US embassy cable - 03ROME5176

UNCLAS  ROME 005176 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
FROMTHE AMBASSADOR FOR 
STATE FOR IO  AS HOLMES AND DAS MILLER 
STATE FOR IO/EDA BEHREND AND IO/S ABRAHAMS 
USAID FOR CUMMINGS, OFDA FOR MENGHETTI 
USDA/FAS FOR REICH AND HUGHES, USDA FOR MARY CHAMBLISS 
PARIS FOR UNESCO 
NAIROBI FOR UNEP 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FROM FODAG 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: AORC, KUNR, ABUD, EAID, EAGR, ETRD, KUNR, FAO 
SUBJECT:  ON THE EVE OF FAO COUNCIL AND CONFERENCE 
 
1.  Summary. As we prepare for the FAO Council and 
Conference meetings later this month, I am sharing our 
thinking on two themes: (1) fine-honing our interventions 
during the FAO Council and Conference deliberations, and 
(2) how we should approach the institutional issues now 
on the agendas.   As a deliverable, I believe we should 
seek and get a mandate for an independent blue-ribbon 
n 
assessment of the organization's strengths and 
weaknesses. End Summary. 
 
Themes for General Statements 
------------------------------- 
 
2.  I plan to emphasize a number of themes in my remarks 
to the Council.  I recommend that our USDel interventions 
include them, as well: 
 
-- Continued reform the FAO personnel policy in the field 
to include an annual performance appraisal of FAO staff. 
We should call for a swift implementation of an 
performance appraisal system . 
 
-- Reaching an FAO-U.S. Peace Corps partnership 
agreement. To us, this initiative should allow for an 
increase in AmCit employment in FAO, although we need not 
say that publicly. 
 
-- FAO is to be applauded for its efforts to date in Iraq 
and needs to continue to prioritize its food-security and 
agricultural rehabilitation programs there. 
 
-- Collaboration among UN agencies.  We should applaud 
the good cooperation, among FAO, WFP, and other 
organizations, that we have seen in certain countries, 
such as the Congo.  At the same time we call for more of 
the same thing. 
 
-- We should look at food assistance as a tool to 
leverage other aspects of development. 
 
-- We will look for greater FAO involvement with U.S. 
efforts in The President's Initiative Against Illegal 
Logging and The Congo Basin Forest Partnership 
Initiative. 
 
Institutional Issues 
------------------- 
 
3.  Institutional issues will greatly dominate the 
conference discussions due to FAO's relatively weak 
financial position and the number of important 
institutional decisions now on the agenda: the budget, 
split assessments, After Service Medical Costs, Term 
Limits, etc. 
 
4.  Budget and Prioritization  Another ZNG budget for 
FAO will have wide ramifications.  ZNG, in a split 
assessment world, can mean different things from our 
point of view: ZNG in terms of our own contribution, or 
ZNG in the organization's expenditures.  In enforcing 
fiscal discipline, we need to keep our eyes on long-term 
goals, weighing benefits against the costs of the belt- 
tightening exercise.  Cutting the organization completely 
to the bone may serve no one's interest.  Too stringent a 
budgetary stance is likely to disrupt what FAO is doing, 
forcing inordinate attention onto the exercise rather 
than objectives of achieving greater productivity. 
Taking too tough a stand, moreover, could weaken our 
ability to achieve a united position on a tight budget 
among our OECD partners (and, at present, we are not 
totally isolated either among OECD or G-77 countries in 
calling for a tight budget).  We should also recognize 
that FAO's financial position is relatively weak, for one 
reason because we and the Japanese are slow in paying our 
annual contributions.  Funding outstanding After-Service 
 
Medical Costs is an issue that should no longer be kicked 
further down the road. 
 
5.  In any and all discussions about the budget, we have 
every reason to insist on value for money.  As suggested 
by a recent Netherlands-FAO Trust Fund Co-operation 
evaluation, FAO needs to focus on the areas where it has 
a "comparative advantage," notably in supranational work, 
normative activities and regional projects. (FAO would be 
well served to strengthen and reinforce its partnerships 
with regional organizations such as IICA (Costa Rica) and 
the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).) 
 
Independent Assessment of FAO Strengths and Weaknesses 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
6.  The question begging everyone's attention, however, 
is what are FAO's strengths and weaknesses?  What does 
FAO do well and poorly?  To approach mount such an 
inquiry, I recommend a Blue Ribbon study commissioned to 
provide independent assessment of the organizations major 
strengths and weaknesses.  The results could form a non- 
politicized basis for prioritizing programs when budget 
constraints require cuts.  The findings might also give 
FAO leadership political coverage for cutting, 
restructuring, or reducing programs in a way that 
otherwise might be controversial among the member states 
or staff.  We expect there might be resistance to such a 
call in the DG's office.  However, the with the 
organization now especially worried and vulnerable over 
what level of budget it will get out of this conference, 
it may be willing to accept this study in return for 
budget flexibility on our part (say, if we support ZNG on 
FAO expenditures adjusted via the split assessment).  The 
assessment could also be seen as a prerequisite for the 
medium-term strategy exercise that is scheduled for fall 
of 2005. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
7.  The upcoming sessions will deal with an organization 
whose performance is neither altogether bad nor good.  In 
fact it is probably better run and organized that it was 
a decade ago.  But it could and should be better. The 
thrust of our positions should focus on this imperative: 
how to help the organization continue to reform and 
relate to the crucial needs of today's world.  FAO should 
see us, the biggest donor, as an uncompromising partner 
not out to undermine the organization, but out to help it 
achieve progress toward excellence.  My feeling is that 
we need to fine-tune our positions on budget, priorities, 
and performance to ensure it moves in that direction. 
 
Hall 
 
 
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	2003ROME05176 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED