US embassy cable - 05DJIBOUTI32

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DJIBOUTI 000032 
 
SIPDIS 
 
London/Paris pass to Africa Watcher, ARS; CJTF-HOA  pass  to 
IO; State pass to AF/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KPAO, SCUL, DJ 
SUBJECT: Outreach in Djibouti -- Out of Step with Needs? 
 
1.(U) This is an action request; see paragraph 10. 
 
2. (U) SUMMARY: The lack of resources to address English 
language education is a serious detriment to public outreach 
in Djibouti. An extremely weak civil society and lack of 
technology limits Post's ability to pair with local partners 
for the reliable and successful administration of existing 
Department of State English language programs. A critical 
key to public outreach in this country, across class, tribe 
and gender, is English language education. Unfortunately, 
Embassy Djibouti is currently ill equipped to address this 
need on a large scale. END SUMMARY 
 
3. (U) While Djibouti is considered an ally in the War on 
Terror and a moderate nation, it is also 99 percent Muslim, 
an Arab League Member and rated "high" by the US government 
for transnational terrorism. It has porous borders and is 
located in the infamously rough neighborhood of the Horn of 
Africa, which also includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, 
Yemen and Sudan. More than 50 percent of Djibouti's 
population is under the age of 25, and 40 percent of its 
citizens live below the poverty line. The country has seen 
an increase in Wahabbist activity and influence since 
independence from France in 1977 and is in need of effective 
outreach. 
 
4. (U) Although there are tribal, ethnic and class 
divisions, a unifying feature of Djiboutian society is the 
desire to learn English, which is considered the language of 
the world market and the key to relations with most other 
nations. Contacts have noted that even most regional 
business is conducted in English, due to differences in 
Arabic dialects and the country's geographic isolation from 
other Francophone countries. An unofficial poll at Post 
found officers have been approached about English language 
education from an astounding range of sources, including 
officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, police 
officers, members of the Chamber of Commerce, herders in 
villages, high school students and even a khat seller on the 
street. 
 
5. (U) There is no formal system for learning English in 
Djibouti.  The English teachers who do exist often have 
language skills that do not exceed the State Department 
language rating of 1+/2, as evidenced recently during a 
workshop on teaching methods jointly organized by Post's 
Public Diplomacy Office and the English Teacher's 
Association of Djibouti. Even those who do acquire 
rudimentary English skills have difficulty advancing them, 
due to extreme poverty and a lack of scholarships or other 
financial assistance for higher education. There is no 
public library in Djibouti. 
 
6. (U) While the need for Embassy outreach via English 
language education is clear, the lack of a developed civil 
society and limited human resources at Post, pose an 
enormous challenge. While other small Posts have partner 
institutions for American Corners and other English language 
projects, Djibouti's weak institutions make locating 
trustworthy and reliable partners nearly impossible. The 
government, while willing to help, will not guarantee public 
access to English materials. For example, Post must 
regularly visit the country's only university to ensure that 
library materials we have donated are available for student 
use. Frequently we find them locked away and inaccessible 
and must appeal to the school administration to unlock the 
library's doors during school hours. 
 
7. (U) Post's Public Diplomacy section, which is entering 
its second year of existence, has spent much of its time in 
institution building, with some notable successes. We are 
active with an English Club at the University and have 
established an English Language Laboratory there with EACTI 
funds. We have funded the start-up of the country's only 
independent press group, which is now publishing newspapers 
semi-regularly and in three languages. We have helped the 
English Teacher's Association lay the groundwork for 
financial solvency and are about to sign an American 
Corner's agreement with them for their newly established 
classroom space. We are in the midst of pursuing an 
International Visitors alumni group and an agreement to 
regularly air "Connect with English," (a Department of State 
English teaching video series) on local television. A focus 
of 2005 is identifying partners to begin hosting English 
language conversation groups, which we hope to provide with 
native English speakers with the help of the Combined Joint 
Task Force-Horn of Africa. 
 
8. (U) In addition, other agencies at Post have addressed 
the English education question. The Department of Defense's 
U.S. Liaison Office has established a $300, 000 language 
laboratory for the Djiboutian military, and USAID has 
facilitated the arrival of five teachers from the 
International Foundation of Education and Self-Help (IFESH), 
who are working at various schools in the capital.  Despite 
all of our inter-agency progress, however, we believe there 
is still a long way to go. 
 
9. (U) A variation on the American Corners theme would be an 
enormously successful tool in Djibouti. However, for Post to 
have confidence that its resources were being used properly, 
and that free and open access was being provided, it would 
require that we both rent the space for the Corners and hire 
a LES to manage it. French Cooperation currently operates a 
similar and enormously successful reading room in the 
capital which has about six tables and offers French- 
language periodicals and fiction and non-fiction books. 
Djiboutians can borrow books from the reading room for a 
marginal annual fee (about $3 US for students; $8 US for 
others). The reading room services approximately 500 
Djiboutians each week, according to French Cooperation. 
COMMENT: This would also solve Post's need for publicly 
accessible programming space which is extremely limited now, 
due not only to security concerns but also to space 
constraints on the compound. (For example, until recently, 
our Political Officer's desk was located in a hallway due to 
lack of space).  END COMMENT 
 
10. (U) Action requested: Post requests a one-year grant to 
rent off-compound space for a reading room and to hire a 
temporary LES for management. At the end of the one-year 
trial the project can be evaluated for effectiveness with a 
set of criteria jointly developed by Post and Washington. If 
the project is deemed unsuccessful, resources will be 
donated to schools and local associations via the Public 
Diplomacy grants program.