MEPI: PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SANAA 001220 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM KMPI PREL PGOV YM SUBJECT: MEPI: PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS SANAA 00001220 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. SUMMARY: Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) funding, combined with our diplomatic clout, has enabled the USG to shape Yemen's national reform efforts of the past 18 months. MEPI's flexibility, responsiveness to post needs, and support for Embassy goals have brought positive change to Yemen's civil society and governance. Crucially, having resources available to back up our policy advice has meant that our bilateral relationship with Yemen on democratization and economic reform has become a productive, pragmatic engagement largely unhindered by regional developments that have dampened our efforts in other countries in the region. Put simply, MEPI allows us to roll up our sleeves and help change Yemen -- not just talk about it. END SUMMARY -------------- YEMEN: THE CASE FOR REFORM -------------- ¶2. As the only republic on the peninsula, Yemen is something of a political anomaly in the region. Elections are held regularly, women have been enfranchised since 1993, a somewhat unruly media regularly airs government's dirty laundry, and civil society organizations operate largely unhindered. That said, things are not perfect. Electoral fraud still occurs. Women often do not participate as candidates. Some journalists practice self-censorship and others claim varying degrees of harassment. Much work remains to be done to improve democratic freedoms in Yemen and to continue this country's progress as a model for other countries in the region. ¶3. The same has held true for economic liberalization. While Yemen has long since moved away from a command economy, the country's GDP per capita hovers around the same level as developing countries like Madagascar or Niger. High population growth coupled with diminishing oil reserves create the potential for instability if the economy does not diversify and grow. Instability for Yemen's 22 million people could also prove threatening to Yemen's rich neighbors to the north and east. Expansion of economic freedom is therefore imperative not only for Yemen's own interests but for those of U.S. allies in the region as well. -------------- THE USG STILL MATTERS -------------- ¶4. Fortunately, the United States still holds tremendous sway in Yemen. Telephone calls from President Bush to President Saleh are treated as front-page, above-the-fold news in the official press. Words of praise or criticism by the Ambassador or DCM are carried prominently in all media, and inevitably engender much discussion among Yemen's political and economic leaders. Discussions with government and non-government personalities alike routinely focus on Yemen's development and specific problems to address, not on the situation between the Palestinians and Israelis or the conflict in Iraq. Yemenis frequently ask their Embassy interlocutors, "Everyone agrees on what we should do next in Yemen, but how can you help us accomplish it?" -------------- GETTING THE JOB DONE -------------- ¶5. In steps MEPI. In Yemen, post has been able to call on MEPI funding for dozens of projects to advance reform goals, push the envelope on freedom of expression, and engage Yemeni civil society in debates about how to improve their country, not just hold conferences to complain. There are more than 34 projects funded by MEPI in Yemen, many of which can be considered lynchpins for that particular reform goal. For example: -- Islamic Preachers' Program: This project funds a local NGO to engage a group of young preachers, both male and female, on human rights and democratization issues from a religious standpoint. Presenters conduct workshops to engage the preachers in a dialogue and convince them of the importance of human rights in development and democratization. The preachers have received and engaged in fruitful discussions with Embassy officers and local employees as part of the program, thereby opening up channels of communication for the Embassy with a group whose influence on average Yemenis at the grassroots is immeasurable. -- Women's Political Participation: Yemen has no shortage of conferences featuring talking heads who rarely leave the capital and who claim that this or that magic bullet will bring about reform. This is particularly true of women's issues in this traditional, conservative society. That is SANAA 00001220 002.2 OF 003 why this year in particular, post took a creative approach to the problem by directing more than $150,000 in small grant funding to women's NGOs all around the country, including in tribal areas, to put together television and radio spots, broadcast interviews, and engage female preachers on the subject of women's political participation. Several of the NGOs will approach the problem from a religious and cultural perspective, aiming at breaking down barriers by speaking to women -- and