World Government Summit 2023: Sierra Leone educationist wins ‘Best Minister’ award

Dubai: Dr David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Education, Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Republic of Sierra Leone, is the ‘Best Minister’ in the world.

The announcement came at the World Government Summit 2023 in Dubai where he received an award in his honour from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The annual coveted award - given in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) - to honour the best minister in the world, this year recognised the efforts of Dr Sengeh to impart education for the children of Sierra Leone.

What is the award?

The award recognises the exceptional efforts of government ministers and demonstrates their excellence in a public sector, their efforts to implement, promote innovation in their domain. It registers their importance to the needs of their citizens.

This year, 10 ministers were nominated following a due diligence conducted by PwC. This also included the public opinion of social media. A jury of international experts and key figure representatives of international organisations and private sectors narrowed the winner down to Sengeh.

“I am really proud of where I come from. However Sierra Leone is infamous for a decade long civil war in the 1990s. I resolved that I would do everything in my capacity that my children will not go through the same experiences that we had. I dream of a day when young people will find enough of a critical mass of interested learners to be able to stop and solve that problem. An investment in education is the best gift we can give to our children,” Dr Sengeh said in a video recording shown during the award ceremony.

Sengeh added: “In Sierra Leone we will stop at nothing until every boy and girl feel safe to go to school.”

About Dr Sengeh

Dr David Moinina Sengeh is the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation in Sierra Leone. He is a TED Senior Fellow. Sengeh is an alumni of prestigious universities including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology among others.

In May 2018 Sengeh joined the Office of the President of Sierra Leone, working there as chief innovation officer. In 2019 he was named Minister of Education of Sierra Leone. He ensured that each child in the Puiehun district had education and access to laptop.

Hailed a trailblazer, Sengeh also happens to be a musician.

Best Data Visualisation Award

At the summit, another award was given to Lindsey Poulter who won Best Data Visualisation Award. She received the award from Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai.

Poulter is a futuristic thinker interested in the intersection of strategy, design, development, and data. She enjoys ideating and strategising around how to use data, then building out a design and story, and developing a working product. One of her passions is around building data visualisations using d3.js and Svelte.