Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05BRUSSELS1441
2005-04-12 13:15:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Brussels
Cable title:  

HUMANITARIAN CONSULTATIONS HOSTED BY ECHO

Tags:  PREF EAID PHUM EUN USEU BRUSSELS 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BRUSSELS 001441 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/MCE; DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF EAID PHUM EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: HUMANITARIAN CONSULTATIONS HOSTED BY ECHO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BRUSSELS 001441

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/MCE; DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF EAID PHUM EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: HUMANITARIAN CONSULTATIONS HOSTED BY ECHO


1. (SBU) Summary. In a full day of consultations hosted by
the European Commission's Office of Humanitarian Aid (ECHO)
in Brussels on February 17, participants outlined their
respective program priorities for 2005; agreed that the time
had come to move the "Good Humanitarian Donorship" from the
theoretical to the concrete; compared views on making
civil-military cooperation work in humanitarian response;
discussed challenges related to improved security for
humanitarian workers; brainstormed on strengthening the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(including through U.S. chairmanship of the OCHA Donor
Support Group beginning this June); and looked at preliminary
"lessons learned" from the Indian Ocean tsunami response. A
tour du monde of topical country-specific issues resulted in
agreement to join forces to press for progress on several of
them. This included follow-up to last year's first joint
monitoring and evaluation mission (to Burundi and Tanzania),
and identification of desired outcomes of the second mission
(to Liberia and Guinea). PRM PDAS Rich Greene also briefed
on the renewed momentum behind efforts to convene an
international conference on a Third Additional Protocol to
the Geneva Conventions to resolve the emblem issue to allow
full membership of Israel's Magen David Adom society in the
Red Cross Movement. In between these annual face-to-face
meetings, the humanitarian discussions will continue through
regular contacts coordinated through USEU and via periodic
videoconferences. End Summary.

--------------
Priorities for 2005
--------------


2. (SBU) Consultations included representatives of State's
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, USAID's Bureau
for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance(DCHA) and
Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination, and USEU. The EU
side was led by the new ECHO Director General Antonio Cavaco.
Cavaco outlined ECHO's budget and strategy for 2005,
identifying Asia and Africa as regional priorities, with a
focus on the greatest humanitarian needs, forgotten crises
and crosscutting issues. The latter include attention to
bridging the gap between relief and development, improving

disaster preparedness, children's issues, water, and
HIV/AIDS. ECHO will continue to focus on efficiency and
accountability of its partners, through expansion of its
framework partnership agreements (e.g., beyond headquarters
agreements with the International Committee of the Red Cross
to the National Red Cross Societies) and its auditing
requirements.


3. (SBU) PRM PDAS Greene emphasized PRM's interest in 1)
boosting the dialogue with ECHO through continued
coordination in and between Brussels and Washington,
including through regular video conferences and additional
joint monitoring missions in the field; 2) adding to military
and diplomatic readiness a true humanitarian readiness; 3)
working together to get increased productivity out of partner
organizations; and 4) keeping a multilateral focus. All of
this, he said, supports PRM's aim of improving the
multilateral humanitarian system to ensure that, for any
emergency, the appropriate international organizations deploy
the right staff quickly, having equipped them to operate
within the given security environment. Greene also explained
the new North Korea Human Rights Act and described PRM's
FY2005 budget situation, including anticipated shortfalls and
a hoped for supplemental appropriation. Pointing to the
"powerful signal" that the USG and EC send when, as the
world,s largest donors, they work together, Greene pressed
for efforts to make an even larger impact.


4. (SBU) USAID/DCHA DAA Len Rogers emphasized DCHA's interest
in increasing information exchange with ECHO on individual
country situations, including more active collaboration at
the field level, and continued consultations on broader
humanitarian issues. He noted that the Food for Peace (FFP)
representatives on the U.S. delegation would hold additional
consultations with the EuropeAid the following day to
encourage greater EC food aid programming. (Comment: The
EuropeAid meeting provided further evidence that the EC is
committed to a needs-based approach to defining appropriate
emergency responses in ways supportive of agreements reached
at the G8 Sea Island Summit 2004 and in the Good Humanitarian
Donorship Initiative. End Comment.) Rogers outlined three
new DCHA activities for 2005: 1) developing a "Fragile
States Strategy" to better focus development strategies on
crisis prevention in countries with weak governance and
marginal economic performance (with pilots in 2006 in
Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Haiti); 2) planning for a
programming change proposed for FY2006 to shift $300m of the
FFP food aid budget to cash funding through the disaster
account; and 3) positioning DCHA to coordinate better with
the State Department's new Office of the Coordinator for
Reconstruction and Stabilization, and with the Department of
Defense in Washington and in the field on civ-mil cooperation.


