US embassy cable - 05BRUSSELS1441

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BRUSSELS 001441 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/MCE; DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, EAID, PHUM, EUN, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: HUMANITARIAN CONSULTATIONS HOSTED BY ECHO 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  In a full day of consultations hosted by 
the European Commission's Office of Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) 
in Brussels on February 17, participants outlined their 
respective program priorities for 2005; agreed that the time 
had come to move the "Good Humanitarian Donorship" from the 
theoretical to the concrete; compared views on making 
civil-military cooperation work in humanitarian response; 
discussed challenges related to improved security for 
humanitarian workers; brainstormed on strengthening the UN 
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
(including through U.S. chairmanship of the OCHA Donor 
Support Group beginning this June); and looked at preliminary 
"lessons learned" from the Indian Ocean tsunami response.  A 
tour du monde of topical country-specific issues resulted in 
agreement to join forces to press for progress on several of 
them.  This included follow-up to last year's first joint 
monitoring and evaluation mission (to Burundi and Tanzania), 
and identification of desired outcomes of the second mission 
(to Liberia and Guinea).  PRM PDAS Rich Greene also briefed 
on the renewed momentum behind efforts to convene an 
international conference on a Third Additional Protocol to 
the Geneva Conventions to resolve the emblem issue to allow 
full membership of Israel's Magen David Adom society in the 
Red Cross Movement.  In between these annual face-to-face 
meetings, the humanitarian discussions will continue through 
regular contacts coordinated through USEU and via periodic 
videoconferences.  End Summary. 
 
------------------- 
Priorities for 2005 
------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) Consultations included representatives of State's 
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, USAID's Bureau 
for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance(DCHA) and 
Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination, and USEU.  The EU 
side was led by the new ECHO Director General Antonio Cavaco. 
 Cavaco outlined ECHO's budget and strategy for 2005, 
identifying Asia and Africa as regional priorities, with a 
focus on the greatest humanitarian needs, forgotten crises 
and crosscutting issues.  The latter include attention to 
bridging the gap between relief and development, improving 
disaster preparedness, children's issues, water, and 
HIV/AIDS.  ECHO will continue to focus on efficiency and 
accountability of its partners, through expansion of its 
framework partnership agreements (e.g., beyond headquarters 
agreements with the International Committee of the Red Cross 
to the National Red Cross Societies) and its auditing 
requirements. 
 
3. (SBU) PRM PDAS Greene emphasized PRM's interest in 1) 
boosting the dialogue with ECHO through continued 
coordination in and between Brussels and Washington, 
including through regular video conferences and additional 
joint monitoring missions in the field; 2) adding to military 
and diplomatic readiness a true humanitarian readiness; 3) 
working together to get increased productivity out of partner 
organizations; and 4) keeping a multilateral focus.  All of 
this, he said, supports PRM's aim of improving the 
multilateral humanitarian system to ensure that, for any 
emergency, the appropriate international organizations deploy 
the right staff quickly, having equipped them to operate 
within the given security environment.  Greene also explained 
the new North Korea Human Rights Act and described PRM's 
FY2005 budget situation, including anticipated shortfalls and 
a hoped for supplemental appropriation.  Pointing to the 
"powerful signal" that the USG and EC send when, as the 
world,s largest donors, they work together, Greene pressed 
for efforts to make an even larger impact. 
 
