For example, 80 percent of the population is under the age of 55. 00. And they all trying to sort out the futures from education to careers and maybe even political ambitions. But is that government actually doing enough to empower this massive young generation . My colleague heated kamani went to free town to find out more in a st debate with the youth. Hello and welcome to the 77 percent were here at the prince of will school in free town. The capital of sterile yawn. And in this country, 8 out of every 10 people is under the age of 35. I had to look that number up again because its unbelievable. 80 percent of the population are within the 77 percent. But the question we want to ask today is, is the government doing enough to not just empower this youth, but also make them competitive globally . Who better to answer that question for me than in some thoroughly unions. And i want to begin with harder because youve had the opportunity to not to study abroad, but also have an enterprise here. So perhaps you can give me based on your experience. Do you think that the youth in this country have been unable to empowered enough to basically be part of the Global Community . They are only well as of a few months ago. There were only 3 disciplines in sierra leone when you go to high school. So theres the arts, the commercial and science, and based on my grades, when i saw the becca examination, which is the examination you take before you go to high school, i had a good grade. So i ended up in a science because every smart person is supposed to be a doctor. And most of the things where were taught in school, were not really practical, it was all fury. I learnt about animals in your system so i never got to see it and everything i, lance was basically just theoretical. And i really struggle with these when i got a scholarship to study in norway, in 2015. I to classes like chemistry and biology and in all the experiments which were very practical, i was really struggling and my grades were not reflecting on the Education System that i received in sierra leone was really smart here. And i went there, i realized i was just not exposed to this form of learning. Lets ask the innovator whos actually standing right next to you mohammed. So youre one of the people whos not just creating employment, but also creating solutions for the use case earlier. So tell us briefly what you do and if what 100 saying is receptive of your experience. Yes. So oh, for me here in cl unifirst for want to not as clear, we young people are, are willing to solve problems and take our initiatives to the next stage. But one thing that is also missing is the fact that we dont have the eco system we are weak drive and then succeed for my own initiative. Ive been able to empowered about through only a young people in my defend initiative, wish to engage initiatives on power over 20 communities using wished to energy. Sometimes we wish we are stuck in it. We as we out, we have our ideas and then well see, does this ideas have potential to really grew . Are we from it wound the community that weve started . Its but its talk because there are no supports really um skill up to the next stage. And he was secure funding. Okay, 44. We get to the challenges. Let me, let me go to he is daniel. Because were talking about some of the impediments that come about, particularly after graduating the university. And i know finances was one of the key ones for you. Is it normal or is it a normal occurrence for young people yet to stop there . Tertiary education because they simply no, but there is no school fees. Um i got malcolm in 2016. Whether there is no support financially for me to follow medication. So i decided to move with m santo wishes to allow telecommunication as a serious injury for me just to support medication. And i was working there for the past 6 years. There is no support. I think theres no with and theres no Parliament Like one. It is an individual, right . I was move i said with this is very good. I said i need to walk mom it to push this initiative and its very good. It will empower me and i was open to do engineering rains. I city more. There is a pleasure. Is that of miss its in of to support my mother. Okay. All right, so let me speak to doctor coming here for a 2nd because she is the director of research if im not mistaken, of for delivery and delivery in the ministry of finance. So it sounds to me like, you know, the government has a Great Initiative in place, which is free primary education rather Free Education for all. But then after that, what next . Thats what were hearing. Theyre left to their own devices. Do you think thats true from where youre standing . The thing is. Yes. For years weve been focused on traditional education. Thats the reality. But now were transitioning unseen the awareness and how people approach technical Vocational Training and the need for him to be know, sheep and how he doesnt need to be just one second or you half in one calling to serve. You can serve in multiple ways. You can be a doctor and still be an entre printer, you can bring it up, you know, and then advocate. So having that platform or crating, those systems in which of them are these, they thought and ideas, know they lobby and create set is just that we need to scale up and find ways to accelerate the creation of those spaces. Yes, government has v m freak m Quality Education Program for per m primaries. M primary junior, secondary senior, secondary school. But then its how we form linkages with other sectors and other players that also jiving changing these spaces. We have those and just working towards m and power in girls, those working towards our even driving entrepreneurship. And its is how we can accelerate efforts to bring all of this together and approach this problem in a systematic way. So not working in silos, then we can be able to live for all right. Let me ask catch up because you talked about free and also quality education. You spoke earlier about the differences in how education is passed down. Do you think that the quality of education, what is being taught the back here is enough . I always say one thing i am personally not the free kind of person. And thats my personal opinion because i, you dont think education should be for, i