5. (SBU) Rogers also described DCHA's current budget
situation, including hoped for supplemental funding, its
desire to use the upcoming USG lead in the OCHA Donor Support
Group (ODSG) to work on linking relief to development, its
current regional priorities (Africa ) especially Darfur,
tsunami response, Afghanistan, and Irag),its focus on NGOs

SIPDIS
as implementing partners (the exception being WFP for food
aid),and its goal of improving disaster response
preparedness through the International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (ISDR). Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
(OFDA) Deputy Director Greg Gottlieb explained OFDA's
increased attention to IDP issues and broader protection
activities.

--------------
Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD)
--------------


6. (SBU) Participants discussed the need to make this
initiative "more concrete" and agreed that pilot projects in
DRC and Burundi were a means to move from principles to
practice. Rogers suggested a focus on improving humanitarian
needs assessments, to get resources where the needs are
greatest; otherwise, donors will continue to shy away from
responding to assessments when their quality is suspect. A
second focus should be on improving the links between
humanitarian and development assistance. Deputy Head of ECHO
Unit 4 Susan Hay pointed to the disconnect between GHD
working groups in Geneva and the GHD work being done in
capitals. ECHO plans to host a meeting on harmonization of
reporting later this year and work through the Montreux
process on harmonization of needs assessments. GHD is also
on the agenda for July's ECOSOC plenary in New York. ECHO
Head of Unit for ACP countries Steffen Stenberg suggested the
need for a "good appealship" initiative, saying that flash
appeals, in particular, were of spotty quality. There was an
exchange on getting U.S. and EC field teams to work more
closely together on field-based assessments, including UN
Consolidated Interagency Appeal (CAP) workshops.

--------------
Civil-Military Cooperation
--------------


7. (SBU) This topic has been covered several times in
PRM-DCHA-ECHO videoconference and face-to-face discussions
since 2003, in particular with respect to differences over
the role and activities of provincial reconstruction teams in
Afghanistan. This discussion started with an ECHO point that
integrated missions are a "fact of life" but create the
concern that humanitarian action will be perceived as a part
of a broader political mission, and that humanitarian
principles will be lost in the process. Greene replied that
PRM's experience has been that the military has a real and
growing interest in improving civilian liaison, evidenced by
the many invitations it extends for participation in training
exercises and briefings. The military wants to &get it
right8 on humanitarian response, and the only way to achieve
that is to get the parameters written into military doctrine
on which the military bases its training. The civilian side
should seize the opportunity created through the tsunami
response to do this. Rogers suggested that the two sides
revive a past idea they had had to develop a short
humanitarian doctrine to share with U.S. and EU member
militaries. ECHO confirmed that the EU was creating a new
civ-mil coordination unit to which the Commission might
second someone. OFDA is also expanding its civ-mil liaison
function.

--------------
Security of Humanitarian Workers
--------------


8. (SBU) Val Flynn, ECHO HQ and Field Security Coordinator,
laid out his assessment of the current state of security for
UN and NGO personnel in humanitarian response situations
around the globe. He presented the results of a nine-month
review process ECHO had commissioned, which concluded that
current standards are inadequate and that failures can be
traced to inadequate funding, attention and training.
Flynn's recommendations include creating a culture that
supports good security management, which puts procedures into
practice, and has the systems to manage it all. There must
be serious efforts to raise staff awareness and provide
necessary equipment. "Our partners are humanitarians, not
martyrs," he said, but he also warned against a
bunker-building mentality. Flynn provided copies of the
CD-Rom with a Generic Security Guide, Security Training
Directory, and Security Report. ECHO is in the process of
translating the documents into Arabic and other languages so
they are accessible to IO and NGO local staff. Flynn said
training would be ECHO's priority in 2005, and DFID was a key
partner. He expressed interest in working with the USG.


9. (SBU) PDAS Greene thanked Flynn for spearheading ECHO's
work in this area. He stressed that security is clearly a
leadership issue. Donors have to recognize that this
requires additional resources for partners. There has to be
a way to turn around current UN paralysis, to recognize that
mistakes and inattention kill, and that action can and must
be taken to manage security risks.

