SCENESETTER FOR G-8 DEVELOPMENT MINISTERS MEETING,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000605

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

USAID FOR DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR JAMES KUNDER
STATE FOR EUR/AGS, AF
USEU FOR PATRICIA LERNER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2017
TAGS: EAID PREL GM
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR G-8 DEVELOPMENT MINISTERS MEETING,
BERLIN, MARCH 26-27

REF: 2006 BERLIN 207

Classified By: EMIN Robert F. Cekuta for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Your visit to Germany, in addition to an occasion
to engage G-8 counterparts, is an opportunity to advance our
bilateral cooperation on development issues with Germany, the
world's fourth largest bilateral aid donor, the largest
contributor to EU development aid coffers, and a donor with
significant energy and technical capabilities for executing
assistance programs. The Merkel Government's Minister for
Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie
Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD),will chair the meetings. She intends
to balance the agenda among preparing for the G-8
Heiligendamm Summit; calling for more market-oriented
approaches to African development; and exploring "triangular
cooperation endeavors" among the G-8, developing countries,
and the five large emerging market countries (Brazil, China,
India, Mexico, and South Africa).

NEW THINKING AT THE DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY


2. (C) Germany and the UK are the only G-8 countries with
separate development ministries, a source of pride for a
Bonn-based ministry that historically values its independence
and perceived position above the fray of Berlin's politicized
foreign policy. That same independence has been a source of
frustration for Germany's Foreign Ministry, however.
Wieczorek-Zeul was a strong and vocal advocate for
international action to stop the Sudanese government-backed
militias in Darfur, for example, while the Foreign Ministry
had been more reticent. On the other hand, she has ensured
the Development Ministry, known by its German initials BMZ,
has been deeply involved in projects in Afghanistan as part
of Germany's long-term commitment to that country's
post-Taliban reconstruction. She and her ministry have also
ensured that they have a high-profile role in the G-8 during
Germany's presidency. The theme for Germany's G-8 Presidency
is "Growth and Responsibility" and officials have said from
the start the motto was designed as something applicable for
both the world's largest industrial economies and poorer
developing countries.


3. (C) In preparation for the presidency, the Minister
hired a G-8 team with ties to Germany's private sector, e.g.,
a former Frankfurt banker as her personal assistant, to
create a development agenda that incorporates strategies for
multi-sectoral engagement, including business and finance.
Departing from development policies the SPD had favored in
the past that heavily emphasized the public sector,
Wieczorek-Zeul's key initiatives in development focus on
issues such as Africa's investment climate, transparency in
resource markets and extractive industries, and outreach to
key emerging markets as regional engines of growth. In this
regard, the BMZ has not only worked to integrate key G-8
priorities into the development agenda, but also sought to
emphasize private sector deliverables for 2007 that will
follow on from Gleneagles commitments.


4. (C) The role of development policy within Germany's
overall G-8 agenda has required the BMZ to integrate its work
more closely with other agencies, particularly the SPD-led
Foreign and Finance Ministries. BMZ officials claim that
Wieczorek-Zeul herself has led a discreet behind-the-scenes
effort encouraging her staff to build necessary interagency
bridges. The effects are beneficial. For example, the BMZ
is now collaborating closely with the Finance Ministry to
include G-7 initiatives on emerging markets into the G-8
development agenda. This collaboration, in turn, led Finance
Ministry officials to change their old paradigms on Liberia
debt relief and adopt a position that is in line with the
views of the BMZ -- and also the U.S.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR G-8 DEVELOPMENT DELIVERABLES


5. (C) The Development Ministry wants long-lasting

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deliverables on development to come out of this year's G-8
process. German officials feel they have already scored
progress in their EU presidency development agenda. At the
March 13 EU informal development ministerial in
Bonn/Petersburg, Germany made real movement on negotiating
Economic Partnership Agreements with nearly eighty African,
Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states in addition to a new
energy partnership between Europe and Africa. Germany hopes
for similar results in its G-8 development agenda.

DYNAMICS WITH CHANCELLOR MERKEL


6. (C) Now in her ninth year running the BMZ,
Wieczorek-Zeul is Germany's longest-serving minister.
Despite initial apprehension within the government of
possible tension between "Red Heidi's" left-wing history and
the center-right orientation of Chancellor Merkel, government
officials who have observed dynamics between the two describe
the relationship very favorably. Merkel's success as
Germany's first female Chancellor has not gone unnoticed by
Wieczorek-Zeul, a self-described feminist who has made gender
issues a prominent part of her G-8 development agenda.
Chancellor Merkel engages Wieczorek-Zeul more closely than
her predecessor did and, officials say, has consulted and
deferred to her expertise on development issues. Moreover,
Merkel has granted an unusual amount of authority to the BMZ
to set the G-8 development agenda. Merkel's management of
what some had thought would be one of her most complicated
cabinet relationships has ensured the Chancellor goodwill at
the BMZ on agenda items important to her. For example,
Merkel's market-orientations appear throughout the economic
components of the G-8 development program.

PRAGMATIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE USG


7. (C) Despite her political history, Wieczorek-Zeul has
helped secure German assistance for development programs in
line with U.S. interests, sometimes against the opposition of
expert and senior levels within her own ministry. She has
also sought to be seen as working with us in the G-8 context.
In the February meeting of the G-8 Africa Personal
Representatives, she personally dictated the U.S. delegation
would have the pride of place position directly beside her.
In 2007 her support directly accounted for increased German
aid to some of the USG's highest development priorities:
Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Liberia. On Afghanistan and
Lebanon, Wieczorek-Zeul's decision followed a divided
internal debate at the BMZ's highest levels. At the same
time, she remains strongly opposed to U.S. policies in Iraq,
a factor which has complicated getting an increase in German
assistance for Iraqi reconstruction efforts.


8. (C) Another area of disagreement is over targets for
development assistance levels. With 2007 serving as the
half-way mark to the 2015 deadline for the
internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals,
Wieczorek-Zeul will push the G-8 for stronger commitments.
She traditionally is a vocal advocate of the 0.35% and 0.7%
assistance targets, both as symbols of solidarity with
developing countries and left-leaning elements at home, and
as a tool to extract money from the German Finance Ministry.
However, the tendency among German policy makers to prefer to
work with multilateral organizations, raises the possibility
that German expectations of the African Union and African
regional organizations may exceed our own, particularly on
peace and security
initiatives. The German preference for multilateral
approaches and desire to strengthen multilateral
organizations' capacity led the BMZ to invite the African
Union, SADC, and other African institutions to the March
26-27 meetings.
KOENIG