Mayor Koijee In Washington D.C.

The Mayor of Monrovia his Lordship Jefferson T. Koijee is currently in Washington D.C, United States of America  making a genuine case for the city of Monrovia and sharing with other leaders the challenges face by our city and how they can contribute in making our capital one of the best in  the world. 

Speaking at the forum  today, Mayor Koijee highlighted the ongoing activities the City is engaged with and how he welcome the support from donors in addressing some of these challenges and expertise in building on the progress made thus far.

“It’s indeed a great honor to form part of this year’s panel and I  am grateful to be  among change makers around the world , to share with you my own experience of our stewardship at the City Government of Monrovia. Mayor Koijee stated.

Mayor Koijee who was asked whether, “Africa’s future is urban . Monrovia is already undergoing rapid change demographically and modernizing. In his capacity as Mayor of Monrovia ,what are his key objectives and challenges as he facilitates this transition? How can international and national stakeholders help  achieve these objectives ?”

Mayor Koijee commended the organizers for inviting him at this Year’s forum.

He  informed participants of the forum that Monrovia is the capital of Liberia and it’s the country’s   largest city as well as administrative ,financial and commercial center with a population of approximately 1.5 million people.  He told the gathering that as the result of the fourteen years civil crisis,  Monrovia experienced an astronomical setback ranging from logistical, financial, economic and infrastructure breakdown to poor sanitation in almost every part of the city.

He lamented that under his stewardship as Mayor of the City ,he has been making some gains in tackling some of these challenges. He said in the midst of these challenges , his administration has been able to bring a new dynamism to city governance in Liberia by providing opportunity for young people through  youth empowerment, security reform ,revenue mobilization and potential investment into agricultural activities .

” Additionally,  we have launched a clean city project dubbed “Weah for Clean City “, a project that focuses on youth empowerment,health and  sanitation through a participatory leadership approach with our citizens and communities taking full ownership of cleaning the City with a sole purpose of making Monrovia a resilient city in improving the quality of lives of our residents  in the area of solid waste management ,education ,public safety and volunteerism.

He intimated that,  the City is welcoming international organisations through private sector engagements to invest in the solid waste sector of the city and help to bring value to the huge stock of waste generated day by day in the City.

Mayor Koijee said , the city has  been partnering with national stakeholders most especially in addressing our major issues  about waste management and the city  will need the  collective support from National and international  stakeholders in addressing  challenges confronting Monrovia.

“We have been working with the world Bank with funding from the EU to address our solid waste sector under the Chessmanburg Land and Urban Sanitation Project (CLUS) through a grant agreement of 17.5 million USD with the government providing a counterpart funding of 1.5 million USD” he said.

Mayor Koijee shared the platform with some leaders like Rt. Honorable Tony Blair, Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute and former U.K. Prime Minister,  Somik Lall, Global Lead on Territorial Development Solutions and Lead Economist for Urban Development in Africa, World Bank,  Emilio Ciarlo  Head of Institutional Relations, Communications, Opportunities and Economic Development for AICS ,Dana Omran, Managing Director, City Resilience Delivery-Africa, 100 Resilient Cities-Rockefeller Foundation among others.

He lamented that the City Government of Monrovia is determined in accomplishing more though their are limited resources but his leadership has  instituted  a massive reform in revenue generation by exploring other innovative sources of revenue generation than the traditional sources , and is seeking funding to invest in agricultural activities like urban farming , city transportation services and city health services.

He said , ” As we speak there is a pilot project been launched under our “Weah for Clean City ” project intended for a systemic door- to -door waste collection and a means of adding value to our waste in where our locals can start to pay for their waste and eventually can open door for private sector engagement in our solid waste sector.”

In furtherance ,  the young Mayor indicated that as he seeks partners support in addressing the modernisation of the city ,the City Government  will continue to enlighten  residents about the important of having a clean, green and safe city.

This year forum   which is the 5th annual Global Development Forum  is been organized by the “Center for Strategic and International Studies ” ,is  a forum that explores how the United States can work with its allies ,the private sector,civil societies ,and multilateral institutions to tackle complex global   challenges .