President Bio Discusses Education, Innovation and Private Sector Support with Big Win Philanthropy

Paris, France, Monday 11 November 2019 －His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has met Jamie Cooper, founder and Board Chair of Big Win Philanthropy, with more than 20 years’ experience in bringing private-sector, government and non-profit leaders together to pursue an innovative policy on economic and social issues.

Talking about the charity on the margins of
the Paris Peace Conference on Monday, the global philanthropist said
that they focus on three strategic objectives – namely brain
development, which includes early childhood learning; education and job
creation. She also shared with the President their experience in
implementing projects in other countries and their focus on
multi-sectoral collaboration for successful project implementation.

“We have followed that education is your passion and we are interested
in supporting those who are passionate about young people and children,”
Ms Cooper said.

In his response, President Bio said that as a
government they had passion for education and had therefore identified
human capital as a catalyst to accelerating national development, adding
that it was not about the type of education being offered, it was about
education that would be necessary for the 21st century.

“To our
minds, we believe that education lays the most solid foundation for
sustainable development,” President Bio said and further informed the
founder of Big Win Foundation that the government was planning a
national dialogue on education for the future.

Sierra Leone’s
Minister-designate for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr David Moinina
Sengeh, spoke on the area of inter-ministerial collaboration and stated
that the ministries of basic and secondary education, agriculture,
gender and children’s affairs, youth affairs, health and sanitation and
higher and technical education would collaborate on a singular
government proposal for the creation of a comprehensive early childhood
education and learning centre for nutrition, health, survival and more.

Big Win partners with visionary leaders in countries undergoing
demographic transitions to transform the life opportunities of their
burgeoning child and youth populations and, at the same time, bolster
future economic growth and national stability. Big Win supports an array
of initiatives to build enhanced leadership capacity. This includes
the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, which Ms. Cooper
co-conceived, and the Amujae program of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Centre.