felt sure be accessible and affordable for everyone. Because when its free right now, only to poor people can send your kids to like goldman school. I want it to be a, and i want to be, i want to be involved in sierra leone, where the local trader and a minister can senior kids to the same school because they can afford it. So you have to put the systems in place. What a people taking this children to school. I was part of the for Education System. When i was in secondary school, my school fees were 60000 leons, i got it every was reimbursed me for 45000 loans. But my textbooks were up to a 1000000 and that my parents found, had to, you know, afoot and i feel like with education is not just tuition is so much more involved. And these are the things i didnt have access to, especially as somebody who was in secondary school. And i was privileged enough because i had access to all these textbooks and stuff which made me really smart student. But then there were other kids who couldnt afford it. That mohammed said like, sorry, then, like daniel said, he, he couldnt get to college and honestly it, its sad because he was smart and he still smart. But how many of daniels are out there . How many of daniels dont have his privilege to be on tv . I know daniels i have lived with daniels. I have gone to school with daniels. I come from a community of daniels. Okay. Now, earlier we also talked about access. Lets also focus on the danielles, the girls via her and the women in this community. Do you think this equal opportunities for them within the context of thoroughly on if im dreaming him and using my feminist demand imagination and been optimistic, i will say we can compete. We have access, but the reality is we cant, we dont have access. Ive been in a situation where at the age of 16 i got pregnant and i mean i school and the next thoughts in my head was, if im not going to go through school with this pregnancy, im going to kill myself. Thats because for years, pregnant girls were not given the permission to go to school, they became was julie bola outbreak will, over 14000 girls became pregnant and all of them were kicked out of school. So for me, access is very important and access is not just, im from the font face, say we have free quality education. Access is making sure that the system work for girls. And ill say, progresses me, lake is been done because the people of desolation led the, the most radical campaign ive seen in my life. And thats the campaign for brit pregnant girls to be in school. Weve seen all of the progress weve that women girls, young people, we saw that girls over tics out of school during the bola outbreak. They stood up for their rights to education. So weve had a situation where the now youre described by joseph in there which sounds almost utopian and was actually successful. But eric, working with people on the ground as a journalist and with a youth program, im sure that the stories you hear are wildly different from what were hearing from joseph. And can you tell me what young people express to you as their Biggest Challenges in this country . We talk about the issues of educational issues of employment. It is quite perceived in a different way as it is been perceived in the lenses of the powers that made. So when you go to the place now to tell you about employment, but you see a lot of young people out there who are not employed in a situation. Sometimes you see people would not have access to all certain opportunities. They believe they have the qualifications or less they have to affiliate themselves to the powers that be. Or i was listening to the points of daniel, who couldnt contribute or in school. That is the same situation when you talk to you maybe or people that are into the okada, commercial or writing which is a motorbike. Yeah. Some of them you find out that or theyre there because they dont feel like been there. But because you dont have the opportunities or platforms to move forward, let me come back to your doctor because we are hearing that there is a disconnect. I mean, surely the policy that youre creating behind closed doors sound wonderful, but the implementation 0 way. Where, where does, where does it get lost . So if you look back at how soon as developed over the years, you knew the growth has been in start, stop, stop it, stop by then what has kept us going is how we as the people are resilient and continue to adapt and involve in how we implement design and roll up policies as joseph instead think the development of the radical inclusion policy was quite m inclusive. And we didnt have the validation to the of the Implementation Plan and much an evaluation plan. So it shows that as the country we will not talk in the doing things in the same always we are moving towards doing things in better and more fissions waste. So thats our whole of government approach to Human Capital development. Not just looking at education health, and are we coach about all the factors that interlinked this vector . So if, if they were talking about enhancing and getting farmers to get more seed and fertilize as is also linking those hammers to markets, linking them to the school, fit in program lincoln, this good for the program to the nutrition program. So its having a whole Systems Approach to development. What is the thing is when you implement new policies, impact takes a while to shoot. So thats why we look at intermediate outcomes for now. That number of farmers benefits a number of children in school. We know that investments need to continue to need to be consistent. The need to be owned by every put everybody. Were now looking towards how we can not be left behind in the 40 the industrial revolution. Because youve talked about the 4th industrial revolution. I must come to this because it surprised me dramatically that electricity penetration in this country is just above 20 percent. How can we be talking about robotics and big data when people dont even have access to power . So thats the thing. And when we, if we try to perceive it in the lines of this comes before the us, that, thats where we miss it. There are things that we can do together. And we can do that in more efficient with lets as the person whos already doing it, mohammad, were hearing here that its possible to both