Meetup Overview
University: Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) – University of Sierra Leone
Date: 23 August 2025
Venue: DSTI Hub, IPAM Main Campus
Organizing Team:
-
Sheku Jan Kamara
-
Ibrahim Success Swaray
Total Number of Participants: 30
Total numbers of Male: 28
Total numbers of Female : 2
Discussion Topic / Theme
“Tech For Good: Building and Promoting Digital Public Goods”
Guest Speaker / Stakeholder
Mr. Tejan– Member of the Coding Community, Tech Educator & Developer
Event Summary
The DPG University Meetup at IPAM was a resounding success. The event began with a warm welcoming address by Sheku Jan Kamara, who also introduced the agenda for the session. He gave participants an in-depth presentation on Digital Public Goods (DPGs)— touching on their definition, mission, vision, standards, and real-life examples both globally and locally. The importance of youth and universities in contributing to and promoting DPGs was also highlighted.
The guest speaker, Mr. Tejan, delivered a practical, hands-on session focused on Git, GitHub, and the DPG Pipeline. His engaging approach allowed students to not just understand these tools but to navigate and use them in real time. Participants were able to create accounts, make repositories, and practice committing projects.
To keep the session interactive and exciting, a mini-competition was introduced. Any participant who could successfully complete the process and commit a project to GitHub stood a chance to win a DPG book. This added energy and engagement to the entire meetup.
Despite the challenge of rain, student turnout was impressive — a testament to the relevance of the topic and the enthusiasm of the organizing team. The event concluded with refreshments for all participants.
Key Insights / Highlights
The speakers emphasized the role of open-source technology in addressing local challenges.
Students were introduced to Git, GitHub, and DPG pipeline as a collaborative platform for building Digital Public Goods (DPGs).
There was strong interest among participants in civic-tech tools, especially those targeting education and health.
The session inspired ideas around forming project-based teams within the IPAM DPG Club to contribute to global DPG efforts.
Interactive and practical session
First-time GitHub users successfully made commits
Strong student engagement and participation
Educational competition with prizes
Positive feedback from participants
Challenges or Lessons Learned (
Slight improvement):
Minor delays occurred during the initial tech setup, but were resolved quickly by the organizing team.
Notably, several participants raised the concern of transportation support to enable smoother attendance for future meetups.
Due to the rain, we were unable to get large numbers of participants as compared to the first Meetup.
Photos (
):
Below are some of the photos we took during the program
What’s Next?
we will communicate that later.
Notes
All media and communications by DPG student chapters are in collaboration with, and proudly cite:
The Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Communication, Technology, and Innovation.
