WORLD BANK IN LISTENING MODE, GEARING UP FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000128

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

TREASURY FOR OWHYCHE-SHAW

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017
TAGS: EFIN ECON EAID KCOR PGOV CG
SUBJECT: WORLD BANK IN LISTENING MODE, GEARING UP FOR
WOLFOWITZ VISIT TO DRC

REF: KINSHASA 1857

Classified By: EconCouns Greg Groth for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. World Bank representatives, in Kinshasa to
talk with donors about the Bank's program for 2007, expressed
particular interest in and concern over Security Sector
Reform issues. They agreed with the Ambassador that the
handing over of the fully drafted Governance Compact to the
GDRC by the EU had been premature, but said that the Country
Assistance Framework would be a good vehicle for GDRC/donor
collaboration on assistance issues. Bank officials indicated
they would be listening closely to bilateral and multilateral
donors in order to improve coordination at this critical
juncture. They indicated that their trip was also in
preparation for a planned spring visit to the DRC by WB
President Paul Wolfowitz. End summary.


2. (SBU) Ambassador, USAID Director and Econcouns met January
22 with World Bank (WB) officials Robin Cleveland, Counselor
to WB President Paul Wolfowitz; Pedro Alba, Washington-based
Country Director for the DRC; Jean-Michel Happi, DRC Resident
Representative; and Auguste Tano Kouame, Special Assistant to
Wolfowitz. Bank officials were in a listening mode and had
met already with, among others, several European embassies,
the IMF resident representative, and President Kabila.

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Security Sector Reform
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3. (SBU) The WB officials showed particular interest in
Security Sector Reform (SSR) issues. Cleveland said that
Wolfowitz had recently met with Javier Solano, Louis Michel
and Jean-Marie Guehenno in Brussels, and that Wolfowitz had
come away with the impression that there was not yet a
unified position, particularly between the UN and EU, on how
to address critical DDR/SSR issues and who would do what.


4. (C) The Ambassador noted that many different players are
active on SSR in a number of sectors. The Bank, for example,
has been involved in DDR, though very little has been done in
re-integration -- an area that needs urgently to be
addressed. CONADER (funded by the Bank) has been mismanaged
and ineffective, and a choice needs to be made whether to
eliminate it and start all over, or to address the most
egregious of CONADER's many problems now so that DDR can
continue. While re-starting from scratch might under other
circumstances make sense, the down side would be that there
is simply no time to lose in the DDR process. The Ambassador
also said that another top priority is administrative reform
of the DRC military. Bank officials agreed that with a new
government about to be installed, this is the best
opportunity and time for getting things right in the DRC, and
that the results here would have positive effects for the
whole region.

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Governance Compact, Country Assistance Framework
-------------- ---


5. (C) Regarding the WB/EU-led Governance Compact (GC),
Cleveland said that she had been taken by surprise when
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Louis Michel handed the GC over to the GDRC. She agreed with
the Ambassador that this had been premature, risked having
the GDRC accept the document only to lay it aside, and that
it would have been better to have given main points of the GC
to the Congolese President or Prime Minister for consultation
before moving to a final draft. She said that it was
necessary to avoid any semblance of an ultimatum and rather
to allow for the balance necessary in a true partnership
between the DRC and the international community. Cleveland
said she would share this view with Wolfowitz, and that the
tactics used in approaching the GDRC should not undermine the
strategy in place. The Ambassador suggested that an effective
approach might be for the international community to applaud
President Kabila for his strong public statements on good
governance, for example in his December 6 inauguration
address, and to initiate a dialogue as to how this can be
translated into a concrete action plan.


6. (SBU) Regarding the Country Assistance Framework, Happi
noted that the new government, once installed, would likely

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want to review and comment on the DRC Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper (PRSP),given to the IMF and WB in mid-2006,
and suggested that the CAF would be the best method for the
international donor community to support the PRSP and work
with the GDRC on assistance issues.

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Bank Interaction with Donors and Next Steps
--------------


7. (SBU) On donor coordination, Cleveland said Wolfowitz
wants to tackle the division of labor between bilateral and
multilateral donors, but not in order to make a hard and fast
determination of who does what where. Instead, she said, the
WB is willing to get behind what other donors are doing (or
intending to do) while at the same time trying to avoid
spreading itself too thinly. Ambassador suggested that it
would be helpful to determine from donors where their "fixed
points" are (i.e., to identify who has already committed to
do what),and to coordinate from there. Cleveland mentioned
specifically the areas of road infrastructure, water
treatment, and agriculture as areas of WB interest in the
DRC. She noted that the WB had lost more than half of its
technical experience in agriculture over recent years and
needed to strengthen itself internally in that sector.
Cleveland said that she would be sharing the information
received from the various donors in the DRC with Wolfowitz in
preparation for his visit to the DRC. Cleveland indicated
that the Wolfowitz trip might be made in conjunction with a
Louis Michel visit, but that it would definitely take place
sometime in the spring.

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Comment
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8. (SBU) The issue of internal WB problems in the DRC,
despite brief mention of the CONADER situation, did not come
up in the discussions. This may have been simply because the
results of the WB internal investigations have still not been
provided to Alba and Happi (as was the case in December) or
perhaps because Cleveland did not want to discuss these
issues in front of the DRC resident representative. It is
good to see, however, that the WB is making an effort to
listen to donors and intends to use that information to brief
Wolfowitz and to plan for 2007 and beyond. End comment.
MEECE