ALGIERS MEPI UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ALGIERS 001763

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

TUNIS FOR KWOLCOTT, PMULREAN
DEPT FOR NEA/PI - KGROSS, CBOURGEOIS, OKIRBY, LSCHULZ

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KPAO AG
SUBJECT: ALGIERS MEPI UPDATE

REF: A. ALGIERS 1560


B. ALGIERS 0794

C. ALGIERS 0966


1. SUMMARY: Progress continued slowly but steadily in MEPI
programs and initiatives in Algeria during the period of July
1 through October 31. MEPI programs remain a key element of
our effort to fulfill the political, economic and education
reform goals in our Mission Strategic Plan. During this
period, we further developed our local partners in Algerian
government ministries, though the pool of qualified local
implementers stayed comparatively small and static.
Effective civil society partners in Algeria remain in scarce
supply, with individuals often wearing more than one hat and
surfacing in more than one MEPI program. In general,
progress on political and economic reform remains slow; we
closed out one project on voter education early because the
implementer was nervous about getting approvals from the GoA
and was itself disorganized. By contrast, engagement in
education and business training has borne greater fruit more
quickly. We continue to push for openings for greater
reform, and MEPI is the best means we have to work towards
this end. END SUMMARY.

JOURNALISM DEVELOPMENT GROUP (JDG)
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2. Into the second year of the project and after breaking
with its partner New York University, JDG ran into problems,
including protracted budget negotiations and difficulties
obtaining visas. These factors contributed to the departure
of JDG's two international consultants, a delay in beginning
work with new media outlets, and requests for reimbursements
that raised questions about the future of the program. The
Deputy Director of the MEPI Tunis office visited in October
to investigate the financial and programming status of the
project and to develop a work plan with the JDG director.
JDG completed his work with the Arabic-language daily
Echourouk el Youmi in mid-October but will continue to
provide advice and guidance as needed. The program is now
back on track with two new international consultants hired,
and work beginning with the French-language daily Le Jeune
Independent on November 25 after the arrival of the first
international consultant. Work will begin with the
Arabic-language daily El Youm in late November or early
December, with the arrival of the second consultant. The JDG
program has been among the most effective of our MEPI
programs in the last two years; both of the Arabic dailies it
worked with in 2006 substantially revamped their publications
and improved their quality and sales.

FINANCIAL SERVICES VOLUNTEER CORPS (FSVC)
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3. On July 9-11, FSVC hosted a seminar on risk management
and commercial lending in cooperation with the Algerian
Central Bank. The seminar served to improve commercial bank
capacity to provide credit and other financial services,
particularly to small and medium enterprises. During the
seminar, FSVC also identified three banks that reacted
positively to the training and made a clear request for
further technical support. A follow-on seminar aimed at
those banks was scheduled for December 4. This program
meshes well with upcoming Mission work involving the U.S.
Treasury Department and the Algerian Central Bank in the
realm of banking supervision and future program work
involving small and medium enterprise business lending.

PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS PROGRAM (PSP)
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4. From September 8-12, PSP carried out English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) training for trainers in Setif. The first
three days of the training were devoted to working with
education ministry inspectors based in Setif and Blida. The
PSP activity was geared towards producing a draft Teacher
Competency Framework, a document with the potential to change
ministry of education policy on evaluating and improving
teacher performance. PSP made significant progress on a
working first draft of the document, which will now be
reviewed and edited by a larger audience within the ministry.
Additional work on the framework document will be completed
using the online "Blackboard" website which the ministry's
School for International Training has established for
inspectors.


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5. PSP also held a workshop for 17 high school education
inspectors designated "Master Trainers" by the ministry. The
workshop was aimed at exposing the group to the PSP program
and its successes to date, gaining a better understanding of
their professional duties and responsibilities, and assessing
their understanding of competency-based teaching and
evaluation. It also introduced the group to the Teacher
Competency Framework and the Algerian English Teaching
Framework, which serve as the basis for curriculum revisions
being contemplated by the ministry. PSP has been a good
success thus far, and from October 18-31, an assessment team
from Management Systems International (MSI) visited to assess
the program and review its three primary components of EFL,
e-math and school linkages. The evaluators told us that the
PSP had affected over 5,000 Algerian students and over 100
teachers directly. We expect official feedback from the
assessment visit shortly. Looking longer term, the PSP
programs all are basically pilot projects and we are working
to get the Algerian Education Ministry to provide more
financing to extend the pilots to more parts of Algeria.

