Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03ROME4927
2003-10-29 16:00:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

WFP'S FINELY TARGETED AND WELL-RUN OPERATIONS IN

Tags:  EAID AORC PREF EAGR ZA WFP UN UNHCR 
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UNCLAS ROME 004927 

SIPDIS


AIDAC

FROM U.S. MISSION IN ROME

AMEMBASSY LUSAKA FOR CHARGE D'AFFAIRES MOZENA, DHANANI, AND
USAID ACTING DIRECTOR GUNTHER
USAID FOR DCHA/D/FFP LANDIS, AA/DCHA WINTER
STATE FOR PRM KNUDSEN AND LANGE, IO/AS HOLMES, IO/EDA
USDA/FAS FOR CHAMBLISS AND GAINOR
USMISSION GENEVA FOR USAID/KYLOH
USDA/FAS PRETORIA FOR HELM
NSC FOR JDWORKEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID AORC PREF EAGR ZA WFP UN UNHCR
SUBJECT: WFP'S FINELY TARGETED AND WELL-RUN OPERATIONS IN
ZAMBIA

REF: VATICAN 00504

-----------
Summary
-----------

UNCLAS ROME 004927

SIPDIS


AIDAC

FROM U.S. MISSION IN ROME

AMEMBASSY LUSAKA FOR CHARGE D'AFFAIRES MOZENA, DHANANI, AND
USAID ACTING DIRECTOR GUNTHER
USAID FOR DCHA/D/FFP LANDIS, AA/DCHA WINTER
STATE FOR PRM KNUDSEN AND LANGE, IO/AS HOLMES, IO/EDA
USDA/FAS FOR CHAMBLISS AND GAINOR
USMISSION GENEVA FOR USAID/KYLOH
USDA/FAS PRETORIA FOR HELM
NSC FOR JDWORKEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID AORC PREF EAGR ZA WFP UN UNHCR
SUBJECT: WFP'S FINELY TARGETED AND WELL-RUN OPERATIONS IN
ZAMBIA

REF: VATICAN 00504

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. A representative from the US Mission to the UN Agencies
for Food and Agriculture, Philip Lamade, visited Zambia from
September 16 - 23, 2003 to assess WFP's operations, finding
its operations appropriately targeted and well run. End
summary.

--------------
Background
--------------


2. Zambia had a disastrous economic performance during the
1990s with an average annual real GDP growth rate of about
0.6 (according to World Bank) percent while the sub-Saharan
Africa averaged 2.4 percent. Zambia's economy is dependent
on copper and cobalt production for over 60 percent of its
total exports. The average international copper price fell
from US Dollars (USD) 1.19/lb in 1990 to 0.70/lb in 2002;
during the same period copper production fell from 422,000
tons to 338,000 tons.


3. In the 1990s, hyperinflation combined with currency
devaluation eroded the purchasing power of household
incomes and worsened Zambia's food security situation and
poverty rate. Consequently, the country is now among the
poorest in the world with a per capita income of USD 337 in
2002, ranking it 153 of 173 countries on UNDP's Human
Development Index 2002. Over 60 percent of the population
lives on the equivalent of USD 1 or less per day.


4. About one year ago Zambia was in the midst of a food
security crisis induced by erratic rains and government
policies that discouraged food production. Despite severe
food shortages that put nearly 3 million people at risk of
serious hunger or worse, the Government of the Republic of
Zambia (GRZ) rejected U.S.-donated relief maize because it
could not be certified as free of genetically modified
organisms, and Ambassador Hall chastised GRZ officials for
risking mass starvation. Today, while maize production has

bounced back to adequate levels, recently concluded food
security assessments indicate that pockets of vulnerable
populations remain.

--------------
WFP Operations
--------------


5. Under its emergency operation, WFP distributes food aid
to the most vulnerable groups. Including orphans and
vulnerable children, beneficiaries will peak at 480,000 in
early 2004, requiring 48,000 metric tons of relief
commodities. According to the June 2003 Special Report of
the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to
Zambia, last year WFP staved off distress and protected
household and productive assets, although it was able to
provide substantially less than the recommended kilocalories
per person per day.


6. WFP's country program, a 5-year development program
through 2006, aims to provide 65,000 tons of commodities to
595,000 beneficiaries under the following core activities:
food for assets, school feeding, supplementary feeding, and
support to HIV/AIDS affected households.


7. Although Zambia has been home to Angolan refugees for 30
years, presently more than 200,000, WFP's protracted relief
and recovery operation (PRRO) supports only about 113,620
refugees mostly from Angola and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo. The GRZ has generously provided arable land to


refugees as part of a self-reliance strategy. Accordingly,
WFP has been able to move from relief food distribution to
targeted feeding as beneficiaries have become more self-
sufficient in food production.


8. The PRRO is slated for renewal through December 2005.
Meanwhile, by a tripartite agreement among Zambia, Angola
and UNHCR, the UNHCR started a voluntary repatriation
program for Angolan refugees in July this year. About
20,000 refugees are expected to go home by the end of 2003,
and another 40,000 next year. Under the new PRRO beginning
in January, WFP will assume responsibility for managing food
distribution to recipients, a responsibility currently
undertaken by UNHCR.

