As the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development continues on its mission to champion women’s ascension to the highest levels of leadership and challenge systemic barriers to girls and women’s advancement, one of its most fundamental tasks is to gather, generate, analyze, and use pertinent data to ensure its programs and the support it provides its women leaders are evidence-based and responsive to the changes within the African governance landscape.
To this end, last month the EJS Center hosted ‘Mapping Progress in Liberia,’ a webinar that convened several leaders to discuss and assess Liberia’s past, present, and future governance trajectory, utilizing the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG). The event was hosted by Cllr Seward Montgomery Cooper.
The IIAG assesses governance performance in 54 African countries and is the most comprehensive dataset measuring African governance. The results of the 2020 IIAG serve as the most up-to-date baseline of the current challenges facing good governance in Africa. The index assesses governments on their delivery of public goods and services in four categories. Each of these categories—Security and Rule of Law; Participation, Rights, and Inclusion; Human Development, and Foundations for Economic Opportunity—served as the theme of one of four panel discussions held throughout the day.
You can watch each panel discussion below.
Security and Rule of Law
The panel discussion on Security and Rule of Law was moderated by Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin, Vice-President and Professor of Security, Leadership & Development, Kings College London.
Speakers included:
- T. Negbalee Warner, Dean, Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia
- Dr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh, Founder, Angie Brooks International Center
- Major General Prince C. Johnson III, COS, AFL, Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Liberia
Participation, Rights, and Inclusion
The panel discussion on Participation, Rights, and Inclusion was moderated by Ambassador Dr. Al-Hassan Conteh, Liberian Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Speakers included:
- Kou Dorliae, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Justice, Republic of Liberia
- Kula Fofana, President, People’s Foundation Africa
Human Development
The panel discussion on Human Development was moderated by Dr. Olivia Lwabukuna, Tanzanian lawyer and Lecturer in African Laws and Development at SOAS University of London.
Panelists included:
- Moses Zinnah, PhD, VP Academic Affairs, University of Liberia
- Romelle A. Horton, PhD, President, Cuttington University
- Mosoka Fallah, PhD, MA, MPH, Public Health Expert, Former Director-General NPHIL
- Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor, Environmentalist and Founder of the Sustainable Development Institute
- Christiana Hena, MD, MPH, Founder, Healthy Women/Healthy Liberia
Foundations for Economic Opportunity
The panel discussion on Foundations for Economic Opportunity was moderated by Dr. Aloysius Uche Ordu, Senior Fellow, and Director of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Bookings Institution.
Panelists included:
- Boima S. Kamara, Former Minister of Finance of the Republic of Liberia
- Mawine G. Diggs, Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Liberia
- Monie R. Captan, LEC Board Chair; Former CEO, Millenium Challenge Account – Liberia
- Jeanine Cooper, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Liberia