Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

He was at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006.

And President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to be elected president of an African nation, came and said, I want the US private sector to help me rebuild my country.

And so Bob put up his hand and said, I pledge to mobilize $30 million, just spontaneously.

And then he reached out to a friend of mine, said, I need help.

For Liberia, though, 2003 marked the beginning of a new chapter.

In the next episode, we'll turn our attention to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the woman who became Africa's first elected female president.

We are Aaron Weir and Gerry Norton.

Thanks for listening.

Now, what is the downside, assuming that Liberia doesn't get the court approved be- between now and December when it takes, um, the seat, uh, of the presidency of the UN General Assembly, would that be classified as a missed opportunity?

Well, I think it would be more than a missed opportunity because what we have done since the TRC report was released, and in spite of all of the ups and downs, we've consistently raised the expectation and over the last four years, the expectations has peaked, especially with the f- the first time you have a president, the third president after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and George Weah, and then you have Boakai, who is giving assurances to Liberian that the court will be established and we will be able to address these grievances and finally come to terms with it.

You don't want to raise the expectations of people and, and, and let them down.

I think it has a lot of security risk because we have a youthful population.

So Liberia became a preoccupation, uh, by the politics in Washington in London and different parts of the West.

So there were mutual interest in, in showing out places such as Liberia and Sierra Leone became stable, and that the informal economy that, uh, different actors had access to in terms of diamonds, that economy would brought on a much better scrutiny and, and monitoring.

After Taylor left, there was a transitional government led by Gyude Bryant, then Ellen Johnson Sirleaf came to power, the first woman president of Liberia in Africa.

Um, many expected a lot to be done, but in her own view, yes, of course, she didn't succeed on in fighting corruption, also on, on reconciling the country.

And it became her official, official headshot.

If you see a picture of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, she was wearing yellow.

And she had this

head