On the 3^rd November 2020, the Ministry of Youth Affairs (MOYA) in collaboration with National Youth Commission (NAYCOM), National Youth Service (NYS) and with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), officially launched the 2020 Social Good Summit (SGS) during a press conference held at the Conference Room of MOYA.

The press conference also marked an official call for applications from young people in Sierra Leone with creative ideas and/or with impactful contributions to their communities.

Formerly dubbed as the National Youth Innovation Awards, this year’s SGS is renamed National Youth Innovation & Ambassador Awards to further recognize young people who have brought meaningful initiatives to their districts with catalytic development impacts that bolster youthful contribution in national development and accelerate progress for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), marking the 7^th edition of the SGS.

Every year, our local version of the global Social Good Summit has succeeded to attract hundreds of applications from young people with budding and potentially scalable solutions and indeed, in previous summits showcased the realities of the development challenges faced by individuals and at community levels. Our interaction with young people who have participated in previous SGS is our attestation to believe that young people in Sierra Leone are now embolden with creative ideas and tools and have demonstrated impactful potentials at community level that range from the development of an auto irrigation designed to encourage all year-round farming to the deployment of an upgrade traditional water well with inbuilt filtration system to increase production and productivity within the agricultural sector and provide safe water for domestic use in our communities respectively, among others.

“The SGS is one initiative His Excellency President Bio strongly supports and I will continue to work with UNDP and other partners at village, chiefdom, to district level to encourage young people particularly women,  to participate in the Summit”-says Mohamed Orman Bangura, Minister of Youth Affairs.

Today, with support from UNDP, thousands of residents in 10 slum communities in Sierra Leone are now benefiting from a value-added water well system that is very child friendly and safe, thus making associated risks with open water well system a thing of the past. Thanks to young people! 

Beyond Innovation

This year’s SGS is different for more than one reason;

1.       MOYA and partners have expanded the scope of the Summit to present a ‘combo package’, going beyond innovation to incorporate and recognize youthful interventions that does not necessarily be classified as innovative but rather impactful. The launch of the National Youth Ambassadorship Award is a collaborative effort to design and deliver a structured pathway to confer this Title to natural young leaders who have shown leadership in various aspects in their communities.

2.       Also introduced in this 7^th edition is a 3-day bootcamp for the innovation component, where 10 regional qualifiers will be equipped with basic skills and prepped for their final TV pitch;

3.       Another noteworthy component in this 2020 event recognizes the emerging global challenges brought by the global Covid-19 pandemic and celebrates the role young people are playing to contain the spread of the virus by developing Covid-19 related equipment.

2020 Awards categories:

Three categories of award will be given in this year’s SGS competition;

1.       COVID -19 Award: this will be given to local innovators who were among the first known innovators to create outstanding solutions in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

2.       Innovation Competition Award: will be given to one male and one female winner each.

3.       Youth Ambassador’s Award: will be given to 10 successful ambassadors who will be given the title of ‘’National Youth Ambassador 2020’’ for their various regions.

The question we ask is, are you a young person in Sierra Leone with ideas, creativity and use of technology to solve local development challenges or have made meaningful impact in your community or district?  Then the Social Good Summit is here for you to let us know what you’re working on and learn from you how it can be harnessed for the greater good. So, apply now!!

Applications guidelines and form for Innovation Competition Award

Applications guidelines and form for Youth Ambassador Award