US embassy cable - 05CAIRO5446

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 005446 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR NEA, NEA/ELA, NEA/PI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, KDEM, KMPI, PGOV, PREL, EG 
SUBJECT: RECENT MEETINGS OF EMBASSY'S INSTITUTIONS OF 
DEMOCRACY WORKING GROUP (IDWG) 
 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  The Charge chaired meetings of the 
Embassy's Institutions of Democracy Working Group (IDWG) on 
June 21 and July 5, which were attended by USAID Deputy 
Director, USAID D&G staff, A/PAO and PA staff, ECPO Counselor 
and ECPO staff.  The meetings included discussion of the June 
20 visit to Egypt by Secretary Rice; GOE proposals for D&G 
activities; a USAID update on direct funding of civil society 
activities; and a discussion of reform projects proposed by 
the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  The meetings also included a 
review of the June 28 Democracy and Governance Consultative 
Group meeting, as well as follow-up discussion on the hurdles 
MEPI grantees and prospective applicants may be facing from 
Egypt's Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs (MISA) in 
applying for grants and receiving permission to begin 
activities.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  In the June 21 meeting, after ECPO briefed the 
IDWG on the just-completed visit by Secretary Rice to Egypt, 
USAID briefed the group on recent discussions with the 
Ministry of International Cooperation (MIC) about additional 
possible avenues for U.S. D&G funding.  The GOE had urged 
USAID to consider supporting the existing GOE campaign to 
provide all citizens with ID cards, as a means, over the 
medium term, to boost voter registration.  The IDWG discussed 
the near-term utility of such a campaign, especially in light 
of the NDP's apparent unwillingness to re-open voter 
registration in 2005.  The IDWG agreed that supporting voter 
registration was a desirable goal, but urged USAID to seek 
more detail from the GOE regarding the linkages between 
provision of ID documents and voter registration. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Also in the June 21 meeting, USAID briefed the 
IDWG on the status of pending grants for democracy promotion 
activities, in response to the Annual Program Statement 
(APS).  USAID advised that grants to the National Democratic 
Institute (NDI), International Committee for Journalists 
(ICJ), and the Arab Penal Reform Organization (APRO) had been 
approved in principle and were subject to final financial and 
other due diligence reviews.  USAID also noted that it would 
soon decide which contractor (either the International 
Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES) or Development 
Associates (DA)) to award the planned contract for elections 
technical assistance. 
 
4.  (SBU)  The IDWG then discussed plans to ensure obligation 
of 632(a) funds before the end of the FY2005, and debated the 
potential for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) to play a 
significant role in support of political reform, both in 
Egypt and across the Arab region.  The IDWG agreed that USAID 
would consider BA proposals in support of Egyptian civil 
society while MEPI should be encouraged to work with the BA's 
Arab reform project. 
 
5.  (SBU)  In the July 5 IDWG meeting, USAID briefed the IDWG 
on the fourth meeting of the Democracy and Governance 
Consultative Group (CG), on June 28th.   At the CG meeting, 
MIC's Ambassador Badr distributed a June 26th letter from 
USAID to the MIC advising that USAID would soon be signing 
the grants for NDI, ICJ, and a coalition of NGOs, as well as 
a contract with the International Foundation for Election 
Systems (IFES).  (Note: the grants and contract are all to 
support the upcoming presidential and parliamentary 
elections.  The general areas for USAID elections support as 
well as USAID's intention to sign a set of grants by the end 
of June had been discussed in the previous CG meeting.  End 
note).  The CG agreed that the agenda for the meeting would 
be to continue to discuss USAID's proposed areas for 
elections assistance, to consider whether proposed assistance 
was permitted given the provisions of Egypt's NGO law, and, 
at Ambassador Badr's urging, consideration of the specific 
grants described in the letter.  USAID's Deputy Director 
noted that consideration of specific grants fell outside the 
purview of the CG.  The discussion turned to the general 
description of USAID's planned support to elections, 
following on the discussion of the prior week. 
 
6.  (SBU)  Other topics discussed at the CG meeting included 
the potential role of domestic elections observers and the 
sensitivities of the topic in Egypt.  The group debated the 
language in the NGO law regarding political activities, with 
the GOE representatives arguing that the law sharply 
restricts NGO political activities, and the NGO 
representatives arguing that it is less restrictive.  In 
response to concerns about USAID's plan to move forward with 
the specific grants and contract, USAID emphasized that it is 
unreasonable to expect a group not already registered with 
MISA to seek registration in advance of seeking a grant. 
Organizations not already registered would be expected to 
start the process once their grant was approved.  USAID also 
clarified that the U.S. definition of an NGO may be broader 
than the Egyptian definition.  USAID firmly maintained that 
its activities involve development work in the area of 
elections and democracy building, not in any way affecting or 
influencing political outcomes. 
 
7.  (SBU)  Following the review of the June 28th CG meeting, 
the IDWG briefly discussed recent reports from MEPI grantees 
and prospective applicants that suggest MISA is seeking to 
hinder implementation of MEPI projects in Egypt.   In 
response, the Charge noted that there have been no formal, 
written rejections to date and emphasized the need to "move 
ahead until we're stopped." 
 
 
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CORBIN