US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE1590

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001590 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EUR/NCE FOR FICHTE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, EZ, CU, UP, GG, MD, SR, BK, IZ, BO, BM 
SUBJECT: CZECHS ON TRANSFORMING DEMOCRACIES 
 
REF: PRAGUE 832 
 
Classified By: Political-Military Officer Brian Greaney 
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Summary: The Czech MFA's Director for Transformation 
Cooperation believes that many international efforts to 
foster democratic change -- including in particular those of 
the EU -- suffer because the funding mechanisms chosen impede 
the chances for success. She believes that donors need to be 
prepared to fund very small projects, be more flexible, more 
creative, and prepared to take risks. She suggested that a 
workshop to discuss best practices in doing this could be 
useful. End summary. 
 
2. (U) Visiting EUR/ERA director Peter Chase met with 
Gabriela Dlouha, MFA Director for Transformation Cooperation, 
Oct 26 to discuss GOCR experiences in fostering democratic 
change in oppressive or transformative regimes. A full 
description of the work of the Transformation Cooperation 
Office can be found in Ref A. 
 
3.  (C) Director Dlouha described her current priorities as 
falling into two parts. Targeted "States in Transition" 
comprised Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, 
Bosnia Herzegovina, and Iraq. Targeted dictatorships were 
Belarus, Cuba, and Burma. 
 
4. (C) Dlouha described the types of activities which 
appeared to have the greatest impact, especially in 
authoritarian regimes. She believed programs should not be 
dependent on authorization from authoritarian host-government 
regimes, as is now the case for EU programs. Targeted, 
short-term projects were best, because NGO partners were 
small and did not have a large absorbtive capacity. Small 
project budgets also had the advantage of being harder for 
the host government to track and impede. In such cases, host 
government changing of rules governing international 
assistance might not necessarily kill a project, because 
alternative "under-the-radar" ways could be found to get the 
financing to the implementing partner. A small  project also 
meant that quick implementation was possible, thus providing 
a quick impact. Large-scale development assistance projects 
such as those the European Commission can do were a poor 
model for fostering transitional democratic change. Effective 
grassroots implementers often did not have the capacity to 
absorb millions of dollars in grants, and the rules 
surrounding large development assistance grants prevented the 
recipient from acting with the necessary flexibility.  Donors 
would also have to be prepared to occasionally take some 
risks. The control and auditing mechanisms used for 
traditional development assistance were not appropriate to 
the situation where an implementing partner was executing a 
program that had the disapproval of the authoritarian host 
government. There were other ways of exercising financial 
control than paper-based accounting. 
 
5. (SBU) In addition to programs in targeted countries, 
Dlouha said the Czechs were focused on exchanges of people, 
and sharing lessons-learned from the Czech transition 
experience. She cautioned that international visits to the 
U.S. would show activists a country that is too far down the 
road to democracy. Dlouha thought visits by activists from 
targeted countries to newly-transitioned states would be more 
useful, as they would demonstrate the steps necessary towards 
an attainable goal. 
 
6. (SBU) Dlouha indicated that it might be extremely useful 
for key donors to get together in an informal workshop to 
discuss best practices in promoting democratic change under 
repressive regimes.  She said there is a lack of such 
discussion now in part because various donors have different 
mechanisms for this. In some cases the mechanisms may be in 
the foreign office; in others, combined with development 
assistance; and in still others (Germany), in private 
foundations. She thought such an exchange could be 
particularly useful as the EU considers changes to its own 
democracy promotion programs. 
 
7. (U) This cable has been cleared by Mr. Chase. 
CABANISS