THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Monrovia, Liberia.

NEWS SUMMARY FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015

Lawmakers resume work with a challenge to consider the interest of the citizens above their personal interests, a European Union diplomat commendation to Liberians for their robust response in tackling the deadly Ebola virus and House Speaker J. Alex Tyler’s approval of the Liberian media coverage of the December 20, 2014 Special Senatorial Election are stories dominating our summary of today’s local dailies.

DOMINANT STORIES

Lawmakers Return From Break

Members of the 53rd Legislature have resumed work following a brief agriculture break. Article 32 (a) of the Liberian Constitution states that ”The Legislature shall assemble in regular session once a year on the second working Monday in January. The ceremony was graced by 12 of the 15 newly elected senators during the 2014 Mid-term Senatorial election, as the remaining three senators' fate remained in limbo due to a stay order by the Supreme Court. Speaking at a joint program Monday, House Speaker Alex Tyler called on the three branches of government to work together in meeting the needs of the citizens as well as moving the country's development agenda forward. Speaker Tyler said the Legislature counts on other branches, especially the Executive in achieving the rapid development Liberia is craving for. The House Speaker said a close and smooth relationship is required among the three branches in addressing the development needs of the country. “We stood together as a government, so must we stand together on all other issues confronting us. It is evident from this recent past that when the three branches hold the government is bound to succeed with dividends darning to the people,” Speaker Tyler indicated. In remarks, Vice President Joseph Boakai challenged the lawmakers to consider the interest of the citizens above their personal interests. Vice President Boakai further cautioned the lawmakers to always remember that they are answerable to their people; therefore, they must do everything possible to exercise the confidence, according to the News newspaper.

Related Captions: VP Boakai Challenges Newly Inducted Senators(Heritage), VP Boakai: “We Cannot Afford Distractions” As 72 Legislations Await(Daily Observer), Legislators Resume 4th Session(The Inquirer), ‘Serve The People, Not Yourselves’ Newly-Elected Senators Told(FrontPage Africa)

EU Pleased With Liberia’s Ebola Response As Health Min. Begs for More Money

Mr. Stefano Ellero, Head of Development Cooperation Section (II) Infrastructure and Social Sectors, Delegation of the European Union to Liberia, has declared that the EU is ‘pleased’ with the Liberian Government’s response to the Ebola crisis. The EU diplomat commended the government and people for their robust response in tackling the deadly Ebola virus, which has claimed so many lives in Liberia. However, he cautioned everyone that the virus was not yet eradicated from the country and urged everyone to remain steadfast and continue to follow all the preventive measures. Mr. Ellero spoke Monday at the formal opening of a three-day Stakeholders’ Consultative Meeting on Health Systems Assessment and Building Resilient Health Systems for Liberia. Just before he pronounced the conference formally opened, Health and Social Welfare Minister, Dr. Walter T. Gwenigale, appealed for more money for the health sector. Min. Gwenigale directed his plea to the arm of government which apportions money to functionaries of the government and to the international community, including the EU, United Nations and US Government. He said the health sector has been gravely hit by the Ebola virus disease and that more money was needed in order to fill in the gaps that the virus has created in the nation’s health sector. The three-day stakeholders’ forum, which is being held in Paynesville City, follows the 10 – 11 December 2014 Geneva High Level Meeting (HLM) on building resilient systems for health in Ebola affected countries, writes the Daily Observer.

Related Captions: Curbing A Nightmare Stakeholder Meeting To Sort Out Health System Troubles(FrontPage Africa), Liberia Is Not Still Prepared To Fight Ebola…Asserts Minister Gwnegale, Terms Budget as A ‘Joke’(Heritage)

