 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace. Very pleased that we can co-host this event with the president of Liberia. We're looking forward to her speech. USIP is an independent national institute founded by and funded, thank you very much, by the Congress of the United States to pursue nonviolent ways of solving disputes around the world. So we work around the world in conflict zones. I would like to welcome President Ellen Johnson-Sirlief, whose visit marks a historic occasion on the eve of a very competitive election, which stands to be Liberia's first peaceful democratic and voluntary handover of the presidency since 1944. Senator Kuhn, Senator Chris Kuhn's, is the honorary chairman of this event and House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce is participating on the panel. We're very appreciative of both you being here. Representative Karen Bass is here. Yes, welcome. Representative, glad to have you here. Ambassador Christine Elder is also here, who is our ambassador to, there she is, thank you Christine, to Liberia. Our co-sponsors today are Ken Wallach at the National Democratic Institute, Dan Twining at the International Republican Institute, Carl Durschman, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Bill Sweeney at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Riva Levinson and KRL helped organize today's events. Thank you very much, Riva. And of course the most important organizer is Ambassador Johnny Carson down here at the front row. Thank you, Johnny. Today, we will hear from President Sirleaf as she reflects on her time as president of Liberia and her vision for the country's future. Liberia has been through a lot in the past few decades. Two civil wars that claimed the lives of 250,000 Liberians and only ten years later an Ebola crisis, which killed another 4,800 people. Despite these challenges under the leadership of President Sirleaf, Liberians have experienced 14 years of political stability. When she leaves office next January after two terms, we hope her successor will continue her important work to consolidate democracy and preserve human rights in Liberia. There's reason to be optimistic at this point as Liberia prepares for its election on October 10th. Thus far the run-up to the vote has been orderly and without violence. Liberian politicians and institutions are taking responsibility for peaceful elections. The world is learning from Liberia. President Sirleaf, known as Africa's Iron Lady, was Africa's first elected female head of state. She is a former World Bank and IMF Economist. She was the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Program for Africa and she has won both the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for a woman's right to full participation in peace-building work. Please join me in welcoming President Ellen Johnson. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Vice President William Taylor, Ambassador Johnny Carson, Liberia's champion, Senator Chris Cohn, Chairman Ed Royce, maybe no one in the US Congress fought harder to secure Liberia peace than you. A grateful nation is in debt to all of you. US Ambassador to Liberia Christine Elder, my dear partner on the ground, my longtime colleagues and this event sponsors the United States Institute for Peace, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Thank you for hosting and as I turn and see my other Congress, Congresswomen here at Bass and others, let me also say to you how much we appreciate how you've been with me and been with Liberia on this long journey, all of you. And the sponsoring institutions have helped to build our democratic character and institutions, and I hope that many of you will be with us next month to witness our historic political transition. Honorable members of Congress, members of the Trump Administration, distinguished diplomats, friends of Africa, friends of Liberia, ladies and gentlemen, on the 15th of March 2006, I stood before a joint meeting of Congress. It was barely two months after my inauguration as president of the Republic of Liberia and the first democratically elected female heads of state on the African continent. I came here to Capitol Hill, to the People's House of the United States to say thank you for helping us to secure Liberia's peace and democracy after nearly 30 years of sustained conflict. Today, the 25th of September, 2017, I return to the People's House. As I close out my two terms of elected office. In 15 days, Liberian people will go to the polls to elect a new president, and 73 members of the Liberian Legislature. It will be the first time since 1944 that political power will be transferred peacefully and democratically from one president to another. The election will signal the irreversible course that Liberian has embarked upon to sustain its peace and consolidate its young democracy. Indeed, the march of democracy is unstoppable in Liberia and on the African continent. As I said in my speech last week at the UN General Assembly, Liberia's transformation is powered by a world community that made a shared commitment to deliver peace to a country in a subregion beset by civil conflict and cross-border destabilization. The UN and its partner nations were of one mind and from that global unity, a Liberian democratic nation was born. But it was the United States of America through the leadership of the United States Congress by partisan and bicameral and with the support of successive U.S. administrations that guided the international effort. If I could, I would walk door-to-door to all 535 Congressional Office to