Monrovia City Mayor Wins Award In Japan

(LINA) – Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) has given Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee an award in Japan where he is currently attending a five- day World Bank conference on “Technical Deep Dive Safe, Inclusive and Resilient Cities”.

Making the disclosure to the Liberia News Agency in an interview in Monrovia recently, the Communication Director of the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), Pekeleh Gbuapaye, said Mayor Koijee was given the award based on his outstanding presentation at the conference.

TDLC supports and facilitates strategic World Bank Group (WBG) and client countries in collaboration with selected Japanese cities, agencies and partners for joint research, knowledge exchange, capacity building and other activities that develop opportunities to link Japanese and global expertise with specific project-level engagements in developing countries to maximize development impact.

The MCC Communication Director told LINA that on the technical side, the program will be developed in collaboration with the World Bank’s Community of Practice on Safe and Resilient Cities and the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities.

According to Gbuapaye, this year’s conference brings together delegates from 13 countries, including Somalia, Liberia, Romania, Mecedonia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Argentina, Panama, Sierra Leone, and Brazil.

Gbuapaye said while in Japan, Mayor Koijee is seeking support and building relationship with potential partners to gather the technical expertise from advance cities experts, Urban Management and Waste Management Specialists in order to make Monrovia clean, green and safe.

He said while en route to Japan, Mayor Koijee made a stop-over in Ghana where he met with the Mayor of Accra, Adjei Sowah, where they discussed, among other things, development issues of the two countries and sister city relationship.

Gbuapaye disclosed that during the meeting, Mayor Sowah called for the establishment of the Association of West African City Mayors in order to have a West Africa Voice with one platform among African mayors.

For his part, Koijee noted that his quest to make Monrovia one of the cleanest cities in Africa is a dream that cannot be achieved without modeling ideas from counterparts from Accra, Kigali and others cities in Africa.