Radical Inclusion

December 1, 2022

Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation in Sierra Leone, Sengeh was shocked by opposition to his lifting the policy banning pregnant girls from attending school. Everyone, he felt, deserved an education. Here he uses his battle to reverse the ban as a template for a radical reimagining of engrained practices, drawing on personal experiences from racial profiling as a Harvard student to combatting algorithmic bias as a data scientist to envision a more just society. The first title from Melinda French Gates's Moment of Lift Books.

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April 1, 2023
An optimistic approach to fostering greater inclusion. Sengeh, chief innovation officer for the government of Sierra Leone, acknowledges that aspects of systemic exclusion touch everyone's lives at some point, regardless of social or economic status. In this informative and galvanizing book, the author first addresses how exclusionary biases are formed, how they permeate and systematically deconstruct social norms, and why "the pursuit of inclusion is in everyone's interest." As he writes, "debates about exclusion and inclusion can tear families apart--or bring whole societies together." Sengeh dismisses roadblocks like hesitancy, appeasement, or behavioral "code-switching" and offers comprehensive solutions and tactics to achieve inclusiveness. His own experiences with exclusivity include a consistent series of detainments at border control checkpoints in Sierra Leone as well as other countries like Tanzania, Gambia, and Uganda, where girls are not allowed to attend schoolroom classes while visibly pregnant. As a father of two daughters, he is attuned to how females experience a host of exclusionary inequities, including lower pay differentials and social status as well as susceptibility to sexual violence. In engrossing detail, Sengeh describes how, through "active listening," smart timing, and vigorous challenges to traditional religious edicts, he has advocated for progressive changes in his home country and beyond. The most controversial was his role in enacting dramatic changes in traditional school policy and the repealing of the ban on teenage pregnancy in the classroom. Alongside his personal story, the author provides a helpful playbook for building inclusive solutions to many societal problems. These principles include identifying and understanding a particular exclusion, defining one's role in effecting its eradication, and looking outward at other opportunities to cultivate inclusionary behaviors and challenge public policy. Inspirational, motivating, and intellectually sound, Sengeh's instructional guidance seeks to inspire systemic change and encourages readers to fight for diversity and equity in their own communities. Proactive, pragmatic initiatives promoting radical inclusivity across social divides.

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