On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Hon. Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy, and Food Security, finally met for a working lunch.
While in Sierra Leone, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made the decision to meet up with his longtime friend and brother, Dr. Yumkella. They reminisced about their previous collaboration, in which Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn served as Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister, and Hon. Dr. Yumkella was the Director-General of UNIDO.
As Prime Minister and then Chairperson of the African Union, Mr. Desalegn was the keynote speaker on September 25, 2013, the day Hon. Dr. KKY received the Distinguished Alumni award for the 60th anniversary of the African American Institute, New York.
The two gentlemen talked about their previous professional contacts as well as potential future uses of their prior experiences and activities to advance African and Sierra Leonean development.
