THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Monrovia, Liberia

NEWS SUMMARY FOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015

News of Vice President Joseph Boakai's donation of US$500,000 worth of assorted medical supplies in Grand Cape Mount County, the Vice President for Peace Programs of Carter Center, Jordan Ryan, emphasis for more community involvement as Liberia prepares to take over its own security and the National Housing Authority, NHA, agreement with the Ministry of Health to construct 100 housing units for health workers across Liberia are stories dominating today's summary of the local dailies. 

Dominant Stories

VP Boakai Lauds Community Initiative Donates US$500,000 Assorted Medical Supplies to Health Center

Vice President Joseph Boakai has praised a community initiative by citizens of Sewu Town, Grand Cape Mount County, a small town on the border with Sierra Leone, for coming together to build a health center and a road after one of their sons rallied them into doing so. The Vice President was in Sewu Town on Tuesday, October 6, to donate an assortment of medical supplies to the health center, which was constructed by community members. “I am happy to be in Sewu in order to help the people of this town, and I want to thank you for this initiative of coming together to help yourselves,” he told the townspeople. “It is just the beginning of the good things that will come to you. This clinic is for you. You will have to take good care of the facility and those who will come from Monrovia or elsewhere to work here.” The Daily Observer quotes the Vice President as saying that the materials came from friends in the US city of Phoenix, Arizona, where he had visited in 2012. He stated that when Liberia was hit by the Ebola virus, some Liberians whom he had met in Arizona, called and said, “We have some medical supplies coming to you to help our people.”

Related Captions: To Newly Constructed Clinic In Cape Mount: VP Boakai Donates US$500,000 Worth Of Equipment(Heritage),

Citizens' Involvement Critical to UNMIL Drawdown-Ryan

The Vice President for Peace Programs of Carter Center, Jordan Ryan, has stressed the need for more community involvement and the use of alternative dispute resolution as Liberia prepares to take over its own security when UNMIL draws down by September 2016. "The country has done a lot of work and has developed an appreciable level of capacity over the years, but there is a need for more community involvement and the use of alternative dispute resolution," he stated over the weekend in Gbarnga City, Bong County, during a special reception ceremony in his honor, by traditional leaders and local authorities, the In Profile Daily writes.

Related Captions: Carter Center’s Jordan Ryan Stresses Community Involvement(Heritage), Carter Center VP Visits Liberia-Emphasizes Community Involvement hard Of UNMIL's Drawdown(Hot Pepper)

100 Housing Units For Health Workers

The National Housing Authority, NHA, has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to construct 100 housing units for health workers across Liberia. The project will be financed by the World Bank thru the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment or LBDI, purely Liberian-owned. Deputy Managing Director for Administration Prince Anything Wreh disclosure that the NHA is in the process of constructing housing units in eight of Liberia’s 15 counties. Addressing reporters Tuesday at the Ministry of Information on Capitol Hill, director Wreh said the project is geared at buttressing government’s decentralization efforts. He said that the units will enable health workers to be stable in a county and feel at home, adding that the facilities will be offered at a very affordable cost, according to the New Dawn newspaper.

Related Captions: Health Workers To Get Low Housing Units(The Inquirer),US$500k Pact: Health Workers To Benefit From Housing Units(FrontPage Africa)

OTHER STORIES

Senate Receives US$256.7M MCC Grant For Ratification

The Daily Observer reports that the Senate yesterday received from President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for ratification, an agreement between the Government of Liberia (GOL) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States Government for a grant of US$256.7 million to assist in the development of the energy sector, road maintenance and technical capacity building. President Sirleaf informed the lawmakers that for several years Liberia has undergone close scrutiny to qualify the country for a United States compact plan. “This achievement is due to the zealous effort employed by government as a whole, and for this we must all be commended.” She said resources from the grant in the energy sector will enable the country to fund the fourth turbine of the Mount Coffee Power Plant and raise the capacity to over 80 megawatts of power. “Given the importance of that project and the project agreed under the compact, I respectfully request your quick ratification of this agreement, which is in the interest of our people…” the President’s letter read.