4. (SBU) USAID/DCHA DAA Len Rogers emphasized DCHA's interest 
in increasing information exchange with ECHO on individual 
country situations, including more active collaboration at 
the field level, and continued consultations on broader 
humanitarian issues.  He noted that the Food for Peace (FFP) 
representatives on the U.S. delegation would hold additional 
consultations with the EuropeAid the following day to 
encourage greater EC food aid programming.  (Comment: The 
EuropeAid meeting provided further evidence that the EC is 
committed to a needs-based approach to defining appropriate 
emergency responses in ways supportive of agreements reached 
at the G8 Sea Island Summit 2004 and in the Good Humanitarian 
Donorship Initiative.  End Comment.)  Rogers outlined three 
new DCHA activities for 2005:  1) developing a "Fragile 
States Strategy" to better focus development strategies on 
crisis prevention in countries with weak governance and 
marginal economic performance (with pilots in 2006 in 
Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Haiti); 2) planning for a 
programming change proposed for FY2006 to shift $300m of the 
FFP food aid budget to cash funding through the disaster 
account; and 3) positioning DCHA to coordinate better with 
the State Department's new Office of the Coordinator for 
Reconstruction and Stabilization, and with the Department of 
Defense in Washington and in the field on civ-mil cooperation. 
 
5. (SBU) Rogers also described DCHA's current budget 
situation, including hoped for supplemental funding, its 
desire to use the upcoming USG lead in the OCHA Donor Support 
Group (ODSG) to work on linking relief to development, its 
current regional priorities (Africa ) especially Darfur, 
tsunami response, Afghanistan, and Irag), its focus on NGOs 
 
SIPDIS 
as implementing partners (the exception being WFP for food 
aid), and its goal of improving disaster response 
preparedness through the International Strategy for Disaster 
Reduction (ISDR).  Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance 
(OFDA) Deputy Director Greg Gottlieb explained OFDA's 
increased attention to IDP issues and broader protection 
activities. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) 
--------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) Participants discussed the need to make this 
initiative "more concrete" and agreed that pilot projects in 
DRC and Burundi were a means to move from principles to 
practice.  Rogers suggested a focus on improving humanitarian 
needs assessments, to get resources where the needs are 
greatest; otherwise, donors will continue to shy away from 
responding to assessments when their quality is suspect.  A 
second focus should be on improving the links between 
humanitarian and development assistance.  Deputy Head of ECHO 
Unit 4 Susan Hay pointed to the disconnect between GHD 
working groups in Geneva and the GHD work being done in 
capitals.  ECHO plans to host a meeting on harmonization of 
reporting later this year and work through the Montreux 
process on harmonization of needs assessments.  GHD is also 
on the agenda for July's ECOSOC plenary in New York.  ECHO 
Head of Unit for ACP countries Steffen Stenberg suggested the 
need for a "good appealship" initiative, saying that flash 
appeals, in particular, were of spotty quality.  There was an 
exchange on getting U.S. and EC field teams to work more 
closely together on field-based assessments, including UN 
Consolidated Interagency Appeal (CAP) workshops. 
 
-------------------------- 
Civil-Military Cooperation 
-------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) This topic has been covered several times in 
PRM-DCHA-ECHO videoconference and face-to-face discussions 
since 2003, in particular with respect to differences over 
the role and activities of provincial reconstruction teams in 
Afghanistan.  This discussion started with an ECHO point that 
integrated missions are a "fact of life" but create the 
concern that humanitarian action will be perceived as a part 
of a broader political mission, and that humanitarian 
principles will be lost in the process.  Greene replied that 
PRM's experience has been that the military has a real and 
growing interest in improving civilian liaison, evidenced by 
the many invitations it extends for participation in training 
exercises and briefings.  The military wants to &get it 
right8 on humanitarian response, and the only way to achieve 
that is to get the parameters written into military doctrine 
on which the military bases its training.  The civilian side 
should seize the opportunity created through the tsunami 
response to do this.  Rogers suggested that the two sides 
revive a past idea they had had to develop a short 
humanitarian doctrine to share with U.S. and EU member 
militaries.  ECHO confirmed that the EU was creating a new 
civ-mil coordination unit to which the Commission might 
second someone.  OFDA is also expanding its civ-mil liaison 
function. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Security of Humanitarian Workers 
-------------------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) Val Flynn, ECHO HQ and Field Security Coordinator, 
laid out his assessment of the current state of security for 
UN and NGO personnel in humanitarian response situations 
around the globe.  He presented the results of a nine-month 
review process ECHO had commissioned, which concluded that 
current standards are inadequate and that failures can be 
traced to inadequate funding, attention and training. 
Flynn's recommendations include creating a culture that 
supports good security management, which puts procedures into 
practice, and has the systems to manage it all.  There must 
be serious efforts to raise staff awareness and provide 
necessary equipment.  "Our partners are humanitarians, not 
martyrs," he said, but he also warned against a 
bunker-building mentality.  Flynn provided copies of the 
CD-Rom with a Generic Security Guide, Security Training 
Directory, and Security Report.  ECHO is in the process of 
translating the documents into Arabic and other languages so 
they are accessible to IO and NGO local staff.  Flynn said 
training would be ECHO's priority in 2005, and DFID was a key 
partner.  He expressed interest in working with the USG. 
 
