London – The world must overcome the extraordinary divisions created by coronavirus and unite to defeat the pandemic, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in a pre-recorded speech in line with other leaders, and played out at the UN General Assembly on Saturday 24th September.

In his virtual address to the Assembly, Boris Johnson will announce a series of new measures to help lead the world out of the crisis and set out an ambitious five-point plan to prevent future pandemics. 

The plan, developed in consultation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Wellcome Trust, starts with a proposal to develop a worldwide network of ‘zoonotic hubs’ to identify dangerous pathogens before they leap from animals to humans, as COVID-19 is believed to have done. 

Other measures include boosting manufacturing capacity for treatments and vaccines, improving pandemic early warning systems, agreeing global protocols for health crises and removing trade barriers. 

The Prime Minister will also announce significant new investment in COVAX, the international COVID-19 vaccines procurement pool. The UK will contribute an initial £71 million to secure purchase rights for up to 27 million vaccine doses for the UK population. This complements other initiatives by the Government to procure any coronavirus vaccine that proves to be safe and effective. 

Alongside the domestic investment the UK will commit £500 million in aid funding for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, a facility to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries access a coronavirus vaccine. The funding will support developing countries in tackling the virus and help to halt the global spread of the pandemic, keeping us all safer.

As he addressed the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister said: 

“After nine months of fighting Covid, the very notion of the international community looks tattered.

“We know that we cannot continue in this way. Unless we unite and turn our fire against our common foe, we know that everyone will lose.

“Now is the time therefore – here at what I devoutly hope will be the first and last ever Zoom UNGA –  for humanity to reach across borders and repair these ugly rifts.”

“Here in the UK, the birthplace of Edward Jenner who pioneered the world’s first vaccine, we are determined to do everything in our power to work with our friends across the UN to heal those divisions and to heal the world.”

To ensure we are match-fit for other global health crises, the Prime Minister will also announce the UK’s pledge of £340 million over the next four years to the World Health Organization – an increase of 30 per cent from the previous four-year period, making Britain one of the largest donors. 

Funding for the WHO will support its vital work in fighting threats to our health worldwide. It will also help to fund an in-depth review into the origins of coronavirus and the implementation of necessary reforms to ensure the WHO is flexible and responsive in future emergencies.

Boris Johnson pledged to use the UK’s G7 presidency next year to work with our global partners to implement the five-point plan, which represents an innovative new approach to preventing global health crises. The proposals he will make today are:

1)            Set up a worldwide network of zoonotic research hubs to spot a new pandemic before it starts. About 60 percent of the pathogens circulating in the human population originated in animals and leapt from one species to the other in a “zoonotic” transmission. Zoonotic research centres would be charged with spotting dangerous animal pathogens before they cross the species barrier and infect human beings.

2)            Develop manufacturing capacity for treatments and vaccines. A strong manufacturing capability, in the UK and around the world, will mean tried and tested treatments and vaccines can be held ready to deploy against emerging threats. 

3)            Design a global pandemic early warning system to predict a coming health crisis. This would require a vast expansion of our ability to collect and analyse samples and distribute the findings, using health data-sharing agreements covering every country. 

4)            Agree global protocols ready for a future health emergency. In the coronavirus pandemic, countries have fought 193 different campaigns against the same enemy. A common set of protocols, covering everything from information sharing to PPE supplies, would allow us to respond more cohesively and effectively.

5)            Reduce the trade barriers which have impeded the coronavirus response. Many countries imposed export controls at the outset of the pandemic, about two thirds of which remain in force. Tariffs on key goods like soap can exceed 30 percent. The UK has committed to lifting tariffs on many COVID-critical products from January 1st. 

In addition to addressing global health issues at UNGA, the Prime Minister is urging international action on climate change and biodiversity. He will address two UNGA events on biodiversity next week. 

The Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced we would be joining COVAX on the 18th September

£500m COVAX AMC funding is in addition to £48m committed during the UK-hosted Global Vaccine Summit, on 4 June 2020.

With this new funding, the UK is the third largest donor to the WHO – after the US and the Gates Foundation. 

CANADA – The Liberian Association of Canada has been awarded emergency funding of $80,932.50 from the Government of Canada’s Emergency Community Support Fund led by Employment and Social Development Canada.

The Canadian Red Cross Society (“CRCS”) is facilitating such grants available to non-profits across Canada to support their direct service delivery for those who are most vulnerable to the health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19. With this funding, the Liberian Association of Canada will mobilize volunteers to reach out to 100 vulnerable families with language barriers either in English and/or in French in Montreal and surrounding areas to address isolation due to COVID-19 and support food security needs.

