AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK WARY OF GIVING AID TO

UNCLAS DJIBOUTI 000346

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/E; STATE ALSO PASS WORLD BANK AND IMF

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID EFIN ECON PGOV DJ
SUBJECT: AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK WARY OF GIVING AID TO
DJIBOUTI


1. (U) African Development Bank (ADB) Economist
charged with East Africa, Mahamadou Drame, met with
Pol/Econ Off March 9th to discuss U.S. aid to Djibouti
and ADB's plan for Djibouti. Drame inquired about
which areas United States aid would cover and asked
how money given to Djibouti is managed. He said he is
tasked with coordinating with donors to better
organize ADB's program to best help Djibouti. Drame
was very interested in whether cooperation between
international donor organizations was happening and
whether there were plans to begin such cooperation.
Pol/Econ Off noted that the Ambassador has expressed
a desire to begin a similar coordination.


2. (U) Drame was especially concerned with the amount
of money given to Djibouti in terms of military aid;
how it was implemented, was there monitoring, and
who controlled the money.


3. (U) Drame commented that ADB has put on hold the
seven million dollars earmarked for Djibouti because
IMF monitoring has not occurred for over a year.
(Comment: He implied that ADB would like to release
the funds during a period of IMF monitoring to ensure
proper usage. End Comment.) Drame saluted the fact
that the Government of Djibouti has put in place an
entity dedicated to external financing within the
Ministry of Finance. However, ADB still feels that
Djibouti has many weaknesses that need to be addressed.
Drame indicated that ADB could offer only a small
amount of assistance to Djibouti because of its
performance record.
RAGSDALE