U.S. DEVELOPMENT AID IN DJIBOUTI SCORES SUCCESSES,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DJIBOUTI 001150 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS TO USAID LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS NAIROBI FOR USAID/EA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAGR EAID DJ SUBJECT: U.S. DEVELOPMENT AID IN DJIBOUTI SCORES SUCCESSES, BENEFITS REGION ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: USAID assistance to Djibouti over the past four years has increased food security and raised agricultural incomes in Djibouti and its neighbors. It has helped to stave off famine and is reducing the risk of fatalities due to flooding. USAID re-established its presence and program in Djibouti on July 9, 2003 and has achieved these impressive results with an average of $5.0 million dollars a year in ESF, except in FY 07 when funding was reduced to less than $3.0 million. Djibouti has become a center for regional agricultural exports, increasing farm incomes in Somalia and Ethiopia; the Government of Djibouti (GODJ) has used improved information on drought and nutrition to respond quickly to repeated threats of famine, with donor help; and Djibouti has become a major pre-positioning center for U.S. stocks of food aid, replacing Dubai. END SUMMARY. -------------- Famine Early Warning System (FEWSNET) -------------- ¶2. (SBU) With $1.6 million in USAID funding, the FEWSNET program, launched in Djibouti in early 2004, has helped to stave off starvation by providing the GODJ and donors timely, accurate information on weather, crops, food stocks, and commodity and food stuff prices. FEWSNET's monthly bulletin with food security updates provides both satellite information and analysis and ground truth. It is used by Djibouti policy and decision makers and by donors and private sector actors to make timely, effective decisions to declare and respond to emergencies. FEWSNET saves lives and property by tracking threats to food security in rural and urban areas alike. By listing price changes in basic commodities and food stuffs it uses markets as well as weather and agricultural production information to warn of famine and to mitigate harm. ¶3. (SBU) This FEWSNET system is the first early warning system ever established in Djibouti with an office solely dedicated to monitoring famine in a chronically food insecure country. FEWSNET reports are read by the President and Prime Minster as well as many key ministers in the GODJ. The Prime Minister praised FEWSNET in a meeting last week with the Ambassador and the Regional USAID Director. He said that he and the President study it closely and use it as a tool to track and respond to potential food crises faster than they ever could before. Thanks to the FEWSNET Bulletin they are now aware of rainfall amounts, possible drought areas, and crop crises throughout Djibouti on a monthly basis. (COMMENT: The Prime Minister hails from Djibouti's north country, abutting Eritrea, and is a native Afar, Djibouti's largest minority population. What he did not need to say to us last week was that he has a personal interest in making sure that remote areas of the country, including the chronically famine wracked north avoid famine. In the 1990s, Afars in the north launched a civil war that simmered for a decade. The national government is now a coalition, including former rebels and representatives of former opposition parties. Averting famine throughout the nation is one key tool to ensure that Djibouti avoids new conflict. END COMMENT.) -------------- FEWSNET's Achievements To Date -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Since its inception, FEWSNET has achieved commendable results. For example it has: - Produced urban and rural livelihood studies leading to profiles for Djibouti. - Assisted the Government of Djibouti in the establishment of a Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratory at Centre d'Etude et de Recherches Scientifiques (CERD); the national research center. - Trained 16 Government of Djibouti officials in Geographic Information System (GIS) Capacity. - Succeeded in mapping digitally the entire territory of Djibouti. - Compiled and analyzed cereal imports. - Developed livestock early warning systems. - Initiated the development of a flash flood monitoring and early warning system for Djibouti. - Monitored food security and provided critical information for the successful implementation of the USAID Health program sub-element on combating malnutrition. DJIBOUTI 00001150 002 OF 003 - Provided critical drought data and information to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO),the World Food Program (WFP),World Health Organization (WHO),UNICEF, and the Government of Djibouti on the level of malnutrition in the city of Djibouti and in the rural areas where there is drought