say thank you, but I cannot I've run out of time and I'm also mindful of my age. So this speech will have to stand for me to greet you for all that you've done. When I took office on 26 January 2006, Liberia was a failed state. Our citizens suffered under the total collapse of services and physical infrastructure. The street lights and water pipes in Monrovia were stripped bare, robbed for their raw materials and our roads were impassable. From the ashes of war, we rebuilt. We brought Liberia back into the committee of nations, reactivated our relationship with the Bretton Woods institutions and renegotiated relief from a 4.7 billion dead burden. We returned fiscal discipline to government, rationalized our bureaucracy and put in place new laws and regulations that helped open the economy to foreign direct investment. We returned our children to school, started to rebuild our healthcare infrastructure, focusing on maternal and child health and welfare. We established mechanisms to coordinate the generous assistance from NGO and from private donors and foundations. We reformed our civil service, improving a system that was overburdened and under resourced and invested in the next generation of leaders. We innovated in education capacity, building public-private partnerships and promoted regional integration. Then in 2014, Liberia was struck by the terrifying virus, an unseen enemy, more fearsome than war. Over 4,000 Liberians lost their lives. Thousands of children were orphaned. Lively hoots were destroyed. Our healthcare infrastructure collapsed. Concurrently, global commodity prices declined sharply. These twin shocks knocked us off our feet. Our growth rate, which had reached 8.7 percent in 2013, plummeted to zero. But Liberians are strong and resilient people and today our recovery is on course. The economic growth rate is now at 3 percent in climbing. Some 1.5 million children are in school and new programs have been put in place to accelerate quality education. The lights are coming back on. I wish Pickupalusi was here. So I could tell her that electricity has reached several communities in the capital city and is being expanded to rural areas. A record 872 kilometers of road have been paved, improving farmers access to markets. Our healthcare system is being rebuilt, focusing on training community healthcare workers. Young people powered by new technology are embracing a culture of entrepreneurship. We left our mark. We have maintained the peace. We have built a foundation for democracy, economic development, and a rule of law. We have given a voice and hope to the market women, the girl child, and to civil society. The next president will inherit and empowered people. Africa now knows what a woman president can do. Liberia's transformation was achieved in partnership with the United States under the leadership of four remarkable U.S. ambassadors. Donald Booth, Linda Thomas-Grainfield, Deborah Malik, and Christine Elder. And also under the stewardship of the United States Agency for International Development, I would like to recognize the presence of Acting Administrator Cheryl Anderson and Administrator Mark Green. Thank you. Administrator Mark Green, who will join us later. The U.S. supported the rebuilding of the armed forces of Liberia, the training of police of immigration and Coast Guard. You provided technical assistance to strengthen our rule of law and the integrity institutions to fight corruption. You supported education and capacity building and invested in healthcare delivery and sustainable agriculture practices. You helped us to rebuild our infrastructure and you returned the U.S. Peace School to Liberia. On October 5th, 2015, Liberia achieved this most proud moment in the bilateral relationship as we signed a compact with the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation. Barely a decade away from conflict, we transitioned to a partner in development. It is through the MCC in collaboration with other development partners that the Mount Coffey Hydro Electric Power Plant came alive, a facility that was dormant for over a decade. It was the U.S. Congress, with your power of the purse, which single Liberia ought to be one of the largest recipients per capita of foreign assistance on the African continent. Dear friends, I said your precedents who provided exceptional leadership and showed bravery, courage, compassion when Liberia needed it most. It was President George W. Bush who in August 2003 told the world enough is enough and demanded that Warlord Charles Taylor leave Liberia so peace could be reclaimed. He sent in the United States Marine to support an African peacekeeping force to stop the killing. He enabled the peace and created a space for democracy. It was in this opening which permitted my candidacy and ultimately my presidency. This was achieved in no small part through the leadership in Congress. All of you, all of you present here and not here and also Chairman Ed Royce and his senior staff Tom Shealy. It was President Barack Obama who at the height of our health emergency in September 2014 took the bold decision in the face of fierce domestic opposition to deploy the men and women of the United States military to build a logistical bridge which helped Liberia to fight and contain the disease. With the support of the international community, brave healthcare workers and resilient Liberian communities, our global health security was protected. Today, we are a country and a West Africa subregion benefiting from a renewed commitment to building capacity for health emergency response. The economic community