200 Ebola Survivors Train in Entrepreneurship

The Daily Observer pens that over 200 Ebola survivors over the weekend ended 10-day ‘intensive’ entrepreneurship training. The executive director of a local business group under the canopy, “Business Link,” Madam Edwina D. Vankun-Lincoln, said the training was intended to empower those Ebola survivors, who are benefiting from donors funding with skills to manage the little resources. “They will not always be called Ebola survivors so it is now time for them to make use of what they are getting from donor organizations to empower themselves,” she said. The ceremony was held at the Compound of ELWA in Paynesville, where Madam Vankun-Lincoln said Ebola survivors are now receiving little funding from organizations of goodwill, but cautioned them that their title as “Ebola Survivors” would eventually change as time goes by. 

Liberia To Join WTO With Adoption Of Accession Package

According to the FrontPage Africa newspaper, Liberia today will present its Draft Accession Package to the members of the Working Party on Liberia Accession to the World Trade Organization for adoption and referendum. This represents the final process of Liberia's accession process in its ambitious roadmap to join the WTO at the WTO, Ministerial 10 conference to be held in December in Nairobi. The Nairobi Ministerial Conference 10 represents the first time the WTO conference, held every two years, to be held on sub-Sahara Africa since its inception in 1995. the daily writes that today the Liberian Delegation, led by its Chief Negotiator, Hon. Axel M. Addy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, will participate in the final working party meeting and will also host the Friends of Liberia Accession event to recognize the support of the many partners that have supported Liberia over the last seven years on the accession process.  Today, the Delegation will conclude the substantive activities of accession of Liberia after ten (10) months of intense work and negotiations in Liberia, the US, Brussels and Geneva and commence work on fundraising for the implementation of domestic reforms as per its commitment obligations in its accession package.

UNMIL Trains Human Rights Defenders

In the wake of growing concerns, fears and uncertainty among citizenry regarding the security and human rights situation in Liberia, following the departure of the United Nation Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2006, the UN mission has begun the training of human defenders across the country. The human rights defenders came from different human rights and civil society organizations in both rural and urban communities. They will be responsible for monitoring and reporting on human rights violations in the country when the UN finally withdraws its troops from Liberia. The refresher training which took place recently in the conference hall of the German Embassy in Monrovia, is the first series of capacity building initiative undertaken by UNMIL through its Human Rights Protection Section and it brought together 36 CSO organizations, the In Profile Daily writes. 

Ellen Applauds U.S. based Groups….for Library Project at Tubman University

A back page story of the News newspaper writes that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has praised the United States based nonprofit William V. S. Tubman University Foundation and the Marylanders for Progress (MFP) for the project both organizations are spearheading to construct a state of the art electronic library and learning center at the W.V.S. Tubman University (TU) in Maryland County. According to a dispatch, the Liberian leader was speaking late last evening at a special event organized by the W.V.S. Tubman University Foundation and the MFP in Washington, D. C., USA.

Liberia Needs 40,000 Doctors

The Internal Medicine Physician at the government-owned John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Sinkor, Monrovia has said that Liberia needs 40,000 Medical Doctors to enable the country gets rid of maternal deaths. Dr. Philip Ireland said the country’s struggling 200 Medical Doctors lack the capacity to reduce maternal deaths here, emphasizing that 40,000 Medical Doctors trained in specialized areas of the medical profession will go a long way in strengthening Liberia’s health sector. The New Dawn newspaper writes that Dr. Ireland spoke Monday, October 5, during presentation of the Post-graduate Medicine Education of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine held in the auditorium of the Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts or TNIMA, at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Sinkor.

Related Caption: To Strengthen Liberia's Health Sector 40,000 Medical Doctors Needed-Dr. Ireland Discloses(The Informer)