men -- in a language they can easily understand. -- Judicial Reform: The USG and other donors pushed exceptionally hard over the past two years for the ROYG to sever executive control of the judiciary. When the President dramatically removed himself from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC),the body that governs the judiciary, the only donor standing ready with immediate funds to help the new, reform-minded head of the SJC was the United States. Through MEPI's rule of law funding, the Embassy offered study tours, training courses, a computer network, and a website for the new SJC leadership. This support has in turn emboldened the SJC. Since Saleh stepped down from his judicial role, dozens of judges have been fired, retired, or put under investigation for corruption or incompetence. A woman has been named to the Supreme Court for the first time. The Higher Judicial Institute has a new, modern curriculum and has also opened its doors to women for the first time. Meanwhile, the Embassy has silenced critics who claimed that the USG was only interested in funding the ROYG, which some derided as a "payoff" for support in the GWOT. We provided $50,000 in funding to one of the staunchest critics of the ROYG and USG, which is also the most highly respected human rights organization in the country -- HOOD. Their project will culminate in the writing of and lobbying for a new draft Judicial Authority law, which aims at further enhancing the independence of the judiciary. -- Economic Reform: The largest single provider of contracts in the country is the Yemeni Government. The official procurement system, however, is a complicated, politicized process that is often circumvented in favor of "sweetheart deals." When the USG and World Bank pushed for a comprehensive new law as a critical part of the country's reform strategy, our words were heeded because we offered immediate expert assistance through Booz Allen Hamilton consultants funded by MEPI. On three occasions, Booz Allen experts came to Yemen to help Yemeni reformers draft a strong new law, and persuade key parliamentarians to adopt it. Even Yemen's brightest, most committed reformers admit that the law would have died in the conception phase if the Embassy had not been able to send experts each time the Yemenis needed them. ¶6. MEPI programs have also provided important leverage when we needed it. For example, when the Yemeni Customs Authority (YCA) refused to support legislative and regulatory changes to help Yemen move further along the path of WTO accession, the Embassy successfully induced the YCA to change directions by threatening to end a MEPI-USAID customs training program. The YCA in turn pulled draft legislation that was not WTO compliant from the Parliament and replaced it with amendments that it has asked the USG to review before they are submitted to the legislature. -------------- WHERE TO NEXT? -------------- ¶7. In the coming years, post looks forward to continuing to use MEPI's toolbox to keep the engine of reform running strong in Yemen. As the MEPI program evolves, post encourages the Department to continue funding it robustly, and to consider providing even greater country-specific focus for individual reform goals. For example, while media reform may be a worthwhile regional goal, we have found that Yemen is enough of an outlier that it cannot benefit from many regional programs, either because it does not have enough English speakers, or because its training needs are often more basic than for other countries with more developed media. ¶8. Similarly, an expansion of the small grants program could provide post with even more options for testing creative ideas. Some of post's small grants from previous years have grown into full-fledged NGOs who have begun to export their ideas. For example, the Children's Parliament -- a program in which high school students from across the country meet to debate both with each other and government officials about issues of the day -- is now being shared with Bahrain and Kuwait. We believe that more funding to experiment with small projects such as this could yield even more expandable SANAA 00001220 003.2 OF 003 and exportable ideas, given Yemen's diverse and underfunded civil society sector. -------------- MEPI: THE SWEAT OF OUR BROW -------------- ¶9. If thinking about traditional diplomacy conjurs images of suits, ties and shined shoes, the kind of diplomacy that we are able to practice thanks to MEPI should evoke images of Americans with their sleeves rolled up, standing side-by-side with government reformers and civil society activists. MEPI has allowed political and economic officers to evolve from relying on moral suasion as their primary tool of engagement to having experts, funding, and technical advisors at the ready to support USG goals. This, coupled with concerted diplomatic support from senior Embassy and Washington officers, has helped us move reform in Yemen from a question of "if" to a question of "how," which is the very essence of transformational diplomacy. KRAJESKI