of West African state has embraced democracy as an integral part to development. Last year, when the Gambian president refused to see to the demands of his people after losing an election, it was ECOWAS on a Liberia's chairmanship which has showed the peaceful departure of an entrenched leader and the return to constitutional democracy. In June, I relinquished my position as chair of ECOWAS and in a few weeks, I will preside over the election of a new Liberian leader. I have served faithfully for two terms. I respect our constitution and a making way for a new leadership. All of that has been made possible by you, my friends. Liberia's love of liberty was inherited from the United States of America from your values of democratic governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law and for equal opportunity for all regardless of race, creed or religion. You are the beacon of life from across the Atlantic. Even in our darkest days, our people held on to hope believing that America would be there for them and that if they worked hard enough the American dream could take root in Liberia. America's leadership is needed today. More than ever, as the world faces new challenges, including transnational threats, rogue nations equipped with the most sophisticated weapons, millions of stateless families fleeing their homelands in search of security and economic opportunity and our planet screaming for us to protect it. Dear friends, do not let the leadership void in our changing world be filled by the disruptors. The dream of America is alive in the hearts of all people who strive for freedom and for a better life for their families. Please continue to be its champions and never forget what is possible. What we have done together as a united world community with a U.S. policy grounded in bipartisan cooperation and remember, please remember, the Liberian people who are willing to risk it all for democracy, for peace and for the chance to see their children live proud, productive and dignified lives. Please continue to be a champion for the world. Good afternoon. I'm Tammy Holtman from allafrica.com. We only have about 15 minutes for the conversation so because most of you know and you have the bios of Chairman Royce to my left and Senator Coons to his left I'm going to get right to the questions starting with one to you, Madam President. I know you've always regarded good governance as social development as well as free and fair elections and peaceful transitions and fighting corruption. What do you need from the international community to help you sustain those successes? And I think you were overly modest in not mentioning that Liberia was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to meet the millennium development goal of reducing child deaths by two-thirds. Thank you for that, Tammy. I think Liberia needs continued friendship. Liberia also needs more capacity building, more training, more access to technology. Our education system requires a lot of effort and support to bring it to the level where we have quality education enabling our young people to be able to compete in all areas. That support that is coming for our educational system is, I think, right now the most critical element for us to be able to reinforce democracy by raising national capacity for better management of the state's resources. Chairman Royce, how do you see a long and complex relationship between the U.S. and Liberia going forward? Well, I think the most important aspect of that relationship has probably been Ellen Johnson-Cerleaf. I remember six years before she became president. We had held hearings. She's the staff director at the time of the Africa subcommittee, now the Foreign Affairs Committee, on the situation in Liberia, and he wanted me to meet with future President Ellen Johnson-Cerleaf. Your vision, the way you laid out the case is not unlike the vision that we heard here today. Your efforts to make certain that we stayed engaged, to bring those to the bar of justice in the Hague who had helped precipitate those terrible atrocities in Liberia and across West Africa. The, not just dogged determination here, but the bravery that we saw made you, frankly, the mentor of women not just in Africa, but all over the world. And if we can do no more than remember the speech you just gave, Madam President, if we will continue that focus, which I think we have, to a certain extent, Millennium Challenge, that's $250 million. It will help greatly over the next few years as we address rebuilding the infrastructure and energy needs and as the author of Electify Africa and legislation to try to connect people to the grid. We know of how you have focused on this will help on health issues, education. We will, that is part of the commitment here under the Millennium Challenge grant. I am proud of what the commitment that was made by our military personnel, 3,000 of them, as well as the 1,500 people with USAID that went to Liberia and it is an example for all of us that when we see an infectious disease we have to understand that it could become a pandemic and there was a lot we learned together out of that, especially about the way the UN originally approached it with reporting and a lot that we changed. And so going forward lesson after lesson in terms of the necessity of our engagement and our leadership, but also of governance that you brought in change to governance and now the precedent you have set in terms of standing down by way of example as the first female president in Africa I think that when you ask that question going forward what have we learned, what