President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has accepted an invitation from Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to attend the fourth European Development Days Forum. The event is being held beginning Thursday, October 22nd - 24th, in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, where the Liberian leader will join several other Heads of State and leading world figures.

The Liberian leader will participate in high-level roundtables on three topics: Giving Rural Development a Voice; Women and Security; and Media and Development. She will also address a plenary session on Democracy and Development, the overarching focus of which is Citizenship and Development. Other plenary sessions will deal with the response to the global economic downturn; and climate change: the road to Copenhagen.

During the roundtable on Giving Rural Development a Voice, Young Ambassadors for Rural Development between the ages of 25-35, and from all over the world, will engage in discussions with high-level officials and politicians. Other speakers include President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone; Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga; Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe; Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Chairman of Grameen Bank.

Among the other topics the forum's roundtables will tackle on day one are: development beyond 2015; transparency; aid relevance; trade and the private sector; European aid architecture; global health challenges; global land acquisition; and culture in action. Day two will include roundtable sessions on: legal empowerment of the poor; citizens in the AU-EU partnership; Green growth; Copenhagen and the right to development; elections and democracy; financing adaptation; security and development; sustainable cities and territories; disaster risk reduction; and voice and accountability.

According to an Executive Mansion dispatch from Stockholm, while in Sweden, the Liberian leader will also hold bilateral discussions with leading financial and European officials, including the Managing Director of the World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; European Commission President Barroso; and Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Aid. Other bilateral meetings of the Liberian President include discussions with the Vice President of the European Commission, Margot Wallström; the Director-General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Anders Nordstrom; and the Chairman of the Open Society Initiative, American billionaire George Soros.

The European Development Days, or EDD, brings some 4, 000 people and 1,500 organizations from the development community together on an equal footing. Delegates from 125 countries are represented, including Heads of State, leading world figures, Nobel Laureates, and more.

The event aims to make development aid more effective, to build a global coalition against poverty, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Through frank and sometimes controversial debates on pressing issues, such as governance, poverty and environmental sustainability, the European Development Days provide unprecedented opportunities for sharing ideas and launching innovative partnerships.

During President Johnson Sirleaf's absence from the country, the Minister of Justice, Christiana Tarr will, as chairman of the cabinet, coordinate the affairs of Government in consultation with Vice President Joseph Boakai.