--------------
UN Coordination (OCHA)
--------------


10. (SBU) Picking up on the earlier discussion under the GHD
agenda item, DAA Rogers reiterated the need to strengthen
OCHA's leadership and authority. He solicited ideas for the
U.S. to pursue as it takes over OCHA Donor Support Group
chairmanship in June. USAID PCC Bureau Humanitarian Advisor
Anita Menghetti offered that this would require a consistent
message to all UN players that agencies will have to cede
some authority to make coordinated response work. The focus
can't just be on OCHA "having the teeth," but that agencies
have to accept OCHA's role. Gottlieb, having just returned
from the tsunami region, offered that OCHA had been stronger
in Aceh than in Sri Lanka, but that the USG has pressed hard
for UN agencies to go through OCHA in providing emergency
response. Director General Cavaco offered that ECHO's main
focus of support to OCHA is for improvements to its financial
tracking system. His Head of Unit for Asia added that just
as DAA Rogers had indicated ISDR was a current DCHA priority,
ECHO also remains very interested in promoting it,
particularly in light of the tsunami tragedy.

--------------
Tsunami Response and Follow-up

SIPDIS
--------------


11. (SBU) Participants compared notes on tsunami funding and
relief delivery, in particular the issue of managing the
programming of such an enormous outflow of official and
private organization resources. Gottlieb reported that,
unlike in most emergencies, post-disaster activities were
quickly put in place in tsunami-affected areas, and such
micro-credit, cash for work and other initiatives are key to
getting livelihoods restored. He said that the lack of
consistency among regions in doing recovery programming bears
watching. Gottlieb reported a &no recriminations8 climate
on tsunami response, which sets the stage for a good exercise
to evaluate performance and identify lessons to take forward.
With regard to the Kobe World Conference on Disaster
Reduction and discussions on an Indian Ocean early warning
system, DAA Rogers said that the U.S. promotes building on
the existing platform run by UNESCO and an integrated system
for all natural hazards.

--------------
Country-Specific Issues
--------------


12. (SBU) There were brief discussions on a dozen ongoing
humanitarian situations. On Colombia, Greene welcomed
positive movement in Government of Colombia budget support
for internally displaced persons (IDPs) through its IDP
agency Red de Solidaridad Social, emphasized the need for
better humanitarian needs assessments and to overcome GOC
resistance to the release of the UN's Humanitarian Action
Plan. ECHO confirmed that its funding levels will go up in
2005, including to UNHCR programs in Ecuador and Venezuela,
with emphasis on education and vocational training to counter
recruitment by armed groups. ECHO asked for information on
aerial spraying programs and any possible effects on non-coca
farmers (information was provided subsequently). FFP
confirmed it planned to respond to the WFP appeal.


13. (SBU) ECHO briefed on its plans to phase out funding in
Tajikistan by 2007, and PDAS Greene confirmed that PRM was
doing the same and believed that UNHCR should invoke the
cessation clause to drive refugee returns and the transition
from relief to development programs. FFP's Dale Skoric
explained that for FY 2005, FFP had to reduce resources for
its development programs worldwide due to emergency needs.
Skoric highlighted that this is counter-productive, as
development programs are geared to reduce chronic food
insecurity among vulnerable populations and to prevent future
emergencies from occurring, but he also stressed that the
first objective must be to save lives in emergency
situations, such as in Ethiopia and Darfur. On Chechnya,
both sides expressed concerns with the scope of humanitarian
needs and the deteriorating security situation. They agreed
to continue to combine forces to work for progress, including
on getting the Government of Russia to agree to the release
of the UN,s Consolidated Interagency Appeal, as it is the
best mechanism to solicit donor response. PRM and DCHA/FFP
plan to participate in a mission to the region in April and
suggested ECHO join in. FFP confirmed that its funding for
Chechnya was falling due to overall resource constraints.


14. (SBU) On Sudan and the related refugee situation in Chad,
discussion focused on respective funding levels and on the
list of challenges related to protection, IO and NGO
functions and staffing, access, security, repatriation, food
security (harvest prospects and aid pipelines and water). On
Uganda, U.S. delegation expressed the view, and ECHO agreed,
that we might soon have an opening for peace, which meant
that we needed to prepare for dealing with IDP returns. On
Ethiopia, there was mutual skepticism over the safety net
program and whether it would be timely enough to support the
5 million people who are to receive food under it. The two
sides reach no particular conclusions as to the extent of the
drought situation, but acknowledged that the situation was
worsening and that food and non-food efforts would have to
increase.


15. (SBU) For the Great Lakes region, discussion centered on
the prospects for political volatility around the upcoming
referendum and whether Tanzania would block entry and refoule
refugees. Gottlieb confirmed that OFDA funding for the DRC
was down due to Sudan and locust response requirements, but
that he hoped to do some backfilling depending on
supplemental budget appropriations. There was agreement to
work together on the asylum seeker problem in Tanzania to
remedy the fact that authorities were not properly screening
applicants and were refouling them. The two sides agreed
that the division of labor on Zimbabwe )- FFP providing food
and ECHO the balance of needs )- made sense. There was also
a brief exchange about final preparations for the joint
mission to Liberia and Guinea set to begin the following
weekend, and agreement that the joint ECHO-PRM letter to
UNHCR was a good way to set the stage for a follow-up
dialogue with UNHCR Geneva and field offices on mission
results and recommendations. (Note: Joint follow-up with UN
agencies at headquarters and in the field is now underway.
End note.)

