Cablegate: Major Issues for Ambassador Tony Hall's Visit

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002214

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

ROME PASS TO AMBASSADOR TONY HALL, MAX FINBERG
AND TIM LAVELLE AT FODAG
STATE FOR AF/S
USAID/W FOR DCHA,OFDA,FFP AND AFR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID ZI
SUBJECT: MAJOR ISSUES FOR AMBASSADOR TONY HALL'S VISIT
TO ZIMBABWE, OCTOBER 8 - OCTOBER 11 2002

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.
NOT SUITABLE FOR INTERNET POSTING.

1. (SBU) The US Mission in Zimbabwe welcomes the visit
of Ambassador Anthony Hall to Zimbabwe. Ambassador
Hall's schedule includes several meetings with donors
and NGOs working on the delivery of humanitarian
assistance, senior Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ)
officials and civil society leaders.

We expect that these meetings will focus on the
following seven major issues:

------------------------------------------
Issue 1: GOZ Policies and the Food Crisis
------------------------------------------

2. (SBU) The economic and political policies of the
GOZ have created the food crisis in Zimbabwe. This
mismanagement has been aggravated by the lack of rain
during the critical growing period last season. Many
of the same policies have hindered the domestic and
international response to the crisis. Most importantly,
the Grain Marketing Board's monopoly on the purchase of
grain from local producers and on the import of grain,
along with government price controls on basic
commodities (including maize) far below market price
deters production and prevents the private sector from
ameliorating the crisis. The impact of the fast track
land reform program is well known. The lack of foreign
exchange, due to the unrealistic fixed exchange rate,
has limited the GOZ's ability to import food and fuel
to move the food. This has contributed to a black
market in basic foods which has pushed them outside of
the ability of many even with some money to purchase
staple foods. The implosion of the economy has also
significantly limited the GOZ's ability to provide
agricultural inputs (seed, fertilizer, and land
preparation) to the new farmers, guaranteeing a
continuation of the food crisis after the next harvest.

-- Post recommends that you raise these policy issues
in meetings with GOZ officials in order to facilitate
the operation of the donors trying to respond to the
food crisis and to permit the participation of the
private sector. A change in these policies would
lessen the severity of the inevitable continuation of
the crisis next year.

-------------------
Issue 2: Food Gap
-------------------

3. (SBU) The recently released Emergency Food Security
Assessment report indicates that a more realistic
estimate of the food gap may be 5-600,000MT prior to
the next harvest season. The food gap is defined as
the total amount of food needed to prevent massive
hunger minus the sum of food in country, food the GOZ
and private sector can import and food commitments by
the donor community. Without significantly greater
food commitments to the WFP EMOP or a significant
policy change by the GOZ to permit the private sector
to participate, Zimbabwe faces a potentially
significant human catastrophe. Although the GOZ claims
to be covering much of the gap, there are serious
doubts that it will be able to import the additional
650,000MT of grain it has promised. Post does, though,
recommend that you encourage the GOZ to meet its public
commitments. Even if the GOZ does fully meet this
commitment, a significant gap will still exist (over
100,000MT).

-- Post recommends that you highlight this gap in
discussions with WFP and other donors in order to
encourage increased contributions, and with GOZ
officials and in press contacts to push for policy
changes that will permit the private sector to
participate in the relief effort.

-------------------------------
Issue 3: Biotech Food Imports
-------------------------------

4. (U) The USG has committed to providing significant
food contributions to the current crisis. However,
current GOZ policies related to biotech food imports
have impeded our efforts to meet this commitment. The
first round of this issue has been resolved with the
signing of an MOU to swap GM whole kernel corn from the
US with current non-GM maize held by the GOZ for
distribution by WFP. The GOZ will take responsibility
for milling and distribution of the US grain. This
agreement only covers 17,500MT of corn currently held
in Durban, RSA. There is no formal agreement from the
USG, WFP, or the GOZ on future imports of whole kernel
corn from the US. We are waiting to see how successful
this swap will be.