be waiting for power supply and still innovate is as true, or is the dr dreaming youre wanting to disclose . We already have seen moliere that walks in different contexts. Yeah. People are develop solutions that can actually be replicated. I can be scaled up. We have, as you said, i literally just above 20 percent access to energy. We have wind mills that we locally fabricated. All we need is one to Scalable Solutions and replicate for more communities. We develop Hydro Generator just from scrubs. All the solutions can solve our energy crisis, but the causes them does not provide a asta approaching institute of our coma took was caleb and then compete for the rest of the world. I know got my, my city, i restricted with funding unless other areas and the wants of pirates. I said, so spas. Energy is needed. And speaking of i know that you already solving those problems. I want to ask cellar to give me this one of your innovations. Can you explain what this is . Because youre trying to solve the problem of energy in this country . Yes. Our from in our driveway. Hundreds, very excited. Shes clapping for years. So i decided to use waste marty us to build the 1st d v antenna just from scratch. Oh, and its from scrubs. And then ive been able to use this to install in over 2000 community to 1000 households. All of this can be scaled up and it can be replicated across depend domains and we are so be our own problem with our own solutions within mid in civilian. So all we need is the platform to, for us to really succeed in these ventures. And then be the next l m max of africa be the next bill gates from africa, which we already of cindys potentials. All right, i want to hear from eric because weve heard that the Rural Community than the youth in the rural areas are experiencing vastly different challenges from the ones being faced here in the city. Can you tell me what some of those are . Okay, so we say for it on is not syria and this is quite common taken from what he was saying earlier. Everything is actually centralized in freetown. So when you have access to certain opportunities for young people, maybe you look at internet penetration. Even those hinder or city do not have access to very much or Better Internet access. Now when you go to the rural area, maybe the kind of university or whatever we have, everybody wants to come to freight on coming to probably College Going to the college of medicine. Of course we have july or the ones that are now doing, you know, to that point, but we need more things that are to be published or decentralized. We dont need every team to be around freetown, also another keeping that you need to take into consideration when we talk about many things like female or gender impairment issues. You find out that many of the people you see there are a champion in this causes probably they are within the city. So how most more can we try to, which are people in orders or areas are right . I speaking of women, i have to come back to josephine because youve been accused of making all the noise only here in the center. Ah festival. Do you agree with that assessment . And if it through what can be done to penetrate the knowledge, the information, the wealth of civil owens are correct. That points because of the work i do is across the country. So the poor courts, positive noise is a very im is, is, is really fully across the country. The walk i do at papa school is making sure that while 17000. 00 out of school girls were living in rural communities, who somehow a pregnant will be left out of it because of the system that perpetually discriminates, their access to education, that we roam safe spaces for them, this is a place as i tell you when i walk in rural communities. I see that the only thing of some of these girls have at the same spaces growing up. Oh girl in this country is a challenge, is a struggle. All right, let me ask cara if people are being responsive because as the woman whos in a position of leadership, i imagine you going to stand in front of a council of men to tell them about something. Do you think they would listen to you . You know, were being told that we need to do things differently. You could want that you might be doing it, but is the country ready . Im going to talk a lot about this patriarchy because i work with ministration. I work with reusable sanitary pads. I remember the 1st time i pitched all a bunch of men in new jersey guesses in the west. They said to me, oh, you sound like ellen mosque, maybe this will come true. Its not because they believed in me, but because they were telling me i was been delusional. But however, a year later, when i developed my product and again, pitched in front of a judge, a panel of men, many of them didnt understand my product. And many of them were just shying away from the topic. And again, i just said, we live in a world where majority are women. And if we as men or we as a society and not addressing issues affecting half of the population, how are we going to like make progress, danny . Oh no, daniel. Once more to mohammed, i have a question for you. Which, you know, im just wondering if youre also suffering from the same predicament where youre going to a banker and telling them about your great innovation. But theyre simply from another generation, are you facing the sort of challenge . Exactly. So its it, i know didnt know the problem, the know what to do, but because the mindsets are different and the up approach to problems are difference less every star, some people will even prefer by in 2000 antennas, are brought done by the localised sauce, the ones that are cheaper on that if they did mention of the kindly get us as an itself. So it says sometimes difficulty with sicilian support in saline on businesses. Even though we have the opportunity, thanks to look our content, that gives us the opportunity to have touch at present to representation of local mid product in all business places. But even our doubts, how many loaners actually been selling on business . There was the, i didnt know you guarantee it is not it, not so by monday to wants inputted thinks, but its 6 time for them to really, really see that what were doing. We bring in values to saloon. So what can be done then . I mean, if mohammed is already doing his