(S) BRIDGETOWN GUIDANCE RELATED TO RESETTLEMENT

S E C R E T BRIDGETOWN 000586 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2018 TAGS: PHUM PTER PREL PINR SUBJECT: (S) BRIDGETOWN GUIDANCE RELATED TO RESETTLEMENT OF GTMO UIGHURS REF: SECSTATE 101742 Classified By: AMBASSADOR MARY OURISMAN, REASONS 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (S) In response to reftel guidance request, in the event that the government of St. Lucia could be persuaded to accept GTMO Uighurs, Embassy Bridgetown recommends proposing to the GOSL a set of technical assistance activities totaling $10.5 million as outlined below. We note, however, that even though St. Lucia currently recognizes Taiwan, it is unlikely to risk a future relationship with China for any short-term benefits, given China's rumored regional role as political party financier and its recognized role as major donor for infrastructure projects in the region. We would further caution that, since St. Lucia and its neighbors have porous borders, weak law enforcement infrastructure, and well-established drug smuggling routes to the U.S., it is entirely possible that any former GTMO detainees sent to St. Lucia could find their way to the U.S. with relatively little difficulty. ¶2. (SBU) With that in mind, we would propose the following programs that are consistent with the Foreign Assistance Strategic Framework for achieving transformational diplomacy, well within USAID/Eastern Caribbean's management capability, and congruent with the development interests of the Government of St. Lucia. With the exception of the proposed activity associated with health, all of these suggested projects are currently underway and could be expanded to have a greater impact in St. Lucia. Some projects will be terminating during 2009 due to reduced funding or planned contract termination, but with an injection of new money these projects could continue and expand. Another USAID project is being planned for only two islands (due to very limited funds) and could be expanded to include St. Lucia. In almost every case, adding St. Lucia to current or imminent projects, or extending the life of projects currently underway in St. Lucia would require minimal USAID contract and budget modification. Only the proposed public health project would require front-end time for design and contracting action. ¶3. (SBU) Begin Proposal: ¶A. Caribbean Centers for Excellence Teacher Training Program (C-CETT) The Caribbean Centers of Excellence for Teacher Training (C-CETT) program is a response to the problem of illiteracy in eight English-speaking Caribbean countries. A 2002 Presidential Initiative, the program is funded by USAID and offers training and follow-up support to teachers, with a view to making them better Reading Instructors. By improving the quality of education in the region and increasing children's reading capabilities, this program helps to equip individuals with the skills and knowledge to participate fully in the competitive global economy. The C-CETT program is being implemented in several primary schools in St. Lucia in addition to seven other Caribbean countries. The program has been highly successful in the region. The recommendation therefore is to increase the program's support to St. Lucia by including all St. Lucian primary schools under the program, as is being done in Dominica - a "deliverable" from the June 2007 U.S.-CARICOM Conference. Benefits to be derived include: -- Improvement in teaching to support the development of children's vocabulary. -- Access to a set of common Primary School Standards For Reading and Writing, agreed upon by all twelve countries in the English-speaking Caribbean covering Grades 1-6. -- The development of a public-private partnership which would contribute to the establishment of long-term sustainability of the program. Project Status: CETT is scheduled to terminate in Fiscal Year ¶2009. Additional funding would allow the continuation and expansion of CETT in St. Lucia for a two to three year period. CETT is implemented by the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Colleges. Expansion of this effort in St. Lucia would require minimal contracting actions with these organizations. Program Budget: $1,000,000 ¶B. Caribbean Youth Employability Program (CYEP) The CYEP program (Entra 21) is a new pilot project that will target low-income and unemployed youth through the provision of short and effective job training and placement services that ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills to facilitate their transition to the world of work, as well as to be recognized in their communities as positive change agents. The program will be implemented by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) in partnership with local partners in Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada. The proposal would be to expand it into St. Lucia. The program works primarily with male and female school-leavers (ages 17-25) who are currently unemployed or vulnerable and either lack the skills to participate in the increasingly service-oriented economy or are unable to successfully initiate