9. (SBU) PDAS Greene thanked Flynn for spearheading ECHO's 
work in this area.  He stressed that security is clearly a 
leadership issue.  Donors have to recognize that this 
requires additional resources for partners.  There has to be 
a way to turn around current UN paralysis, to recognize that 
mistakes and inattention kill, and that action can and must 
be taken to manage security risks. 
 
---------------------- 
UN Coordination (OCHA) 
---------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) Picking up on the earlier discussion under the GHD 
agenda item, DAA Rogers reiterated the need to strengthen 
OCHA's leadership and authority.  He solicited ideas for the 
U.S. to pursue as it takes over OCHA Donor Support Group 
chairmanship in June.  USAID PCC Bureau Humanitarian Advisor 
Anita Menghetti offered that this would require a consistent 
message to all UN players that agencies will have to cede 
some authority to make coordinated response work.  The focus 
can't just be on OCHA "having the teeth," but that agencies 
have to accept OCHA's role.  Gottlieb, having just returned 
from the tsunami region, offered that OCHA had been stronger 
in Aceh than in Sri Lanka, but that the USG has pressed hard 
for UN agencies to go through OCHA in providing emergency 
response.  Director General Cavaco offered that ECHO's main 
focus of support to OCHA is for improvements to its financial 
tracking system.  His Head of Unit for Asia added that just 
as DAA Rogers had indicated ISDR was a current DCHA priority, 
ECHO also remains very interested in promoting it, 
particularly in light of the tsunami tragedy. 
 
------------------------------ 
Tsunami Response and Follow-up 
 
SIPDIS 
------------------------------ 
 
11. (SBU) Participants compared notes on tsunami funding and 
relief delivery, in particular the issue of managing the 
programming of such an enormous outflow of official and 
private organization resources.  Gottlieb reported that, 
unlike in most emergencies, post-disaster activities were 
quickly put in place in tsunami-affected areas, and such 
micro-credit, cash for work and other initiatives are key to 
getting livelihoods restored.  He said that the lack of 
consistency among regions in doing recovery programming bears 
watching.  Gottlieb reported a &no recriminations8 climate 
on tsunami response, which sets the stage for a good exercise 
to evaluate performance and identify lessons to take forward. 
 With regard to the Kobe World Conference on Disaster 
Reduction and discussions on an Indian Ocean early warning 
system, DAA Rogers said that the U.S. promotes building on 
the existing platform run by UNESCO and an integrated system 
for all natural hazards. 
 
----------------------- 
Country-Specific Issues 
----------------------- 
 
12. (SBU) There were brief discussions on a dozen ongoing 
humanitarian situations.  On Colombia, Greene welcomed 
positive movement in Government of Colombia budget support 
for internally displaced persons (IDPs) through its IDP 
agency Red de Solidaridad Social, emphasized the need for 
better humanitarian needs assessments and to overcome GOC 
resistance to the release of the UN's Humanitarian Action 
Plan.  ECHO confirmed that its funding levels will go up in 
2005, including to UNHCR programs in Ecuador and Venezuela, 
with emphasis on education and vocational training to counter 
recruitment by armed groups.  ECHO asked for information on 
aerial spraying programs and any possible effects on non-coca 
farmers (information was provided subsequently). FFP 
confirmed it planned to respond to the WFP appeal. 
 
