ICI: BAGHDAD MEETINGS ON WAY FORWARD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001814

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON EAID IZ
SUBJECT: ICI: BAGHDAD MEETINGS ON WAY FORWARD

Classified By: Economic Minister Counselor Charles P. Ries, reasons E.O
. 12958 1.4 (B,D)



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In separate Baghdad meetings UNAMI and
the ICI secretariat have laid out somewhat different visions
of the way forward on ICI commitments made at Stockholm.
Section three of the ICI annual report, titled "Investing in
the Future," laid out several of these commitments in the
proposed six-point "Partnership for Development." Discussion
in Baghdad is focusing on two of these points: the
performance-based ICI management review (which was inserted
at the UN's initiative),and the proposed GOI/Donor
co-financing mechanism. Post is holding internal meetings to
discuss the co-financing proposal to see how the USG can
support it. The ICI management review is intended to take
stock of existing GOI structures and methods that will
support achievement of ICI benchmarks, to align the ICI
secretariat more closely with them and to ensure that line
ministries advance the national development strategy as
expressed in the ICI benchmarks.


2. (C) SUMMARY CONT'D: UNAMI Deputy Guy Siri passed us June
10 the UN proposal for the Baghdad ICI Executive Committee
(please protect),which lays out an ambitious and several
month-long inventory/review of the Iraqi Government's
planning and policy development structures to be conducted by
UN contracted experts under the authority of a Task Force set
up by the ICI Executive Committee, headed by COMSEC SecGen
Ali Ala'aq. Siri told us his vision was for the ICI
Secretariat to be fully integrated with the Iraqi Council of
Ministers Secretariat (COMSEC),with minimal if any further
institutional ties to DPM Barham Salih's office. The
Director of Iraq's ICI Secretariat Dr. Hadi Hussein told us
June 11 that the Executive committee would meet to discuss
the UN proposals during the week of June 15, however he was
not waiting to begin the review based on a detailed terms of
reference (as preferred by the UN) rather he will conduct a
survey of policy planning structures and analyze line
ministries' plans with the goal of offering advice to line
ministries in time for them to take account of ICI benchmarks
in their 2009 budget planning cycle. It is clear to us that
the ICI secretariat staff are trying to preempt any
adjustments that will diminish their central role in
reporting on ICI progress and are willing to give up policy
planning functions to do it. END SUMMARY.

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Di Mistura: Stockholm Successes
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3. (U) UNAMI convened a meeting of Amman and Baghdad based
UN staff and international donors via DVC from UNAMI
headquarters on June 10 to cover ICI next steps, the UN
Mission to Anbar, the IRFFI July donors meeting. UNAMI head
Staffan di Mistura opened with a review of the Stockholm
Ministerial, characterizing it as "really successful" in that
it has helped to change the Iraq narrative to one that is
more hopeful and positive for the future. He attributed this
to three main elements: improvements in the security
situation after GOI advances in Basrah, Sadr City and Mosul,
a new understanding that Iraq is a rich country with the
resources to support its own development, and therefore a new
understanding that relations with Iraq will now be developed
on the basis of partnership. This, he said, is why it had
been important that the ICI Ministerial not be organized as a
donor meeting. Di Mistura added that the lack of
representation from most of Iraq's Sunni neighbors had a
positive "collateral effect," because it showed that Iraqis
could have a positive and high profile engagement with the
international community without a Sunni patron. This, said
di Mistura, has helped to change the dynamics in Iraq's
relations with its neighbors; the early signs bearing this
out are the recent moves by Bahrain and Jordan to reestablish
embassies in Baghdad.