The association will use this funding over the next four months to help address the impacts of COVID-19 felt by vulnerable Liberian families and individuals who are dealing with severe issues of food security and mental wellbeing. “As a community, the socio-economic and mental wellbeing of our community is our first and foremost priority especially during these unprecedented times of COVID.

We must ensure that the most vulnerable of us feel deeply connected to their communities through these kinds of support programs because their lives and mental health depend on it. That is why our leadership team will continue to work diligently to ensure that our community is not left hopeless in the face of the impact of COVID – 19, said Leo Nupolu Johnson, president of the Liberian Association of Canada. “At the association, the community’s wellbeing is at the core of our mission, and this effort is designed to achieve just that.”

The Emergency Community Support Fund is administered by the Canadian Red Cross Society (“CRCS”) on behalf of the Canadian Government. As part of the Canadian Government’s COVID – 19 emergency relief measures, the Fund is designed to support direct service delivery to those who are most
vulnerable to the health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19 in Canada.

Monrovia – An online meeting to strengthen cooperation between Africa and China in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic was held on April 23, with discussions focusing on China’s experience and the recent anti-coronavirus measure put in place in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The China-Africa Cooperation Anti-epidemic online meeting was held at the Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office and connected with participants in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou in China while participants and African journalits joined remotely from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and other countries.

The discussions further enhanced the mutual understanding and friendship between China and Africa and promoted the development of China-Africa cooperation in regards to anti-epidemic efforts, Chinese officials said. 

The meeting was chaired by Liu Biwei, H.E. Ambassador vice president of the China Public Diplomacy Association.

During the one-hour-thirty minute online meeting, the Chinese authorities connected with journalists in Africa to talk about how China and Africa can further work together to fight the epidemic and address concerns from African journalists on epidemic prevention and control. 

H.E. Ambassador Kuang Weilin, former head of the Chinese Mission to the African Union, said China has entered a new stage of epidemic prevention and control, and that life is gradually returning to normal but many countries and regions are still facing the challenges associated with the epidemic. 

Guangzhou has a significantly increased risk of imported cases. To this end, Guangzhou has taken active and strict prevention and control measures, and these measures are implemented equally, regardless of nationality, Mr. Kuang said. 

He added that his country still faces the challenges brought on by the epidemic, China is actively cooperating with the World Health Organization and other countries.

“The China-Africa friendship is profound. Although China is under pressure from the epidemic, it is still actively providing help and support to Africa,” Kuang said.

Also, Li Tiegang, an expert epidemiologist and member of the Guangzhou COVID-19 Prevention and Control Group was a member of the Ebola Expert Group as part of China’s efforts to Africa in back 2014, also made several comments abut collaboration between China and African countries.

“With our joint efforts, we defeated the Ebola virus at that time, and this time we joined hands and will certainly be able to defeat the new coronavirus,” Li Tiegang said.

Li Tiegang added that government command, community participation, respect for science, concentrated efforts to treat and publicize epidemic information are Guangzhou’s “five effective measures” in responding to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Virginio Bibang Ndong, a student at Southern Medical University in Gangdong, narrated how he has reintegrated in the China society since moving there to study in 2014.

Now in Guangzhou studying at the Southern Medical University, Ndong said that there are many African people in Guangzhou, which makes him feels that Guangzhou is like his “second hometown, since he has made friends with many Chinese people.

He recalled that during the anti-epidemic period, everyone faced challenges that had never been encountered before the outvreak and that there may have been some misunderstandings, but through communication, mutual understanding can be achieved and everyone can move forward together.

Deputy Director-General of the Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office, Luo Jun, responded to hot issues and answered questions from African journalists during the online meeting.

During the teleconference, it emerged that most of the concerns from Africans emerged when local authorities upgraded containment measures by requiring quarantine and nucleic acid tests for all the recent inbound travelers.

“Only by adopting timely and strict measures could the resurgence of the epidemic be prevented,” an official said, “This is what a responsible government should do for its Chinese and foreign nationals.”

The officials said Guangdong has now strengthened communication with consulates in Guangzhou of various countries, and established a normalized daily liaison mechanism.

Other measures taken is the establishment of a special working group to respond to the concerns of Africans timely.

MONROVIA – The 157 passengers of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 who died in the fatal crash Sunday morning were from at least 21 countries. Records provided by the airline shows that no Liberian was onboard.

Ethiopian Airlines is currently giving more details of the passengers who were on board ET 302 that crashed on Sunday shortly after taking off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.

