![]() Having delivered his maiden UNGA address on Thursday, His Excellency Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi, is now wrapping up his tour of duty in New York by attending to his responsibilities as Chair of the UN's Least Developed Countries (LDCs), comprising of 46 countries.
His first order of business in this regard was a meeting with Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, President of the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, to explore avenues of resource mobilization to mitigate the adverse effects of exogenous shocks that pose a threat to the gains made on SDGs. Then the President participated in the Presidential Dialogue Group on Nutrition, at the invitation of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, before reporting to the UN Headquarters to sign some treaties for the protection of migrant workers at the behest UN Legal Counsel Miguel de Seroa Soares. Thereafter, he delivered a keynote address at the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection at the request of the International Labour Organization (ILO) , where he lobbied for the designation of Malawi as a Pathfinder country, which would unlock financing for job-creating sectors, following which he held discussions with Mr. Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, about the LDCs need for access to predictable financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. In between these UN engagements, President Chakwera also met with Mr. Jeff Luhnow, President of Spanish Football Club Deportivo Leganés, and secured the club's commitment to establish an elite Football Academy in Malawi, through which the club will identify and develop the athletic talent of Malawi's youth for deployment to top leagues around the world. He also took time to greet two Malawian traditional Chiefs, TA Chowe of Mangochi and TA Chikumbu of Mulanje, who had been invited and sponsored by the UNFPA to participate in some events on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Coming up in the President's New York itinerary as LDC Chair is one last engagement, a meeting with Ms. Rabab Fatima, the UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN – OHRLLS), after which he will rest for a day before heading to Washington DC for three days to hold Malawi-US bilateral engagements. His Excellency’s engagements in the US Capital include meetings with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and Ms. Alice Albright, CEO of Millennium Challenge Corporation, with whom he will also preside over the signing of a compact worth US$ 350 million for the construction of Malawi's road infrastructure. The President will then wrap up this final leg of his US tour of duty by addressing the Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus, at the invitation of Congresswoman Karen Bass, Chair of the Foreign Relation Subcommittee on Africa.
|
Her Excellency Ms. Margaret Kamoto, Malawi's Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), presented her Letters of Credence to His Excellency Mr. Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the DRC in Kinshasa