-- Post recommends that you discuss with GOZ officials
and with WFP officials alternative means for future
importation of US whole kernel corn, including the
potential for further swaps or funding options for
milling.

----------------------
Issue 4: NGO Capacity
----------------------

5. (U) It is clear that Zimbabwe will need all the food
it can get. Non-GOZ food distribution is done through
NGOs. The NGOs that participate in the WFP program
must be registered with the Ministry of Social Welfare.
Currently, the WFP works with 7 international NGOs,
and has only been able to reach less than half of its
food distribution goal of 55,000MT per month. WFP and
the UN Resident Coordinator have been pressing this
issue, but it is proving very difficult for additional
NGOs to get registered; e.g., OXFAM, CRS and Save the
Children (UK) were all rejected while at least 3 others
are still waiting to be registered. More international
NGOs will be needed to meet the food requirements of
the people.

-- Post recommends that you bring up this critical
issue in your meeting with the Minister of Social
Welfare, July Moyo, whose Ministry is responsible for
the registration of the NGOs.

6. (SBU) Post is also concerned about the capacity of
the NGOs already implementing programs to fulfill their
numerous obligations. USG and WFP policies are to use
international NGOs to lead the implementation of their
humanitarian assistance (HA) food distribution
programs, some in partnership with local organizations.
There are a very limited number of such NGOs registered
to do this work in Zimbabwe. Therefore, there is
significant overlap of implementers between bilateral
and multilateral food distribution programs. In fact,
the main NGOs (World Vision, CRS, and CARE) are used
by both operations, in addition to their own programs.

In addition, OFDA is entering into a seed distribution
program with these same NGOs.

-- Post recommends that you express concern about the
capacity of the existing NGOs to carry out so many
programs simultaneously when you meet with these
groups.

----------------------
Issue 5: The PVO Law
----------------------

7. (SBU) The GOZ has signaled its intention to crack
down on the operation of Private Voluntary
organizations (PVOs) (including Trusts), particularly
those involved in democracy/human rights and in
humanitarian assistance. As many as 2/3 of the local
NGOs could face closure and/or criminal penalties by
being declared in violation of the current registration
laws. A new draft PVO law is also rumored to prohibit
local PVOs from receiving support from sources outside
of the country. This could have far reaching impact on
the entire US assistance program and cripple the
current humanitarian assistance efforts of the donor
community.

-- While we are certain that WFP and NGOs will raise
this issue with you, you should be sure to raise it
with GOZ officials.

---------------------------------------------
Issue 6: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
---------------------------------------------

8. (SBU) Current estimates indicate that there are
750,000 - 1 million IDPs in Zimbabwe. Most of these
are economically and/or physically displaced farm
workers. It is expected that this number could reach 2
million IDPs by next year. Both the USG and the UN are
assessing the situation, but no one has programmed
significant funds to deal with the problem.
-- Post recommends that you raise this issue in
discussions with the UN and others outside government
and solicit views on what more can be done to address
the problem. We also recommend that you encourage the
UN Resident Coordinator to get promised OCHA support in
place as soon as possible.
-----------------------------------
Issue 7: Monitoring Food Delivery
-----------------------------------

9. (SBU) You should be aware that there have been
documented accusations of political bias in the GOZ's
emergency food distribution program. The major food
donors have been working with the UN to establish a
food delivery monitoring unit ("Information and
Verification Unit" - IVU) to investigate such charges
related to all food distribution programs. It has been
agreed to set up this unit in the Relief and Recovery
Unit (RRU) of the Office of the UN Resident
Coordinator. While the RRU has never been a strong
player in donor coordination we had hoped that
additional support from OCHA would strengthen their
performance. That support has not yet been put in
place. Unfortunately, the management of the RRU has
continued to deteriorate and the donors have concerns
about the viability not only of the RRU but of the
much more important IVU.

-- We recommend that you raise the future of the RRU
and the IVU in your meetings with the Resident
Coordinator as well as with other major food
donors - most notably the EU Ambassador (the EU will be
providing the bulk of funding for the IVU) and the High
Commissioner of the UK (the other major food donor).
SULLIVAN

© Scoop Media