The passengers include: 32 passengers were Kenyan; 18 Canadians,9 Ethiopians, 8

Chinese, 8 Italians, 8 Americans, 7 British, 7 French, 6 from Egypt, 5 from Netherlands, 4 carried UN passport, 4 from Indian, 3 Russians, 2 Moroccans, 2

Israeli, 1 Belgian, 1 Ugandan, 1 Yemeni, 1 Sudanese, 1 from Togo, 1 Mozambican and 1 Norwegian.

The aircraft B-737-800MAX with registration number ET- AVJ took off at 08:38 am local time from Addis Ababa, Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44am.

Search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible causalities. Ethiopian Airlines staff will be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services.

It is believed that there were 149 passengers and 8 crew onboard the flight. Ethiopian Airlines is establishing a passenger information center and telephone number will be available shortly for family or friends of those who may have been on flight ET 302/10 March.

LAGOS – Vote counting started in earnest at many of about 120,000 polling units at the close of polling in Nigeria’s rescheduled general elections on Saturday, 23rd February, even as balloting continued in a number centres where the exercise did not start in time due to the late arrival of polling personnel or materials.

The elections were generally peaceful, after initial slow start and reports of isolated violence in parts of the country.

The Head of the ECOWAS Observation Mission Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, witnessed the counting at the Wuse Zone 6 Primary School polling centre in the nation’s capital Abuja, having toured several centres to observe voting earlier in the day.

Voting was officially slated from 8 am to 2 pm, but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had directed polling units which started late to ensure that all registered voters on the queue by 2 pm should be allowed to cast their ballots.

By 6 pm, two of the seven polling units had counted their ballots for the presidential and National Assembly elections, with the two major parties – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), running neck-and-neck in the preliminary results.

A major challenge could be the lack of power supply at many of the polling units, should the electoral process last well into the night. Provision is made only for power supply at the Ward Collation centres
.
By 8 am, when the Head of ECOWAS Mission visited the Maitama Model Primary school polling units also in Abuja, polling officials were still setting up their materials, while voting only started at the centre with 11 polling stations by 9.39 am. By 10.20 am, some 22 voters had cast their ballots at polling unit one, and 12 voters by 10 am at polling unit 6.

The first voter cast his ballot by 9.30 am at nearby Maitama Model Secondary school polling centre with five polling units.

Similarly, at Durumi II polling centre, voting started at 9.20 am. However, by mid-day the process had picked up.

Agents of the major political parties were on ground to follow the process with security agents also maintaining law and order at various polling centres visited by the Head of the ECOWAS Observation Mission. The elderly, pregnant women and persons with disability were given priority at several polling units.

Madam Johnson-Sirleaf, who also visited the ECOWAS election Situation Room, noted that the electoral process was generally peaceful with the prospect for a credible outcome.

INEC, citing logistical and operational challenges had postponed the presidential and National Assembly polls from 16th to 23rd February, and moved the governorship and State Houses of Assembly votes from 2nd to 9th March.

Nigeria’s 91 registered political parties fielded 73 presidential candidates, including incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, who is seeking a second mandate of four years, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP.

Some 72.7 million of Nigeria’s 84 million registered voters, who have their Permanent Voters Cards, are electing a president, 29 State governors, 109 senators, 991 lawmakers of the National and State Houses of Assembly, six Area Council Chairperson and 62 Councillors in the Federal Capital Abuja, from among 1,558 candidates contesting the various positions.

WASHINGTON – World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has announced that he will be stepping down from his position after more than six years in which the institution’s shareholders provided strong support to multiple initiatives to ensure that the Bank Group retains strong leadership in the world of global development. 

“It has been a great honor to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime,” said Kim.

“The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity.  Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege.”

Under Kim’s leadership, and with the backing of the Bank Group’s 189-member countries, the institution in 2012 established two goals: to end extreme poverty by 2030; and to boost shared prosperity, focusing on the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. These goals now guide and inform the institution in its daily work around the globe.

In addition, shareholders strongly supported measures to ensure that the Bank Group be even better positioned to respond to the development needs of clients.

The Bank Group’s Fund for the Poorest, IDA, achieved two successive, record replenishments, which enabled the institution to increase its work in areas suffering from fragility, conflict, and violence.

Also in April 2018, the Bank Group’s Governors overwhelmingly approved a historic USD$13 billion capital increase for IBRD and IFC that will allow the Bank Group to support countries in reaching their development goals while responding to crises such as climate change, pandemics, fragility, and underinvestment in human capital around the world.

