By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) has expressed interest in collaborating with the health campaign group FOCUS 1000 as part of its drive to transform Sierra Leone into an innovation hub.
Focus 1000, a local NGO which uses research to advocate for healthcare services, particularly for children and women, was the host to the Chief Innovation Officer, Dr David Sengeh on Wednesday. Dr Sengeh told a meeting of top officials of the two institutions that collaboration with NGOs like FOCUS 1000 was crucial for government to achieve its broader mandate.
“To help support government, FOCUS 1000 and other NGOs should take ownership of our national development and look to DSTI for collaboration, for engagement and for support,” Dr Sengeh stated.
DSTI was established by President Julius Maada Bio with the goal of using science and innovation to foster development. As part of its mandate, the directorate, which falls under the Office of the President, seeks to help government in achieving its goals through scientifically backed data.
Within the last 15 months since its inauguration, DSTI has worked with and helped many government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) transform research data from analog to digital.
With Focus 1000, the directorate is looking at the possibility of collaborating in areas like data collection and information dissemination. The NGO focuses on the first 1000 days of a child, a crucial period in life to prevent potential harms that could affect babies for the rest of their lives. Among other things, the organization advocates for exclusive breastfeeding and uptake in immunization services.
Focus 1000 has been actively involved in national campaigns dealing with these issues, and a lot of its work has been informed by research.
Paul Sengeh, Head of the Research and Evaluation at Focus 1000, said DSTI could help make their research and development programs easier with some of their innovation drive.
“We have not stayed only in the area of health strictly. We have the capacity to go in to other sectors but our major [area] is research. We could go to into education,” Sengeh stated at the meeting held in the conference room of the NGO at their offices in Tengbe Town.
Paul Sengeh, who is also the father of Dr David Sengeh, noted how some of FOCUS 1000’s work have been used to effect policy changes by government.
“In fact our first project was on water…We did a research and survey on the packaged water industry. We found out that most of the water was polluted. Our intervention made positive results in to regulation,” he said.
Science, technology and innovation is an effective instrument to achieve sustainable development, especially in the area of health and education.
And for organizations like FOCUS 1000 which do vital work in influencing the health attitude of people, collaboration with DSTI holds the key to a lot of possibilities, including scaling up the way they conduct research and deliver their messages the outcome for maximum impact.
© 2019 Politico Online