Tyler Extols Liberian Media

Speaker J. Alex Tyler has commended the Liberia’s independent media for what he described as “the professional and splendid coverage of the December 20, 2014 Special Senatorial Election in the country”. At a reception marking the official opening of the 4^th Session of the 53^rd National Legislature yesterday at the Capitol Building in Monrovia, Speaker Tyler thanked the media for its “balanced, credible and on-the-spot reportage in the recently ended election nationwide”. “For the first time in my political life, I witnessed such keen and professional work done by the media. As watchdogs of our democracy, they help keep the process honest by being in every nook and cranny of the Republic during dark and difficult nights, making sure that only genuine results were communicated,” Speaker Tyler declared. The Bomi County Representative asserted, “Without smart-phones or laptops or other sophisticated gadgetry of the Western media and, without any immediate pecuniary dividends deriving to themselves, they labored in rain, in stress-and-strain and many other difficult conditions to ensure that only the truth, and nothing but the truth about the elections got out”. He pledged his unflinching support, with the assistance of his colleagues, to ensure that appropriate budgetary consideration be made to facilitate proper training for the media, reports the Daily Observer.

Related Captions: Speaker advances budgetary support for Journalists-As Legislature Begins 4^th Session(INSIGHT), Speaker Tyler Rains Praises On Media, Promises Training(FrontPage Africa)

OTHER STORIES

British Gov’t Pledges US4m To Liberia’s Health Sector Pool Fund

The British Government through its Ambassador here has pledge to make a US$4 million contribution to Liberia Health Sector Pool Fund. Liberia Health Sector Pool Fund was established in 2009 by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to support the National Health Plan. It started with four contribution donors, including; UNICEF, UNHCR, DFID ‘UK Department for International Development’ and Irish Aid. The amount of funds contributed at that time was US$13.5million with prospects for further additional contributions. In an article published in January 2011, Jacob Hudges, wrote that ‘although it is a new mechanism, more than US$35 million has already been committed to the Health Sector Pool Fund, much of it by the UK’s department for International development. According to the Heritage newspaper, one third of the government hospitals and clinics in Liberia are now being financed through it.

Massachusetts Doctor Who Beat Ebola Heading Back To Liberia

The INSIGHT newspaper reports that the Massachusetts doctor who beat the Ebola virus he contracted while working in Liberia is returning to West Africa. Dr. Rick Sacra of Holden, is flying to Liberia on Thursday. Sacra is an Assistant Professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has worked frequently in West Africa as a missionary for the North Carolina-based Christian organization SIM. He is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday to discuss his work and the Ebola outbreak. He's not scheduled to work with Ebola patients on this trip, but will treat patients with malaria and other chronic health issues. Sacra spent weeks in an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital recovering from Ebola in the fall. He is now immune to the disease blamed for the deaths of thousands in West Africa.

Related Caption: Massachusetts Doctor Returning to Liberia(WEST AFRICA INFO POST)

CSOs Launch 21-Day Community Ebola Initiative

Several local and international civil society and community based organizations have launched a 21-day temperature check and monitoring to help create awareness and combat the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia. Through Straight From the Heart and its partner, the Ebola Awareness Project is being launched under the Theme: Listening to Communities; Engaging Community Partners to Know Ebola and Prevent Transmission of EVD through 21 Days Body Temperature Check. According to the coordinator of the project, Facia Harris, the project is a significant step by local and international non-profit organizations to help create awareness in communities in and around Monrovia on the importance of prevention mechanisms, which include 21 days of body temperature and monitoring. “We are reaching out to 10 households in the community to deliver the education of Ebola prevention and transmission by checking and monitoring body temperatures for 21 days” She said. In addition, the team of civil society organizations will also be providing tutorials to all school-age children in the 10 households in and around Monrovia on how to protect themselves against catching the deadly virus, which has already claimed the lives of thousands of Liberians and people in neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, writes the Daily Observer.

Anti-Ebola MRU Ministerial Meeting Underway in Conakry

According to the In Profile Daily, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has pledged $35 million to support countries fighting the Ebola disease. The General Manager of the Bank, Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, made the pledge at the opening of an anti-Ebola Ministerial meeting of Mano River Union Countries that kicked off in the Guinean Capital Conakry Monday.  The meeting brought together representatives   from the Mano River Union member countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which also are the hardest hit Ebola Countries.