13. (SBU) ECHO briefed on its plans to phase out funding in 
Tajikistan by 2007, and PDAS Greene confirmed that PRM was 
doing the same and believed that UNHCR should invoke the 
cessation clause to drive refugee returns and the transition 
from relief to development programs.  FFP's Dale Skoric 
explained that for FY 2005, FFP had to reduce resources for 
its development programs worldwide due to emergency needs. 
Skoric highlighted that this is counter-productive, as 
development programs are geared to reduce chronic food 
insecurity among vulnerable populations and to prevent future 
emergencies from occurring, but he also stressed that the 
first objective must be to save lives in emergency 
situations, such as in Ethiopia and Darfur.  On Chechnya, 
both sides expressed concerns with the scope of humanitarian 
needs and the deteriorating security situation.  They agreed 
to continue to combine forces to work for progress, including 
on getting the Government of Russia to agree to the release 
of the UN,s Consolidated Interagency Appeal, as it is the 
best mechanism to solicit donor response. PRM and DCHA/FFP 
plan to participate in a mission to the region in April and 
suggested ECHO join in. FFP confirmed that its funding for 
Chechnya was falling due to overall resource constraints. 
 
14. (SBU) On Sudan and the related refugee situation in Chad, 
discussion focused on respective funding levels and on the 
list of challenges related to protection, IO and NGO 
functions and staffing, access, security, repatriation, food 
security (harvest prospects and aid pipelines and water).  On 
Uganda, U.S. delegation expressed the view, and ECHO agreed, 
that we might soon have an opening for peace, which meant 
that we needed to prepare for dealing with IDP returns.  On 
Ethiopia, there was mutual skepticism over the safety net 
program and whether it would be timely enough to support the 
5 million people who are to receive food under it.  The two 
sides reach no particular conclusions as to the extent of the 
drought situation, but acknowledged that the situation was 
worsening and that food and non-food efforts would have to 
increase. 
 
15. (SBU) For the Great Lakes region, discussion centered on 
the prospects for political volatility around the upcoming 
referendum and whether Tanzania would block entry and refoule 
refugees.  Gottlieb confirmed that OFDA funding for the DRC 
was down due to Sudan and locust response requirements, but 
that he hoped to do some backfilling depending on 
supplemental budget appropriations.  There was agreement to 
work together on the asylum seeker problem in Tanzania to 
remedy the fact that authorities were not properly screening 
applicants and were refouling them.  The two sides agreed 
that the division of labor on Zimbabwe )- FFP providing food 
and ECHO the balance of needs )- made sense.  There was also 
a brief exchange about final preparations for the joint 
mission to Liberia and Guinea set to begin the following 
weekend, and agreement that the joint ECHO-PRM letter to 
UNHCR was a good way to set the stage for a follow-up 
dialogue with UNHCR Geneva and field offices on mission 
results and recommendations. (Note:  Joint follow-up with UN 
agencies at headquarters and in the field is now underway. 
End note.) 
 
------------------------------- 
Red Cross Movement Emblem Issue 
------------------------------- 
 
16. (SBU) PDAS Greene briefed Cavaco and staff on the current 
window of opportunity to convene a diplomatic conference to 
approve a third Additional Protocol to the Geneva 
Conventions.  The Protocol would authorize creation of a new 
emblem for use by national societies, such as Israel's Magen 
David Adom, which do not use the red cross or crescent 
symbol.  Greene advised that the Swiss had agreed to start 
consultations with the International Committee of the Red 
Cross and with European and Arab governments to work out the 
best possible timing.  He said the U.S. welcomed EU member 
support and would be approaching them via demarches to 
capitals as the situation develops.  When Cavaco replied that 
this was not an ECHO or Commission matter, but one for member 
state governments only, Greene stressed that he wanted Cavaco 
to know USG thinking and to understand that this issue would 
be high on PRM's agenda for 2005. 
 