can we do we can learn from this experience and we can try to emulate this experience, but we can also do what we tried to do and misdoing in your first election, which is provide for civil society a platform on social media on radio and on television to compete with those who are controlling the information because if people only hear one side of an argument they don't know what civil society has to offer and that's the one take away that we still have to implement Madam President thank you very very much for your leadership on all of these issues Senator Coons let me press you a little further on Ebola the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine and the Harvard Global Health Institute did a look back at what happened with Ebola and they concluded that it was not just weak health systems though they played a role and not just the intensity of disease in an urban area which nobody had seen before but that there was a global failure of governance that aid from the World Health Organization from bilateral partners was too little too late what do you think the United States has learned and how do you see US leadership going forward to confront the next inevitable pandemic? Well Tammy I'll agree that I think many of us looking back recognize there were critical weaknesses and failures in the World Health Organization in the international community's response in our assessment initially of how Ebola might spread across three countries and after an initially hopeful phase where it seemed it was under control it reemerged with a viciousness that was breathtaking to behold terrifying and I will long remember our conversation in August of 2014 I think one of the greatest things that President Obama did was to have the courage to deploy 3,000 Americans at a time when had that gone badly the consequences would have been terrible and as you said the recovery from Ebola was Liberian led and was a testament to the resiliency and the character and the capabilities of the Liberian people but at that point in the world only the United States had the capacity to move the kind of resources that were needed to tackle this pandemic we had vital partners from all over the world from across Africa, from Europe from Asia this was not a U.S. only but it really was a U.S. led initiative Congressman Royce deserves credit for a lot of the hard work that has made possible the transition towards stability in democracy but I am particularly grateful that you were such a great partner in that work. There's a couple of things that we've had to learn one is to set up an advance in African CDC and progress has been made in that direction another is to make reforms to the World Health Organization as an early warning capacity another is to invest in grassroots community health systems to provide not just a pandemic response but to improve health capacity in countries. The three countries most heavily affected by Ebola had those systems devastated by Civil War we have made progress in these areas we've passed legislation, we've invested money in a bipartisan, bicameral way by the way I will take one brief detour which is that Madam President has issued to us as Americans a stern challenge in the way of a friend which is that our leadership globally is essential not America first can at times mean America alone and if we remember our greatest moments of engagement with the world we do so not alone but in partnership with our allies and with those who share our values there are many Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate who share a passion for the U.S.-Africa relationship and I'm grateful for your reminder to us that it is important for our country as well as for the rest of the world I think if we learned anything from the Ebola response it's that a stunning breadth of people from America and from the rest of the world were willing to risk their own lives and their own health to go help people in another part of the world that they didn't have any particular history with or connection with and that was truly inspiring from the Americans purse and Doctors Without Borders to the U.S. Public Health Service and to members of the U.S. Armed Forces it was genuinely inspiring last to the previous question you asked I think there are some key ways that we can continue to invest in and strengthen civil society and the next generation of leaders in Liberia Professor Gretchen Bowers here from the University of Delaware University of Delaware hosts the Young African Leaders Program a great bipartisan initiative that brings 500 young Africans from across the continent to the United States I had a chance to meet with 15 Yali Fellows in Monrovia in late 2014 all of whom had left university to take up the challenge of working against Ebola and were inspiring young people Betsy Williams is here today and her emerging public leaders program in partnership with Madam President is strengthening the next generation of leaders for Liberia there's a lot more we can do together we show our values best when we work together and we show the world our values best when we work together I'm sure you want to applaud everything but let's hear as much as we can from the panelists just one second before Barbara Lee leaves Bobby Rush Congressman Bobby Rush and Barbara Lear here and we want to thank them for their trips and engagement in Africa and their important work there as well Chairman Royce I believe you've been working on a pertinent issue today in this Congress I wonder if you could mention that and let President Johnson surly respond absolutely today we brought up