President Sirleaf Departs the Country for the United States and Ethiopia; Returns Next Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Embassy of the Republic of Liberia in the United States , Fri, Jul 10, 2015

(MONROVIA, LIBERIA – Tuesday, July 7, 2015) President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, at the head of a high-level Liberian delegation, has departed the country for official visits to the United States of America and Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.According to an Executive Mansion, at the invitation of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Liberian leader will join her colleagues, Guinean President, Dr. Alpha Condé and Sierra Leonean President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, three countries worse affected by the Ebola virus, to attend an International Ebola Recovery Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Conference will focus international attention on the need for targeted investments to support Ebola recovery priorities over a 24-month period. Such investments will consider the broader risk landscape that includes health, governance and peace building within the three countries and the Mano River sub-region.The Conference will also offer an opportunity to discuss detailed country-based and regional anti-Ebola strategies, and provide a platform to secure pledges of international support that can complement African Union-led efforts and help fill technical and resource gaps.The one-day, high-level conference on Friday, July 10, as well as a technical consultation on Thursday, July 9, aims to present national Ebola recovery strategy documents for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as a regional Ebola recovery strategy document from the Mano River Union.The outcomes include increased international support to the affected countries and region, with concrete financial commitments to support national and regional recovery strategies within a 24-month time frame.The Conference is being held in partnership with the African Union, the African Development Bank, the European Union and the World Bank.Following that Conference, President Sirleaf will  join high-level political representatives, including Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, as well as relevant institutional stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and business sector entities at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Conference runs from July 13 to 16, 2015.The Conference will result in an intergovernmental negotiated and agreed outcome, which should constitute an important contribution to and support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.Set out in U.N. General Assembly resolutions 68/204 and 68/279, the Conference will focus on assessing the progress made in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration and identifying obstacles and constraints encountered in the achievement of the goals and objectives agreed therein, as well as actions and initiatives to overcome these constraints.It will also address new and emerging issues, including in the context of the recent multilateral efforts to promote international development cooperation – the current evolving development cooperation landscape; the interrelationship of all sources of development finance; the synergies between financing objectives across the three dimensions of sustainable development; and the need to support the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015.The Conference will look at reinvigorating and strengthening the financing for development follow-up process.Meanwhile, while President Sirleaf is away from the country, the Minister of National Defense, Mr. Brownie J. Samukai, Jr., will Chair the Cabinet in consultation with Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, Sr. She is expected back home on Wednesday, July 15, 2015.