------------------------- 
Improving Locust Response 
------------------------- 
 
17. (SBU) Under &other business8 the U.S. delegation 
solicited ECHO collaboration to ensure that donors and the UN 
Food and Agriculture Organization learn from their mistakes 
in responding with too little, too late to locust problems in 
Africa this year.  ECHO Africa Head of Unit Steffen Stenberg 
reacted positively, saying that ECHO had not been pleased to 
receive such a delayed FAO request to fund an "emergency" 
that has been known (and predictable) since biblical times. 
The two sides agreed that FAO's pattern of putting aside 
locust preparation until the next disaster is well underway 
must be broken.  A late start to a locust campaign has 
serious consequences in terms of damage recovery and food aid 
resource requirements. 
 
-------------------------- 
Conclusions and Next Steps 
-------------------------- 
 
18. (SBU) In summing up the discussions, U.S. delegation 
noted that the consultations had reinforced common interests, 
highlighted the already good working relationship, and made 
clear the advantages of combining forces as key donors to 
send messages to funded agencies.  There was agreement to 
improve collaboration in the field and to undertake more 
joint monitoring and evaluation missions.  The upcoming U.S. 
chairmanship of the OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) provides 
a good opportunity to make progress in areas of common 
interest.  Among those mentioned were the GHD initiative 
(getting beyond principles to implementation and using pilot 
projects to do so), OCHA's role and capabilities, improved 
humanitarian needs assessments, evaluation of integrated 
missions, and ISDR. 
 
19. (SBU) The two sides agreed to keep the positive momentum 
witnessed in the Indian Ocean tsunami response, and to focus 
on getting humanitarian response principles incorporated into 
military doctrine.  The U.S. delegation welcomed the ECHO 
report on humanitarian security and offered to move forward 
our shared concerns, through information-sharing on programs 
and on monitoring and providing funding and training support 
to our partner agencies' efforts to improve their "culture of 
security" and to work together to find ways to encourage the 
UN to move beyond its current state of paralysis.  There was 
agreement to consult on lessons learned from the tsunami 
response.  OFDA offered that it was taking part in the OCHA 
effort, facilitated by ALNAP, to ensure that evaluations by 
donors are complementary and of high quality and asked for 
information sharing with ECHO as appropriate. 
 
20. (SBU) PRM offered to follow up (and has since done so) on 
ECHO requests for information on purported impacts of aerial 
spraying of narcotics crops in Colombia on displacement of 
non-coca farmers.  USAID offered to provide an update its 
programming for Tajikistan (and has since done so).  There 
was agreement to work together on a joint demarche to the 
government of Tanzania on its treatment of asylum seekers and 
to continue cooperating on Burundi/Tanzania issues (as 
follow-up to a joint mission in 2004), including through 
common messages to UNHCR on maintaining an adequate response, 
staffing and meeting its mandate.  In an effort to reinforce 
the need for locust disaster preparedness the two sides 
agreed to consider ways to work together to ensure that FAO 
can avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time a locust 
emergency occurs. 
 
----------------- 
U.S. Participants 
----------------- 
 
21. (U) U.S. delegation members included from PRM, PDAS Rich 
Greene and PRM/MCE Deputy Director Mary Gorjance; from USAID, 
DCHA/DAA Len Rogers, OFDA Deputy Director Greg Gottlieb, FFP 
Senior Operational Policy Analyst Dale Skoric, FFP Senior 
Food Security Officer Will Whelan, and PCC/ODC Humanitarian 
Advisor Anita Menghetti; and from USEU, Development Counselor 
Patricia Lerner, Refugee and Migration Affairs Officer Marc 
Meznar and Advisor for Humanitarian Assistance Patricia 
Manso. 
 
(This cable was drafted by PRM/MCE and cleared by the U.S. 
delegation.) 
 
McKINLEY 
.