Prime Minister Gaston Browne will be in New York for the 3 rd Global Citizen Now
2024 Summit, which he will co-chair today and tomorrow (May 1 & 2).
The event convenes government leaders, private sector executives, grassroots
activists, cultural innovators, and philanthropic experts to discuss solutions to
achieve the end of extreme poverty and to protect the planet.
This year, Global Citizen is campaigning to drive financial investments to support
developing countries recover from and mitigate the effects of the global food,
energy and climate crises, and to empower adolescent girls with a focus on health
and education, particularly vulnerable yet extremely powerful group; themes often
championed by Prime Minister Browne.
Prime Minister will also be one of the main speakers for the mainstage panel under
the theme, “World at a Crossroad: Act Today to save Tomorrow”. The event will
focus on current global headlines, rising temperature, widening conflicts, hunger,
and policy clashes. The other speakers include Hugh Evans, CEO of Global
Citizen, Fran Katsoudas of the Cisco Corporation and Danai Gurira, Zimbabwean-
American actress and playwright.
During his interactive presentation, Prime Minister Browne is expected to tell
leaders that the decisions they all make have the power to shape the course of
tomorrow. The country’s leader is expected to ask leaders to consider the
harrowing reality facing Antigua and Barbuda and other SIDS, relentlessly
pummeled by increasingly monstrous hurricanes, leaving a train of devastation,
once serene landscapes transformed into apocalyptic scenes of destruction, with
homes shattered, livelihoods obliterated, and communities left in despair. He will
repeat a call for the urgent need for global unity in combating climate change, as
the very existence of Antigua and Barbuda and other SIDS hang precariously in the
balance.
During the two days in New York, Prime Minister Browne will also hold bi-lateral
meetings and interactions with a number of leaders including Alex Rafalowicz,
Executive Director, Fossil Fuel Non-Poliferation Treaty Initiative; President of
Rwanda, H. E. Paul Kagame; Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon and
Hugh Jackman, Actor and Global Citizen Ambassador, among others.
Following his two-day engagement in New York, Prime Minister Browne will
travel to Nigeria where he will be the main speaker at the Nigerian Business Forum
at Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria.
In his invitation to Prime Minister Browne, Allen Onyema, Chairman and CEO of
Air Peace Limited, which is organizing the forum in conjunction with key
investors in Nigeria, said that the interest of many Nigerian investors is shifting
towards the Caribbean – with Antigua and Barbuda as the chief focus.
Onyema pointed out that Prime Minister Browne’s participation in the Forum will
provide the requisite platform to address and interface with the investors, and
produce a win-win for the investors and the Government and people of Antigua
and Barbuda.
Prime Minister Browne is accompanied by Minister of Works and Housing, the
Hon. Maria Browne; Acting CEO of LIAT 2020, Ambassador Davin Joseph and
Air Peace Caribbean Limited in Antigua CEO, Hafsah Abdul-Salam.
Prime Minister Browne returns to Antigua and Barbuda on the weekend.