Over the past 6+ years, the institutions of the World Bank Group have provided financing at levels never seen outside of a financial crisis. 

Recognizing the power of capital markets to transform development finance, the Bank Group during Kim’s tenure also launched several new innovative financial instruments, including facilities to address infrastructure needs, prevent pandemics, and help the millions of people forcibly displaced from their homes by climate shocks, conflict, and violence. The Bank is also working with the United Nations and leading technology companies to implement the Famine Action Mechanism, to detect warning signs earlier and prevent famines before they begin. 

During his term, President Kim emphasized that one of the greatest needs in the developing world is infrastructure finance, and he pushed the Bank Group to maximize finance for development by working with a new cadre of private sector partners committed to building sustainable, climate-smart infrastructure in developing countries. 

To that end, Kim has announced that, immediately after his departure, he will join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries.  The details of this new position will be announced shortly.

In addition to working on infrastructure investments, Kim announced that he will also be re-joining the board of Partners In Health (PIH), an organization he co-founded more than 30 years ago. 

“I look forward to working once again with my longtime friends and colleagues at PIH on a range of issues in global health and education.  I will also continue my engagement with Brown University as a trustee of the Corporation and look forward to serving as a Senior Fellow at Brown’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.”Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim President effective February 1.

New York – The main session of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) commonly known as the Fourth Committee, got off to a successful start on Thursday, October 4, with the election of Liberia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative to the United Nations as chair.

His Excellency Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Sr. was elected by acclamation at the first plenary meeting of the Fourth Committee for the 73rd session of the UNGA.

The fourth Committee is one of six main Committees of the UNGA and comprises one hundred ninety-three Member States of the United Nations with equal representation.

In his opening remarks following his election, Ambassador Kemayah thanked the African Group of Ambassadors to the United Nations and all UN Member States for the distinction bestowed on Liberia and the confidence reposed in him to lead such an important Committee.

“I should also like to avail myself of this opportunity, and on behalf of His Excellency Dr. George Manneh Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia, the Government and People of Liberia, my family, and in my own name express my deepest appreciation to all Member States for the privilege and distinction you have bestowed upon my country, and on me personally, through my election as Chair of this very important Committee of the General Assembly; particularly so, to the African Group, which considered our expression of interest made upon arrival here at the United Nations, before and after the presentation of my Letters of Credence, and endorsed me as the African candidate to serve in said capacity. I am indeed honored and deeply indebted to all of you for the trust and confidence you have reposed in me by my elections.” he said.

A dispatch from Liberia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations quotes Ambassador Kemayah as saying that “Liberia relishes and cherishes the preferment and described it as a step forward in regaining our place in the comity of nations and an increasing aspiration to contribute to global initiatives geared toward the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security, as well as development”.

Ambassador Kemayah congratulated His Excellency Ambassador Rafael Darío Ramirez Carreño of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and members of the Bureau for the skillful and effective manner which they conducted the proceedings of the Fourth Committee at the seventy- second (72nd) session.

He assured his colleagues that he would do his utmost to ensure that the Committee succeeds in its work. ” I wish to assure all delegations that I shall do my utmost to discharge my duties and responsibilities in order to ensure that our work as the Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee of the Seventy-Third (73rd) session of the UNGA is carried out efficiently and that our endeavors yield success.

“It is my fervent hope that our deliberations can be guided by the spirit of consensus, respect and understanding”. He emphasized.

Taking over the gavel of authority, Ambassador Kemayah chaired the first plenary session and led the committee in approving its program of work and time limits for statements, as well as the establishment of the Working Group of the Whole on Outer Space among others.

The Fourth Committee during its seventy-third Session which runs from October 4 to November 16, 2018, will consider a broad range of global issues including decolonization, review of peacekeeping operations and special political missions, relief for Palestinian refugees, atomic radiation, assistance in mine action, as well as the peaceful uses of outer space; which have been captured under sixty three (63) agenda items.

Following the adjournment of the first plenary session, several Permanent Representatives of UN Member States congratulated Ambassador Kemayah on his election and splendid performance, and wished him and Liberia a successful chairmanship.

The Chairmanship of the Fourth Committee is the first for Ambassador Kemayah since assuming his duties at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations three weeks ago, and a long wait for Liberia; coming fifty seven (57) years after the late Ambassador and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Her Excellency Angie Brooks Randolph, chaired the Fourth Committee during the 1961 Session of the General Assembly.

Ambassador Kemayah will be assisted by Saudi Arabia, Hungary and Ireland as Vice Chairs, whilst the Plurinational State of Bolivia will serve as Rapporteur.