AS SHE TURNS 86 YEARS
Monrovia, Liberia – Madam Ellen Johson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia, is due to celebrate her 86th birthday today at the African Women Leadership Network conference. Numerous powerful women from the 36 African Women Leadership Network chapters, as well as former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, are reportedly expected to join Madam Sirleaf. It is anticipated that Madam Clar Marie Weah, the former first lady of Liberia, would also attend the festivities with Mrs. Sirleaf.
According to reports, Mrs. Sirleaf’s birthday falls on the same day as this year’s African Women Leadership Network event. The conference will be held from October 27 to 29, 2024, with a focus on co-leadership and co-mentoring. It provides a platform for AWLN Pioneer Elders to share their expertise with future female leaders. The importance of women to the change of the continent is emphasized throughout the discussion.
With backing from the German Federal Government, AWDN is a joint project of the African Union Commission and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women). “Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders in a Beijing+30 Era: Paving the Way for a Sustainable and Equitable Society” is the subject of this year’s summit.
From 2006 until 2018, Mrs. Sirleaf, a Liberian politician was born on October 29, 1938. The first elected female head of state in Africa. She received her education at the College of West Africa in Monrovia. In the United States, she attended Harvard University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Madison Business College.
She went back to Liberia and served from 1971 to 1974 as the Deputy Minister of Finance in William Tolbert’s administration. She later worked for the World Bank in the Caribbean and Latin America. She was appointed to the government as the Minister of Finance in 1979, a position she held until 1980.
Following Tolbert’s execution in a coup d’etat orchestrated by Samuel Doe in 1980, Sirleaf escaped to the United States. She first worked with Citibank before moving on to Equator Bank. In 1985, she went back to Liberia to run for a contested senate seat for Montserrado County. She was detained for publicly opposing the military regime in 1985 and given a ten-year jail term, although she was eventually freed.
She became president on January 16, 2006, after winning the 2005 presidential election. In 2011, she was re-elected. She became the first African woman to be elected president. She was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her efforts to include women in the peacekeeping mission. Her leadership has earned her countless additional honors. The Economic Community of West African States chose Sirleaf as its Chair in June 2016, becoming the organization’s first female member.
