FAO Twenty-Third Africa Regional Conference

UNCLAS ROME 001340

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

STATE FOR IO/EDA KOTOK
USAID FOR CUMMINGS
USDA/FAS FOR SHARPLESS, REICH AND HUGHES, USDA FOR U/S
BOST

FROM U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC KUNR EAID EAGR ETRD KHIV XA FAO
SUBJECT: FAO Twenty-Third Africa Regional Conference



1. (SBU) Summary: The subject conference was held in
Johannesburg, South Africa, March 1 - 5, 2004, and was
attended by USDA U/S Eric Bost and staff, by Ambassador
Mattie Sharpless, and by Mission to the UN Agencies in
Rome DCM Michael Cleverley and Agricultural Minister
Counselor. Conference host South Africa pulled out all
stops to ensure that the event ran smoothly, but the
conference struggled to engage on concrete problems.
This was particularly evident in South African President
Thabo Mbeki's remarks that eloquently indicted the
continent's political class for implementing a new
colonial order, but failed a single mention of HIV/AIDS.
FAO DG Diouf followed suit with only a brief two-sentence
reference to the epidemic - thereby encapsulating in his
own remarks the conference's shortcomings. End Summary.


2. (U) The first three days of the conference were
devoted to the "technical committee." Subjects covered
fell into two general categories, a) the coordination of
activities on the continent to address agricultural
development issues, and b) specific problems.


3. (U) The first category included useful discussions
of how international mechanisms such as the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD),the
Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program
(CAADP),the Maputo AU Declaration, can be used to
advance a development agenda. Many interventions were
given to support cooperation and broad national
interaction in these fora. These plans will prove their
utility when married with positive donor responses.


4. (SBU) The interventions on specific development
problems took on an eerie, disturbing, quality as time
ran short and issues were conjoined. This process
resulted in comments on the HIV/AIDS crisis being
interspersed with participant comments on the bush meat
crisis. The labeling of both these subjects as "crises"
seemed inappropriately to place them in the same category
of importance. The interventions that followed were,
sadly, predominately on the bush meat issue. In this
context it was particularly important that the US, as an
observer at the conference, made clear the importance we
place on facing this scourge. U/S Bost made a strong
intervention on the need to focus on the HIV/AIDS crisis
and the actions and resources that the USG is taking and
devoting to this cause. Sadly, it elicited no follow-up
comments.


5. (SBU) The Plenary session consumed the last two days
of the conference. Similar to the first three days,
there was little "discussion" during this phase. There
were many interventions and the process of having a
meeting overwhelmed the subjects. This is,
unfortunately, too often the norm in FAO member meetings.
FAO has recognized the lack of interaction in member
meetings and has tried, in Rome, to overcome this by
introducing informal "roundtables" to provide the chance
for open exchange of ideas on issues.


6. (SBU) The highlights of this conference were
contained in what was and was not said in the key
speeches. President of South Africa Mbeki in the
plenary's opening session made a powerful speech on the
meaning of development. He opened with Nobel-Prize-
winner Joseph Stiglitz's remarks on development:
"Development is not about helping a few people get rich
or creating a handful of pointless protected industries
that only benefit the county's elite: it is not about
bringing in Prada and Benneton, Ralph Lauren or Louis
Vuitton, for the urban rich and leaving the rural poor in
their misery." Continually coming back to this theme,
Mbeki added, "We cannot afford to pay less attention to
the peasant question, seeing these peasant masses as
nothing more than voting cattle to return our parties to
power, with no other role." Mbeki referred to the "new
colonial order" in which the African ruling class ignored
the "disempowered people in the rural areas, who
constitute the majority of the masses and working
people," as today's rulers worked from capitals "to
reproduce and maintain the colonial order in everything
from economics to culture." Mbeki received a warm
applause, but his remarks didn't bring the house down.


7. (SBU) As strong a speech as it was, Mbeki's remarks
did not contain one single reference to the continent's
devastating scourge - HIV/AIDS. FAO Director General
Jacque Diouf's opening statement followed suit, as he
spent only two sentences referring to the impact of
HIV/AIDS on Africa's farm workers. Although the subject
of HIV/AIDS was on the conference agenda, we were told
that FAO had decided to give today's biggest
developmental issue in Africa short billing in deference
to the conference host - a reflection on the
effectiveness of the conference more.


8. (U) This cable was not cleared by U/S Bost nor
Ambassador Sharpless.

HALL


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2004ROME01340 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED