DONOR STRATEGY - AFGHANISTAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 004869 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL 10/30/13 TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL AF TC SUBJECT: DONOR STRATEGY - AFGHANISTAN REF: A) STATE 305542, B) ABU DHABI 3940 (U) Classified by CDA Richard Albright, for reasons 1.5 B and d. ¶1. (C) Post understands that, in meetings last week with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (HbZ),Treasury Secretary Snow and Defense Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz urged SIPDIS HbZ to expedite disbursal of pledged UAE assistance to Afghanistan and to pledge and deliver additional assistance on an urgent basis. In response, HbZ promised to send an Abu Dhabi Fund for Development team to review project needs with Afghan government ministries after Ramadan. ¶2. (C) Post has followed up with contacts at the Ministry of Finance and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to determine the status of the $36 million pledge that the UAE made in 2002 ($30 million of which was for project assistance and administered by the Fund and $6 million of which was humanitarian assistance). According to Abu Dhabi Fund Senior Assistant Director General Ahmed Baqer, the Fund is currently evaluating two development projects requested by the Afghan government. He suggested that the Afghans have not provided the UAEG with enough prioritized projects for the Fund to evaluate. He further stated that he would like to see at least 5 or 6 proposals, so the UAEG would have some choice. Baqer did not seem aware that the UAEG had agreed to provide $10 million, of the $30 million, in direct cash assistance to the GoA. (ref B) We are trying to confirm whether this $10 million has been transferred. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The Abu Dhabi Fund is the development arm of the Abu Dhabi Government. As such it either lends out its own money or manages Abu Dhabi grants if these involve development projects. It does not provide humanitarian assistance or other types of grants, so it only handles a portion of UAE assistance worldwide. Of the approximately 108 billion Dirhams ($29 billion) in assistance that the UAE has provided since 1972, only about 19 billion Dirhams ($5 billion) have gone through the Fund. We note, for example, that the UAEG also provided a $50 million assistance-in-kind package to the Afghan national army in November 2002 and continued substantial humanitarian support to Afghanistan. End Comment ALBRIGHT