. David Moinina Sengeh is Sierra Leone’s Chief Innovation Officer and the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education. During his time in office, he has led the innovation effort in Sierra Leone through education reform and medical advancements. 

Who Is Dr. David Moinina Sengeh?

Born in Sierra Leone, Sengeh attended Harvard University for his bachelor’s degree in 2010. At Harvard, Sengeh researched “aerosolized vaccines for tuberculosis.” After Harvard, Sengeh went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to complete his doctoral degree. Sengeh’s research at MIT was focused on “inventions and technology for human augmentation designing comfortable prosthetic interfaces.” The latter would be an integral piece of Sengeh’s innovations in Sierra Leone. 

Some of Sengeh’s achievements so far include: 

• Forbes’ 30 under 30 Consumer Technology: the publication recognized him for innovations that improve everyday life in 2014 for his work at MIT.
• Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize: the prize recognizes student innovators who are turning their research into ground-breaking inventions in health care. Sengeh won the prize for his prosthetic interfaces. 
• National Geographic Emerging Explorer celebrates trailblazers changing the world in their fields. Sengeh was named an explorer in 2015 for his research at MIT.
• Bill Gates’ Heroes in the Field recognized Sengeh in 2021 for his work in Sierra Leone with prosthetic limbs and data collection systems to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, asked Sengeh to return to Sierra Leone in 2019. The roles of Chief Innovation Officer and Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education were added to the Sierra Leone government, with Sengeh as the first officeholder. At the center of Sengeh’s role is the goal to “halve learning poverty in seven years.” The Multidimensional Poverty Index shows 59.2% of Sierra Leone’s population is multidimensionally poor.

Education Reform 

One innovation in Sierra Leone is using digital transformation to improve the country’s education systems. Sengeh’s background, before becoming an education minister, was in technology, and he continues to use that background to improve education in Sierra Leone. 

Sierra Leone’s investment in #TechOnOurTerms is part of this education reform. Sengeh implemented the #TechOnOurTerms project in July 2023. Through this project, the investment is solely in the technologies that will support Sierra Leone’s learning objectives. One such technology is a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool that uses geospatial data to visualize and identify where the blind spots are in access to education. With investment in GIS tools, the government of Sierra Leone can reform education policy more efficiently and reduce learning poverty. Sierra Leone is currently in a learning crisis, with 8% of third-graders able to read. 

Prosthetics for Civil War Amputees

From 1991 to 2002, Sierra Leone found itself amid a brutal civil war. As a consequence of the civil war, over 8,000 people were left with amputated limbs. Sengeh grew up in this atmosphere and, during this time, noticed that many of the people around him were not wearing their prostheses. This common practice could be attributed to the prosthesis either causing more pain or not fitting around the amputated limb properly.

During TED2023, Sengeh told AfroTech journalist Ngozi Nwanji: “Before I left for college, I had these conversations with amputees because a lot of people always said amputees just wanted a beg on the street side. They didn’t want to use their prosthesis, and I learned that it wasn’t just because they wanted to beg, but the majority did not use their [prosthetics] because it was painful.”

At MIT, Sengeh researched methods to make comfortable and affordable prosthetics. Sengeh’s goals were made possible with a combination of MRI imaging, 3D printing, soft tissue modeling and collaboration from various fields. With this combination, Sengeh and the team he worked with at MIT could build precise prosthetic sockets that could work regardless of where the amputee resides or who they are. These limbs can also be produced quickly and at a decent cost.  

Concluding Remarks

David Sengeh continues his work on innovations in Sierra Leone as a Minister of Education and the Chief Innovation Officer. Constantly innovating and looking at how technology can be integrated within Sierra Leone, Sengeh is leading the government in taking steps toward poverty reduction. Education reforms spearheaded by Sengeh can reduce learning poverty by providing access to schools and a quality education geared towards Sierra Leone’s learning objectives. 

Sengeh’s work on prosthetics provides a possibility for civil war amputees to not suffer from their injuries and not be forced to beg on the streets. As innovations in Sierra Leone continue to increase, the hope for achieving Sengeh’s goal of halving learning poverty also grows.

– Komalpreet Kaur
Photo: Flickr