Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge

Improving children’s access to and quality of education, for increased learning outcomes.

  • Location

    Sierra Leone

  • Launch

    Sep 2022

  • Area

    Education & Employment

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

  • Education Outcomes Fund

  • Government of Sierra Leone

Delivery Partners

  • Rising Academy

  • Street Child

  • EducAid

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

  • Education Outcomes Fund

  • Government of Sierra Leone

Delivery Partners

  • Rising Academy

  • Street Child

  • EducAid

  • Mila founded and leads Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP). At BOP, we work to radically improve human services and environmental initiatives to improve outcomes for people and value for society. Programmes BOP supports are dedicated to empowering people across the world to improve their lives, in areas ranging from education and wellbeing to housing, child protection, employment and environmental protection. Mila is on boards of Positive Families Partnership, Stronger Families, Forward, North East Lincolnshire Thrive, Ways to Wellness, Education Outcomes Partnerships, along with other family, employment, and refugee support focused programmes.

    Mila is also a Trustee for Clore Social Leadership, organisation dedicated to providing social leaders with world class leadership development.

    Prior to Bridges, Mila’s career spanned public, private, and third sector. Mila helped create and run Education Generation, a crowdsourcing social enterprise focused on enabling young leaders in low-and middle-income countries to participate in some of the world’s most forward-thinking education programmes.

  • Amit, Executive Director at Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, has been working with Bridges for the last 3 years with a focus on our work in low- and middle-income countries. During this time, Amit has supported the creation of Outcomes Partnerships related to:

    • Helping families stay together through family therapy in the UK
    • Improving quality of education provision in West Africa and South Asia
    • Plastics waste recycling in West Africa
    • Access to clean water in Southeast Asia
    • Employment opportunities in Turkey

    Prior to joining Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, Amit worked for Social Finance where he created some of the most innovative social impact bonds in the UK. Amit spent his early career in banking and consulting, after which he ran a consulting organisation and charity focused on innovation in education.

    Amit holds a Bachelor of Science from Nottingham University in the UK.

  • Ali’s role at BOP involves supporting the development of an international portfolio of impact bonds, with a focus on investments in education – including the Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge and the Ghana Education Outcomes Programme.

    Prior to joining Bridges, Ali worked with Ark’s Education Partnership Group to drive process improvements in public and private organisations in West Africa and South-East Asia.

    Earlier in his career, Ali has worked with the World Bank and McKinsey on improving management and financial practices in the public sector. He has also led a tech-based startup, funded by Google, specialising in using technology for increased operational efficiency.

  • Jonny is the Programme Director for our international education projects which we support via the Sustainable Development Goals Outcomes initiative.  The programmes focus on improving learning outcomes for children, while also improving systemic approaches to education in partnership with host governments and our delivery partners.

    Jonny has extensive experience in leading programmes and teams in the international sphere across the public, private, and NGO sectors. He has lived and worked in a range of international contexts including Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Nigeria working with communities affected by conflict, crisis, and poverty.  He holds a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics.

Overview

The Sierra Leone Innovation Challenge is improving learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy for marginalised students.

The Sierra Leone Innovation Challenge is improving learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy for marginalised students, especially girls, in primary schools across five geographical areas in the country.

BOP has partnered with three organisations – Rising Academy, Street Child and EducAid – to deliver this exciting programme. As well as learning outcomes, the collaboration also tackles dated systemic challenges in public schools, such as lack of teacher ownership and capacity of voluntary teachers.

Outcomes

Over 40,000 students have begun this programme, which is currently in the second year of implementation. As it progresses, we will update this page with outcomes achieved. Stay tuned!

  • 40952

    Starts to the programme

  • $2.2m

    outcomes achieved