and sustain small business enterprises. The proposed St. Lucia component of the program would target 800 young persons and take them through the relevant processes to become a part of the growing economy. Project Status: International Youth Foundation specialists will be visiting our Mission in October to work with USAID and with Grenada and Antigua partners to begin implementing this new project. Additional funds could easily be added to this new project to include St. Lucia. Program Budget: $1,000,000 ¶C. Caribbean Trade Expansion Project (CTEP) USAID/Barbados is implementing an agricultural trade expansion project for non-traditional specialty products by small farmers in the Dominica and St. Lucia. The project provides technical assistance to participating farmers that helps to improve the variety and volume of agricultural specialty crops for exports to North American markets. Specialty products developed include dasheen, hot pepper, breadfruit, tannias and okras. At the end of year two, the project has realized significant successes in its current two islands: -- Works with over 370 farmers with $250,000 in total revenue realized from exports -- Project impact on the small farming sector - multiplier effect 7:1 -- Market contracts signed with US importers valued at $1.7 million -- Monthly farm income has increased: St. Lucia, 16 percent; Dominica, 20 percent Opportunities for Expanded Activities: -- Increased level of St. Lucia farmer participation: The number of small farmers contracted by the program can be significantly increased from 100 to 400 to cover not only the south of the island but all of St. Lucia. -- Increased exports and use of technology: Upgrading agricultural technology currently used in the sector, for example through increased use of greenhouses to improve quality and quantity of export-quality peppers, etc. -- Partnership with regional agricultural institute: The St. Lucia-based Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) provide training, cost-share project support, and technical assistance in post-harvest technology and agribusiness investment profiles. Increased funding would allow CARDI to expand such partnership activities. -- Training: The project trains farmers in technology transfer; export know-how; post-harvest handling, export-out-turn and value chain management; pesticide safety; best management practices; food safety; and other relevant topics. -- Grant support: A micro-enterprise loan fund would assist participating farmers to expand their operations. Funds can be for in-field support, irrigation supplies, bulking of planning material, purchasing of certain inputs, and the resuscitation of breadfruit trees. After Hurricane Dean a small fund was started, which could be extended and should take the form of grant/loan packages to assist farmers to reach production volumes needed once contracts are in place. Project Status: This activity is scheduled to continue until September 2009. With additional funding its continuation and expansion in St. Lucia could be easily accommodated through the current contractual arrangement with the North-South Institute of Florida, the project implementer. Program Budget: $1,000,000 ¶D. Caribbean Open Trade Support (COTS) Program USAID/Eastern Caribbean has been implementing the Caribbean Open Trade Support Program for the past three years with the goal of facilitating the transition of OECS countries to open trade and enabling them to compete more successfully in the global economy while protecting their rich natural assets. COTS has suffered severe budget cutbacks from Washington E during this timeframe, negatively affecting its ability to serve all OECS countries equally. The original focus was on Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, with St. Kitts and Nevis and then St. Lucia planned to receive full assistance. Recurring budget shortfalls have forced COTS to give less support to St. Lucia than either USAID or the Government and private sector of St. Lucia intended or desired, so additional funding would allow the full positive impact of COTS to be felt in St. Lucia where planned activities have forced to be curtailed. Options for expanded/continued activities: -- Private Sector Development: The "Doing Business" component seeks to achieve growth in sales, investment, and employment OECS business communities by increasing competitiveness at both the firm and policy levels. Types of firms assisted include agriculture, agro-processing, construction, business services, hospitality, financial services, garment construction, quarrying, medical services, data processing, ICT, and adventure tourism enterprises. -- Business Alliance: Technical assistance to business alliances is provided in the form of economic/trade policy analysts who develop position papers to assist the public-private sector dialogue to enhance the business sector's access to market opportunities. -- Investment Business Climate Reforms: Under this component COTS has begun to extend firm-level assistance to St. Lucia by establishing a new Business Development Unit in collaboration with