Ministerial Complex, Monrovia, October 22, 2021): - Under appropriate United Nations protocol and security’s escorts from her hotel to the UN Headquarters in New York, Liberia’s Agriculture Minister was ushered into the Office of the Deputy UN Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed.

At the officially arranged meeting, Minister Jeanine Cooper, presented Liberia’s case to mobilize UN support for the country's agriculture programs.

The UN’s Second-in-command welcomed Minister Jeanine Cooper and both discussed ways on how Liberia can access funding opportunities to support farmers.

Minister Cooper also had a cordial meeting with Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director for the Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) at the UNDP Headquarters in New York, for more UN systems support for Liberia’s food system programs.

Two Liberian women held the RBA’s post before. Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Thelma Traub Awori.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General, Eziakonwa, is a friend of Liberia who headed the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Monrovia from October 2003 to January 2004.

She coordinated humanitarian responses and launched several funding appeals for Liberia which had just come out of a decade and a half civil war.

Helped in the relocation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the D. Tweh School in New Kru Town and the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex and ensured INGOs moved into areas controlled by former warring factions.

Ahunna, as she likes to be called, provided several windows that Liberia can quickly access funding for farmers.

Both Ahunna and Minister Cooper are former colleagues who worked for UN-OCHA.