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UNAMI: ICI Structures must be more effective
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4. (SBU) UNAMI Deputy Guy Siri briefed on the UN's plan to
work with the GOI to implement the commitments undertaken in
the ICI Annual Report's concluding chapter on "Investing in
the Future," specifically the six point "Partnership for
development." The UN will set up a working group with the
GOI and OECD to help Iraq implement the Paris Principles on
Aid Effectiveness. On donor/GOI co-financing, Siri said the
IRFFI secretariat would make a proposal to build on the
structure proposed in the ICI Annual Report. Siri said the
current ICI secretariat is weak and needed changes. It was
(barely) able to gather information for the Annual Report,
but measures are needed to enhance the administrative

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efficiency of the ICI's planning and coordination structures
which were established in 2007 and "which are not working so
well." Siri said UN and GOI principals will participate in
an ICI Executive Committee meeting on June 12 to agree on the
terms of reference (TOR) for a comprehensive review of ICI
structures which would be conducted by UN contracted experts
under the umbrella of a Task Force headed by Council of
Ministers Secretariat (COMSEC) SecGen Ali Ala'aq.


5. (C) After the meeting Siri passed us the document the UN
plans to present to the Iraqis at the Executive Committee
(emailed to NEA-I; please protect). In it the UN avers that
the ICI structures must "integrate seamlessly" into broader
GOI policy and planning mechanisms. Asked what this means
for the current ICI secretariat, Siri replied that his vision
was of a ICI secretariat in the COMSEC rather than the DPM's
office. The problem with keeping it in Barham's office, he
said, was that it was not able to influence the line
ministries' planning and spending.

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Iraqis on the Defensive
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6. (SBU) In a meeting on June 11, ICI Secretariat Director
Dr. Hadi Hussein had a different take on the UN proposal.
Hadi told us that the proposed TOR were "comprehensive" but
that the ICI Secretariat had already developed its own action
plan and was already implementing it. Hadi agreed that the
ICI Secretariat had not developed the planning and
programming elements originally envisaged and that the policy
planning units in other government entities could take that
function. The Secretariat would coordinate those efforts and
present them to the international community via the ICI. But
he implicitly rejected the UN's proposed Task Force, saying
he and his staff were moving forward now, meeting with the
IRFFI secretariat to determine how the two Secretariats could
work together in coordinating donor co-financing. His
information technology staff member was also planning visits
with MOPDC and Grant Thorton, LLC staff to determine how the
Donor Assistance Database (DAD),and Capital Budget Reporting
Tracking System (CBRT) could support the ICI's own database
for tracking activities and expenditures that advance
progress against the ICI benchmarks. Rather than wait for an
Executive Committee (which he said was postponed until the
week of June 14) to bless the UN's TOR for a multi-month
performance based review, the ICI Secretariat will continue
to press ahead with an eye to having advice on planning
priorities that support ICI benchmarks provided to line
ministries in time for them to make any needed adjustments in
time for the FY 2009 budget cycle, sometime in August or
September.


7. (C) COMMENT: We should support the UN's efforts to
reconfigure Iraq's ICI implementing mechanisms, and tie them
"seamlessly" into existing GOI planning mechanisms -- even if
it means breaking some crockery with the ICI's "face to the
world" DPM Barham Salih. The Compact Secretariat's struggles
simply to gather the information needed to draft the ICI
Annual Report demonstrated that the Secretariat does not work
as it is currently set up. We (the USG) and other donors
actually provided much of the material for the Joint
Monitoring Matrix. Guy Siri was so nervous about the report
not getting drafted that he asked us to do it (we refused on
the grounds that the report should be by the Iraqis, not
about the Iraqis.) Dr. Hadi wants to effectively turn the
Compact Secretariat into a reporting mechanism, supported and
staffed in part by the UN to produce annual reports for the
international community. Asked his plans on expanding the
Secretariat, he said he will not increase staff on the
grounds that the ministries already have planning units and
"the plan" -- the National Development Strategy. However,
for all of the success of the Stockholm Ministerial, we are
not yet assured of ICI buy-in from the ministries. If the
ICI continues as it has done so far, it will simply turn into
a UN-run rapporter to the International Community and not
develop into the inter-ministerial planning and coordination
mechanism it needs to be.







BUTENIS