the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. -- Public-Private Sector Interaction: COTS will continue to take advantage of every opportunity to foster public-private partnerships. As an example, a key activity to be implemented is the establishment of a Single Window for Trade and Investment facilitation in both St. Lucia. Such a system would be established through the formation of public-private partnership firms in each country. Additionally, work in trade facilitation through the improvement of Customs and Excise Department includes an active consultation process with the private sector to ensure the necessary buy-in for the reforms. -- Improving the Business Climate through the establishment of Investment Promotion agencies: COTS' principal activities focused on supporting the governments in their efforts to reduce barriers to increased investment inflows and local private sector development. Such an Agency would enhance St. Lucia's investment profile. Project Status: The contract with the COTS implementing partner Chemonics is scheduled to terminate in September ¶2009. With additional funding USAID would amend the contract with Chemonics to allow for a two year continuation and expansion of its trade-related program in St. Lucia. Program Budget: $4,500,000 ¶E. Public Health Over the past several years Washington programming constraints have required that USAID's health program focus exclusively on enhancing the region's ability to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Even so, our ability to reach all OECS countries equally has been limited. USAID will continue its current efforts to develop capacity to plan, manage and implement programs while supporting a comprehensive strategy to combat the HIV/AIDS threat in the region by extending the existing strategy to be more holistic in its scope. The availability of additional resources which are not earmarked specifically HIV/AIDS programming would enable USAID to expand its current HIV/AIDS program to fully include St. Lucia and to link our existing HIV/AIDS program with broader health sector needs that are repeatedly articulated by national and regional health authorities and national political leaders. Opportunities for New Health Activities: -- Family Planning and HIV Prevention Integration: Additional funding would allow USAID to broaden its current focus on HIV prevention which focuses on traditionally defined most-at-risk populations to include programming which integrates family planning with HIV prevention. World Health Organization (WHO) data from 1999 for St. Lucia indicated that 16 percent of all live births were in young women between the ages of 10-14 yrs. This is a potential disaster with so many young women potentially exposed to HIV infection, underscoring the critical need for better programming in family planning and reproductive health from an early age, and the introduction of family planning and prevention measures following delivery to reduce the risk of infection and ensure effective spacing of subsequent births. -- Health System Strengthening: Based on information obtained from WHO and Pan American Health Organization, St. Lucia has identified several priorities within the health sector for reform and strengthening, including: de-centralization of management and functions; integration of different levels of care; improved financing and quality assurance. These goals are further endorsed at the regional level in the PAHO policy document "Caribbean Cooperation in Health II" which identifies health systems strengthening as a priority concern to enable Caribbean countries to deliver efficient and effective health services to the total population, emphasizing the involvement of local health systems. -- Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases: Over the past several years USAID and the Embassy have heard from the regional health leadership and national political leaders that assistance is greatly desired to address the issue of lifestyle diseases or chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. These diseases account for a significant portion of the disease burden in the region and therefore absorb a substantial portion of the resources allocated to the health sector (based on 1999 data from WHO, cardiovascular disease was responsible for 19 percent of all deaths, was the third leading cause of death in the 20-59 year age group and the leading cause of death in those above 60 years of age.) Diabetes and hypertension account for a significant proportion of the morbidity and recurrent health care cost. Improving St. Lucia's ability to address these lifestyle diseases could help St. Lucia to become a regional leader in the area of NCDs, where there is a definite void in local expertise and donor assistance. Improvements will free the health sector to spend much needed resources on others areas of national development such as education and to respond to other emerging crises such as youth at risk. Project Status: Front-end efforts (estimated at six months) would be needed for consultations with various St. Lucia partners, program design, and contracting. Program Budget: $3,000,000 OURISMAN