--------------
Red Cross Movement Emblem Issue
--------------


16. (SBU) PDAS Greene briefed Cavaco and staff on the current
window of opportunity to convene a diplomatic conference to
approve a third Additional Protocol to the Geneva
Conventions. The Protocol would authorize creation of a new
emblem for use by national societies, such as Israel's Magen
David Adom, which do not use the red cross or crescent
symbol. Greene advised that the Swiss had agreed to start
consultations with the International Committee of the Red
Cross and with European and Arab governments to work out the
best possible timing. He said the U.S. welcomed EU member
support and would be approaching them via demarches to
capitals as the situation develops. When Cavaco replied that
this was not an ECHO or Commission matter, but one for member
state governments only, Greene stressed that he wanted Cavaco
to know USG thinking and to understand that this issue would
be high on PRM's agenda for 2005.

--------------
Improving Locust Response
--------------


17. (SBU) Under &other business8 the U.S. delegation
solicited ECHO collaboration to ensure that donors and the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization learn from their mistakes
in responding with too little, too late to locust problems in
Africa this year. ECHO Africa Head of Unit Steffen Stenberg
reacted positively, saying that ECHO had not been pleased to
receive such a delayed FAO request to fund an "emergency"
that has been known (and predictable) since biblical times.
The two sides agreed that FAO's pattern of putting aside
locust preparation until the next disaster is well underway
must be broken. A late start to a locust campaign has
serious consequences in terms of damage recovery and food aid
resource requirements.

--------------
Conclusions and Next Steps
--------------


18. (SBU) In summing up the discussions, U.S. delegation
noted that the consultations had reinforced common interests,
highlighted the already good working relationship, and made
clear the advantages of combining forces as key donors to
send messages to funded agencies. There was agreement to
improve collaboration in the field and to undertake more
joint monitoring and evaluation missions. The upcoming U.S.
chairmanship of the OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) provides
a good opportunity to make progress in areas of common
interest. Among those mentioned were the GHD initiative
(getting beyond principles to implementation and using pilot
projects to do so),OCHA's role and capabilities, improved
humanitarian needs assessments, evaluation of integrated
missions, and ISDR.


19. (SBU) The two sides agreed to keep the positive momentum
witnessed in the Indian Ocean tsunami response, and to focus
on getting humanitarian response principles incorporated into
military doctrine. The U.S. delegation welcomed the ECHO
report on humanitarian security and offered to move forward
our shared concerns, through information-sharing on programs
and on monitoring and providing funding and training support
to our partner agencies' efforts to improve their "culture of
security" and to work together to find ways to encourage the
UN to move beyond its current state of paralysis. There was
agreement to consult on lessons learned from the tsunami
response. OFDA offered that it was taking part in the OCHA
effort, facilitated by ALNAP, to ensure that evaluations by
donors are complementary and of high quality and asked for
information sharing with ECHO as appropriate.


20. (SBU) PRM offered to follow up (and has since done so) on
ECHO requests for information on purported impacts of aerial
spraying of narcotics crops in Colombia on displacement of
non-coca farmers. USAID offered to provide an update its
programming for Tajikistan (and has since done so). There
was agreement to work together on a joint demarche to the
government of Tanzania on its treatment of asylum seekers and
to continue cooperating on Burundi/Tanzania issues (as
follow-up to a joint mission in 2004),including through
common messages to UNHCR on maintaining an adequate response,
staffing and meeting its mandate. In an effort to reinforce
the need for locust disaster preparedness the two sides
agreed to consider ways to work together to ensure that FAO
can avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time a locust
emergency occurs.

--------------
U.S. Participants
--------------


21. (U) U.S. delegation members included from PRM, PDAS Rich
Greene and PRM/MCE Deputy Director Mary Gorjance; from USAID,
DCHA/DAA Len Rogers, OFDA Deputy Director Greg Gottlieb, FFP
Senior Operational Policy Analyst Dale Skoric, FFP Senior
Food Security Officer Will Whelan, and PCC/ODC Humanitarian
Advisor Anita Menghetti; and from USEU, Development Counselor
Patricia Lerner, Refugee and Migration Affairs Officer Marc
Meznar and Advisor for Humanitarian Assistance Patricia
Manso.

(This cable was drafted by PRM/MCE and cleared by the U.S.
delegation.)

McKINLEY
.