Civil society holding Ortega's feet to the fire on

UNCLAS MANAGUA 000635

SIPDIS

AIDAC
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL ECON SOCI PINS SNAR NU

SUBJECT: Civil society holding Ortega's feet to the fire on
anticorruption commitments

REF: (a) SECSTATE 15428, (b) MANAGUA 0544, (c) MANAGUA 02410 2006),(d) MANAGUA 02426 (2006),(e) MANAGUA 01442 (2006),(f) MANAGUA 1795 (2006),(g) MANAGUA 01629 (2006),(h) MANAGUA 01530 (2006),(i) MANAGUA 01628, (j) MANAGUA 01393 (2006),(k) MANAGUA 01346 (2006),(l) MANAGUA 01156(2006),(m) MANAGUA 0742(2006),(n) MANAGUA 0262 (2006),(o) MANAGUA 0241(2006).


1. BEGIN SUMMARY: Using international anti-corruption conventions, Nicaraguan civil society has organized to make sure the Government of Nicaragua complies with international commitments. Nicaraguan civil society has presented its own assessment of compliance, developed its own performance monitoring system and presented these results to fora overseas, the Nicaraguan government and the public itself. In doing so, Nicaragua serves as an example on how civil society can brake potential backsliding on democracy, leveraging international accords to advance good governance goals. The approach is unique in the region. This cable responds to the request, reftel (a),to report on current programs. END SUMMARY.


2. BACKGROUND: In the new political context, it is imperative that
the GON be held to internationally-accepted standards for
governance, and this is best done by Nicaraguan civil society and
democratic political parties. The Government of Nicaragua's (GON)
Office of Public Ethics (OEP) has been designated as one of the
central governmental authorities to assure compliance with
Nicaragua's commitments under various anti-corruption treaties,
including the inter-American Convention against Corruption. Building
capacity in civil society to monitor compliance has the added
benefit, we have discovered, that the same ability to monitor one
convention is readily transferred to other international
anticorruption commitments. In this sense, the program reflects best
practices.


3. PREVIOUS EFFORTS: Mainly through its USAID programs, the Embassy has been directly engaged with promoting civil society's watchdog role, and in response to the request in reftel (a),we are pleased to share this experience. This cable updates our earlier reporting (reftel m and n, et seq.),but we note both depth and breadth in our related on-going programming:

- Seeking to reform the criminal code for consistency with the UN
Convention Against Corruption, Inter-American Convention Against
Corruption (IACAC) and the UN Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime (UNTOC),reftel (b),
- Promoting civil society and institutional reform to address
judicial corruption, reftel (c).
- Developing strategies to attack kleptocracy, reftel (d),
- Reforming legal education so that future lawyers can better attack
corruption, reftel (e)
- Reforming political party campaign finance to expose influences
that can corrupt politics, refel (f),
- Promoting public outrage at impunity, reftel (g)
- Upgrading capacity to investigate crime, reftel (h),
- Teaching journalists how to cover corruption cases, reftel (i)
- Offering alternatives to a corrupt legal system through more
transparent mediation and arbitration, reftel (j).
- Improving checks and balances in the legal system through support
to institutionalize a public defender service, reftel (k)
- Exposing environmental corruption, reftel (l)
- Encouraging follow up to transboundary crime, reftel (o).


4. NEW CIVIL SOCIETY EFFORTS: In December 2006, Nicaraguan civil society was one of three groups to present an independent assessment on compliance with the IACAC, based on the Committee of Experts' Second Round of Analysis of the State Parts Compliance with the IACC, December 11-15. The USAID-supported Nicaraguan Independent Report received high accolades from the OAS' Committee of Experts not only for its content and analytical quality, but also for engaging a key partnership between government and CSOs. Similarly, Nicaragua was the only country in the region that arranged a live telecast, from Washington, of the review process for the IACAC, presented jointly by civil society and the OEP, immediately after the end of the OAS meeting.

4.1 FOLLOW UP: This month, USAID will sign up to six new sub-grants for civil society work to follow up the Conventions, each sub-grant for roughly $100,000 for activities over 8 to 12 months. This effort is the capstone of four months of very intensive work, lead by the civil society coalition group working in tandem with USAID. Each sub-grant is being implemented by a sub-coalition of partners from the same coalition, ranging from between two and seven members each.

4.2 CONCRETE ACTIVITIES: Local civil society groups, now merged into a Follow-up Coalition, plan to review compliance at regular intervals, with or without GON participation. They also plan to make the results of those assessments known to the media and public. One sub-grant will establish a set of compliance indicators that even the Government of Nicaragua does not have. While these compliance indicators are being implemented in Guatemala, the Nicaraguan civil society effort is more ambitious and is part of an integrated and strategic approach. The Chamorro Foundation proposes to work in 8 municipalities to form neighborhood committees of historically marginalized persons to act as community watchdogs for compliance. FUNDEMOS would train Municipal Development Committees (CDMs) in those same eight communities on how to comply with the Conventions.


5. MODEL PRACTICE: We understand Nicaragua is the only country in
the hemisphere currently investing in developing an integrated civil
society capacity to monitor implementation of the Conventions and
hold government accountable. Further, Nicaragua will be the only
country in the region with a civil society website exclusively
dedicated to monitor compliance and governmental performance. It is
worth noting that USAID also provides assistance to the OEP to help
it to consult with citizens, prepare its assessment of compliance,
and disseminate the results. One product of this has been a unique
public-private alliance to monitor compliance.

6. ANALYSIS: We are under no illusion that civil society can
eliminate Nicaraguan corruption. But the increased transparency is
giving pause to those in the current administration that would seek
to back away from international commitments, and increasing the
political cost of engaging in unjust enrichment and not promoting
transparency. Further, by stressing civil society, the demand for
compliance is coming from the Nicaraguan citizens themselves, not
outside actors. With Nicaraguans themselves making the case, there
is less need for on our public diplomacy. In the end, we shouldn't
want it more than they do - this is the GON's chance to demonstrate
to its own citizens that it is serious about its international
commitments against corruption. If the GON does not take those
commitments seriously, the new transparency will tee up the issue in
advance of the 2008 municipal elections. This approach may be of
interest to other countries facing difficult governance situations.
It also underscores how development assistance can integrate
effectively with public diplomacy and law enforcement interests.

TRIVELLI