on the House floor and passed the President's desk the Women, Peace and Security Act on the House side this was the work of Congresswoman Kristi Noem and Jan Cikowski and it is important to realize I think with reflection and it came out especially in a hearing in which we heard from one of the witnesses from Northern Ireland when women are at the peace table when they are given as much standing as the men of the IRA and Orangeman what did it cost that woman it cost her personally the life of her boyfriend who was taken and tortured and killed as a result of her putting herself on the line for peace the same kind of bravery that we saw from you Madam President but the result out of the shame and out of the pressure and out of someone thinking about the next generation and the children rather than just warring factions rather than just warlords came peace but that's not the only example there are examples all over this planet of where we have gone in and engaged and given an equal platform to women this legislation will make this part of US policy Madam President so your reflections on that goal I'm so pleased that you all have done that because it's very clear that this conflict most times the women are the victims and when it's time to talk peace they're not there to be able to share their experiences until well they have suffered as a result of conflict and so we just welcome that and just think ask you to think that today we're not going to have a vacuum in African women leadership at the top level as I move out that vacuum is there I look at George Bander sitting sitting here she ought to be there pursuing you know her own and so there's so that's something that concerns all of us as women that the roles that we've had and we've been able to fight very hard to get need to be not only sustained but need to be enhanced we need more and more women in all of those and we all have to continue to work for it and to support all the efforts that are being made their resolution is going to be a big help I want to take a copy back home and I hope everyone takes a copy back to their country and play it up let everybody see it put it in the papers and say the US is taking lead on this so we can also now look at our own systems and see who will lead Senator Coons we have a hard stop coming up I wonder if you would make a few concluding remarks sure first Madam President thank you for being such a stirring and challenging mentor guide and friend to Chairman Royson to me to so many others in American Government thank you for reminding us that when women are at the table our leaders that the prospects for peace and for sustained development are stronger than ever thank you for the ways in which you have welcomed us as friends and as partners in tackling some of the most harrowing and challenging moments in Liberia's history and in so doing to give us an opportunity to find our way back towards each other Republicans and Democrats in our House and Senate I am humbled by the chance to close by thanking you I have met very few people in my life of whom I can say they are my hero you are one you richly you know heroes when I was a child I thought they had magical powers and capes and could leap tall buildings and so forth and as you grow up you realize that heroes are in some ways very ordinary people but who do extraordinary things who are not without fear but who looking at a situation that should give anyone fear pull themselves up move forward persist and make progress despite their fears I will never forget a moment at your second inaugural and this is how I remember it so please don't correct me if I'm wrong but it's a moment that I think teaches us something and that left an indelible impression on me I was there with Secretary Clinton and a delegation from the United States and the Secret Service was very anxious about it because there were a number of let's call them your opponents in the election but previous combatants who were there as well and security was well professional not airtight and you gave in the oppressive heat a remarkably brief speech a powerful address the point of which was that the people had spoken the election had happened this was your second election and you intended it to be your last you would respect the constitution and democracy and that looking out in the audience and spying several of your opponents who had not accepted your election you challenged them to come forward and embrace you and said by so doing we will show the people of Liberia that the election is passed democracy has won and we will move forward and you then stood there and went and from my vantage point I saw a whole cluster of Secret Service men go and there was a long and awkward silence before a group of humbled made their way forward as if they had been called out by the school principal and gave you hugs and the place erupted in cheers this is an image for me worth hanging on to because that simple act of risk of opening your arms to your opponents of making yourself vulnerable help transform what could have been a moment when you celebrated your victory to instead be a moment where the people of Liberia Thank you Madam President for that moment Thank you President Johnson Sirleaf I don't know what your next chapter is but I can only imagine that someone who managed to tame Ebola that someone who managed to reassert democracy that someone who has chair of ECOWAS restored democracy to other nations in the region and that to what else you might do Like sleep for 11 hours when I'll stop Thank you Senator Coons Thank you Chairman Royce very much Thank you