Having breakfast by the pool
Life is good ;-) 26 degree and Geneva airport closed…
Posted from Mbour, Thies, Senegal.
Tag Archives: mission
Monrovia – Meeting the Minister of Trade
Today we had a productive day. We met the Minister of Trade and her Chiefs.
Here you have some photos: the toilet in the floor of the Minister (they have no water and no electricity, only own generators), the Ministry of Trade Building and stairs, the bullet hole in the glass in the Minister’s meeting room… and a beer in the best spot we found in Monrovia, all in our UNDP 4×4.
Monrovia National Holiday
Sunday. We had the day free after a meeting with our local guy here. We did plan the week and then Francis took us with his crappy car to have a tour around the city.
What can I say about it. It is a post conflict zone. The few big buildings that are still standing are all burned and destroyed. There are visible signs for war everywhere. Poverty is everywhere.
This is the poorest country I ever visited. I can not complain of not having hot water or no choice for food.
Judge for yourselves:
Liberia, day one
Here I am, in Monrovia, in the Corina Hotel. A 5 stars hotel… I’m joking. There are no 5 stars hotels here. This in fact a place with clean sheets, and free wifi. That is good enough.
The flight was long. Flying economy within Africa and in a 5 or 6 hours trip, with stop over in Accra is not the same as flighting in Europe.
Anyway, we had no problems to get into the country. We had no visa but we had a letter from the Minister so we just got it.
I would like to post pictures but it takes like ages to upload. I will try to put at least one.
Well, today is Saturday. It is a long weekend here. Monday is holiday. We work though. Tomorrow we might go to the beach but the weather is not that nice. It is cloudy. Not too hot.
I will write again tomorrow. I try to upload a photo that I took in the airport.
Nairobi
Nairobi. I am posting this from Monrovia in Liberia because I had no internet in Nairobi.
I arrived on Thursday, pretty late at night. There was a guy waiting for me. I had no problems to get into the country without visa with the Laisser-Passer.
The hotel was a bit crappy but OK.
On Friday when I woke up I went and have breakfast. Owen and Isaac came around 9am when we left to the Export Promotion Council. We had meetings all day. Eventually Mr Matanga (responsible for EPC) took us for lunch to the Intercontinental Hotel, then we went to the ministry of Trade.
I remembered I had been there before when I came for the WTO meeting. We met the PS (Prime Secretary) of the Ministry of Trade. Simone (a colleague from the the ITC) was also meeting the PS for the Ethical Fashion project.
We exposed our methodology and we are in. They want us to starts asap. The earliest we can start is September. They did not want to create a new body to oversee the process of the National Export Strategy development. The task will be managed by EPC which has a 50% representation of the private sector.
Anyway, I don’t want to go into work details. I had no chance to see Nairobi. Work only. Until late.
As an anecdote, I would say that in London there was a group of people with a guide. The guide was traveling with them from London, and yeap, they were also traveling in Business… they were going for a safari… nice!
Going to Kenya and Liberia
Well, here I am at gate B37 Terminal 5 in London Heathrow airport. This time on my first trip/mission with the ITC, that I joined 2 weeks ago.
I am now using my iPhone and we are ready to board.
I will be arriving to Nairobi late at night and tomorrow I will be meeting a couple of colleagues. We have a pretty busy agenda for Friday. On Saturday we’ll be flying to Monrovia (Liberia) where we will spend 8 days.
Now I am boarding. Next post from Africa ;)
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