and chronic food insecurity. -------------- Regional Livestock Export Facility -------------- ¶5. (SBU) In 2004 USAID/Djibouti in collaboration with USAID/EA, through the African Union's Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU/IBAR) and the RATES Project, financed and completed the construction of a pilot, modern, regional livestock marketing facility in Djibouti. This public/private sector initiative was intended by USAID for the use of all neighboring countries and has had exactly that effect. It includes holding pens, quarantine facilities, modern veterinary services, and laboratory services on-site. The facility provides large scale holding, examination, vaccination, and health certification for livestock being shipped to the Middle Eastern and other countries. USAID transferred the facility to the GODJ in May 2006. The GODJ enlisted a private sector partner to manage the facility and, after that firm made a significant additional investment, the facility began operating in October 2006. To date, 97% of the revenues for producers generated by exports from this site have gone to Somali and Ethiopian producers while only 3% have gone to Djiboutians. The facility has generated over $15.0 million in revenue for the region. As of August 2007, shippers have exported more than 620,000 sheep/goats, camel and cattle to Egypt, Yemen, Emirates and Saudi Arabia from this facility. ¶6. (SBU) This $ 6.2 million USAID investment, now a public/private partnership with the GODJ, has made it possible for Horn of Africa livestock exporters to resume large scale, legitimate (not smuggled) animal exports from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East after a 20 year hiatus. Middle Eastern nations' concerns over rift valley fever and other animal diseases repeatedly blocked legitimate trade over that period. Under close scrutiny by Saudi and other buyers, and with good veterinary services and other controls, the quarantine facility has made possible exports that are producing a significant regional impact. -------------- Food Security Strategy -------------- ¶7. (SBU) USAID has facilitated the establishment of a food security forum (by Presidential decree) and the development of Djibouti's very first food security strategy, in an effort led by the Djibouti President's Advisor on food security. USAID led a coordination effort with United Nations Organizations and the GODJ to develop a single strategy for the whole country. This strategy will be instrumental in combating future famine and humanitarian crises in this food insecure country. -------------- Food Aid -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Since 2003, USAID /Djibouti has worked closely with World Food Program (WFP) to develop and operate a variety of activities that support vulnerable Djiboutians through rural Food for Work programs. It has provided food for 47,000 drought victims and provided urban institutional feeding for HIV/AIDS and TB victims; it has fed nursing and pregnant mothers, malnourished children, and Somali and Ethiopian refugees in Djibouti based refugee camps. In 2003, USAID funded initial 4,000 Mts. of commodities valued at $3.3 million. USAID funded food aid valued at $1 million in 2004; $1 million in FY 05; $2 million in 2006 and $1.0 million in FY 2007. Commodities supplied include milled, bagged wheat flour, rice, edible oil, lentils, fortified wheat and dried peas. Two-thirds of the food goes to Djiboutians, and one-third to refugees in two camps. These food stocks have made it possible for Djibouti and the refugees, to avoid starvation, though chronic malnutrition continues. DJIBOUTI 00001150 003 OF 003 -------------- FFP Pre-positioning Warehouse -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Djibouti has replaced Dubai as the site of USG pre-positioned, emergency food relief stocks in the region. Food for Peace (FFP) containerized food stored here can be moved quickly to respond to crises in the Horn of Africa and beyond. The food aid is pre-positioned in a warehouse in Djibouti's new Duty Free Zone. A Bahrain based company, BMMI, won the bid to manage the program in Djibouti. Djibouti's central location and modern port infrastructure will ensure that food aid can be provided quickly in an emergency to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and, if needed, more distant potential recipients, such as south-east Asia. ¶10. (SBU) COMMENT: The USG investment in food security and famine relief programs in Djibouti is a USAID success story. Dollars invested here are providing benefits now for Djibouti, for Somalia, and Ethiopia. Our program in Djibouti is likely to produce even greater returns as Djibouti becomes an increasingly important regional economic hub, and one set in a moderate, Muslim, free market, secular, and democratic state. END COMMENT. SYMINGTON