COMMERCIAL LAW DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (CLDP)
--------------


6. CLDP also engages with the Algerian judiciary and legal
system as part of our larger effort to promote an independent
and professional judiciary. On October 20-22, CLDP led a
seminar in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on
building judicial capacity in commercial law. With the help
of the Expert Accountants Association, CLDP developed
Algeria-specific pedagogical materials and case studies for
the seminar and workshop, which were taught by a visiting
American judge from New York. CLDP led visits to several
small and medium enterprises (SME) by 17 Algerian judges who
are experts in commercial law. The main idea was to
encourage discussions between judges and SME owners over how
better to resolve commercial conflicts in Algeria. The
visits also served to lay the groundwork for an intensive
case study seminar to be held December 1-3. This CLDP
program has been ground-breaking in terms of developing our
relationship with the Ministry of Justice; these contacts
will help secure a deeper ABA program here (see below). CLDP
also met with the MFA in October to formally propose a
commercial attaches program, the capstone of which will be
consultations/training for Algerian commercial officers in
the U.S.

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (ABA)
--------------


7. ABA's Legal and Judicial Development Program culminated a
year-long project with a July regional workshop on judicial
ethics in cooperation with the Algerian Judges' Syndicate.
As a direct result of the project, Algeria adopted a charter
of judicial ethics. ABA also succeeded in putting together a
meeting of judges from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, during
which participants proposed the initiative of creating a
Maghreb-wide judges association. The event marked a notable
increase in the ability and willingness of the judges'
syndicates to assume greater institutional effectiveness and
independence. In September, ABA's Morocco-based implementer
met with officials from the MOJ to develop a 2008 work plan
targeting the Judicial Training School, the National Judges
Syndicate, and, for the first time, bar associations outside
Algiers, including Oran and Constantine. The Justice
Ministry requested a formal memorandum of understanding with
ABA to cover those elements of the work plan that involve
government institutions. Negotiations on the draft MOU are
expected in December, and this MOU should enable ABA to stand
up its own office in Algeria which will make it far more
effective and influential.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES (NCSL)
-------------- ---


8. NCSL's program manager visited Algeria in October,
meeting with four Algerian parliamentarians from different
political parties to introduce them to NCSL's program and
discuss the technical and training needs of the Algerian
parliament. NCSL also met with the parliamentary speaker and
the director of the Legislative Study Training Institute
(IFEL) to explore other possible channels of engagement.
Since those meetings, our contacts in parliament have been
cautious about NCSL, stressing the importance of engaging
both the Senate and the lower house of parliament (APN).
They have also highlighted the importance to them of

ALGIERS 00001763 003 OF 003


responding to the needs they express, and engaging the entire
spectrum of political parties. For our part, we remain
uncertain about the will of the new parliamentary leadership
to promote an expanded, more substantive role for the
national legislature in the political process. Under the
no-cost extension to the NCSL work plan granted last summer,
the next NCSL workshops in Algiers (on bill drafting) are
expected to take place in January and February 2008.

MIDDLE EAST ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING (MEET)
--------------


9. Recruitment for three MEET programs in 2008 went very
smoothly, and the Mission's engaging private Algerian
business associations provided a broader pool of candidates.
Cooperation with the Beyster Institute and their local
implementing partner was very efficient, and a pool of
several hundred initial applications came from all over the
country. We were able to select nine outstanding people for
nomination on November 11. The interviews were the result of
a selection process that began in July. The candidates come
from all over Algeria, fulfilling our goal of spreading out
MEPI programs beyond Algiers. For all of the nine candidates
selected, the experience marked their first interaction with
MEPI and the U.S. Embassy. The three two-week MEET training
sessions will be held in 2008 in Casablanca, Alexandria and
Amman. This year's MEET process was also noteworthy as it
introduced us to a new and effective local implementer.

FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF HEALTH AND RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT (FOREM)
--------------
--------------


10. A political pillar project implemented through FOREM was
intended to strengthen democratic practices and electoral
systems by conducting training sessions for local officials
and voter education for the public. The program did not meet
expectations, as FOREM was unable to reach out to all 48
wilayas (provinces) or engage a sufficient number of
Algerians. (One reason it moved slowly was its worry about
hostile GoA reaction to its voter education efforts.) MEPI
Tunis, with our concurrence, decided to close out the program
early. In September, we repossessed four vehicles that were
originally purchased for the project. We are now working
with MEPI Tunis and Washington to see if a suitable
replacement project can be identified and funded with
remaining project funds.

CENTER FOR INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION OF WOMEN'S AND
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS (CIDDEF)
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11. This small grant provided support to CIDDEF's campaign
to sensitize citizens to political party positions on women's
issues, such as domestic violence, women's health and
employment, in advance of the May 2007 legislative elections.
It covered the four wilayas of Algiers, Oran, Ghardaia and
Annaba. CIDDEF solicited the views of different parties
using a custom-designed questionnaire and coordinated eight
radio broadcasts featuring political party members discussing
women's issues. CIDDEF also held a press conference to
highlight the outcomes of its program. Finally, CIDDEF
produced and distributed posters and flyers to educate
citizens about party positions, with the goal of stimulating
voter interest and participation in the elections. The
program achieved its goals and CIDDEF proved itself to be an
effective local implementer that may be suitable for future
cooperation.

FORD