--------------
Tea Parties and Travels
--------------


9. Upon arrival in Lusaka, US Mission Rome representative
Philip Lamade met US Embassy Lusaka Charge d'Affaires Dan
Mozena, Political/Economic Section Chief Katherine Dhanani,
and WFP Country Director Richard Ragan. Mozena also hosted
a tea attended by Father Peter Henriot of the Jesuit Center
for Theological Reflection. Henriot had opposed last year
Zambia's accepting U.S.-donated relief maize because it
contained genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Note: In August 2002 the JCTR praised the GRZ's decision to
reject U.S. relief maize, and Father Henriot stated that it
would be better for some Zambians to starve to death than to
risk destroying the future of Zambian agriculture. Even
before and perhaps influencing the GRZ's decision, the JCTR
prevaricated by going on record at a town meeting that the
U.S. was able to provide non-GMO maize despite knowing that
non-GMO and GMO maize are intermixed. Per referenced
telegram, in January 2003, the U.S. Mission to the Holy See
hosted a seminar on sustainable agriculture in the
developing world in order to provide a clear sense of the
potential for biotechnology for food and for more efficient
agricultural development. Afterwards some African panelists
noted that while Europe is by far Africa's largest
agricultural export market, European governments are
preventing economic advancement in Africa by threatening to
block African biotech products. End note.


10. Henriot remains concerned that GMOs threaten Zambian
agricultural export opportunities, but he is not concerned
about biotech food as a health hazard. Despite fundamental
differences in views about GMOs, cordial discussions
predominated with Henriot's expostulation of the Center's
many fine humanitarian and other activities.


11. The following day Lamade visited the Bethany Community
School, an orphans and vulnerable children center supported
by WFP and its implementing partner, Project Concern
International. About 694 children attend grades 1 through 7
at Bethany and receive protein-enriched porridge daily. In
addition, 523 households receive a household ration; a
skills center provides training in tailoring, shoe making
and repairing; and the residential center houses 15 boys
ranging in age from 7 to 16.


12. An Embassy-sponsored lunch encouraged a lively
conversation with two representatives from the Biotechnology
Outreach Society of Zambia who spoke in positive terms about
the benefits of biotechnology and mentioned the growing
interest among Zambian policy-makers to develop an
appropriate policy framework about GMOs.


13. Lamade inspected a WFP-operated warehouse in Ndola,
finding it orderly and run by knowledgeable staff. Stock in
the warehouse included 60,000 Humanitarian Daily Rations
(HDRs),recently donated by the Department of Defense forNANI, AND
USAID ACTING DIRECTOR GUNTHER
USAID FOR DCHA/D/FFP LANDIS, AA/DCHA WINTER
STATE FOR PRM KNUDSEN AND LANGE, IO/AS HOLMES, IO/EDA
USDA/FAS FOR CHAMBLISS AND GAINOR
USMISSION GENEVA FOR USAID/KYLOH
USDA/FAS PRETORIA FOR HELM

repatriating Angolan refugees.


14. During a two-day visit to the Northwestern Province
Lamade visited a WFP supplementary feeding program for
TB/HIV/AIDS patients at the Makulu Health Center, Kabwe.
WFP and UNHCR personnel provided a briefing and a tour of
the Meheba refugee camp.


15. Lunch with WFP implementing partners included one
humanitarian daily ration (HDR) sampled by the curious.
Following lunch was a tour of community gardens, fish
farming, and furniture manufacturing enterprises conducted
by WFP implementing partners.


16. During a later visit to the Southern Province, Lamade
visited a school-feeding program at the Bbakasa Basic School
in Siavonga. The school, founded in 1946 by Salvation Army
Missionaries, had closed and was only re-opened in 1982
after the area was cleared of land mines. Today it has an
enrollment of about 264 children through grade 4 and is
supported by the GRZ's Ministry of Education and WFP.


17. Acting USAID Director Helen Gunther described WFP's
operations as complementary to the work of the Consortium
for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE).
C-SAFE's activities are neither exclusively emergency nor
development oriented. Like C-SAFE, WFP works along the
entire relief-to-development continuum by addressing the
immediate nutritional needs of finely targeted vulnerable
groups, building assets, and teaching communities how to
resist future food security shocks. In other words, for
both WFP and C-SAFE, food aid is used as an incentive for
targeted households to invest time and resources in asset
creation and rehabilitation.


18. Two recent vulnerability assessments, the WFP/UNHCR
joint food assessment mission of 15 January to 5 February
2003, and the "Zambia Baseline Survey Report of Findings,"
September 2003, sponsored by the Consortium for Southern
Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE),confirm the
necessity for targeted food aid in Zambia.

--------------
US Mission Conclusions
--------------


19. Lamade found that WFP Zambia's operations are
appropriately tailored for people who do not have access to
food because of their economic circumstances.


20. WFP's operations are strikingly varied and include
creating and preserving assets such as harvesting
infrastructure, natural resource conservation, skills
upgrading, sanitary works, and aquaculture.


21. WFP's collaborators, World Vision, CARE, and Catholic
Relief Services (which are also the C-SAFE NGOs),Lutheran
World Federation, Medicins Sans Frontiers, Jesuit Refugee
Services, Assistance to Aid Refugees, and many other local
NGOs provide a mosaic of important developmental activities
to ensure that refugees are not merely surviving but are
engaged in self-sustaining livelihoods.


22. WFP's food assistance efforts in Zambia are effectively
reaching a carefully targeted population. US Mission/Rome
will confer with WFP Headquarters on expanding donor
support, particularly to facilitate the recent extension of
WFP's PRRO for refugee repatriation.


23. US Mission/Rome greatly appreciates the excellent
support provided by US Embassy Lusaka to its
representative. Hall


NNNN
2003ROME04927 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED