NGOs and USG Discuss Civil-Military Relations in the

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NAIROBI 002334

AIDAC
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF JKNIGHT, S/CT VPALMER, AND S/CT MHAWTHORNE
USAID FOR AFR/AA
AFR/EA FOR CTHOMPSON
DCHA/AA FOR MHESS AND EKVITASHVILI
DCHA/OMA FOR TBALTAZAR
DCHA/FFP
DCHA/OTI FOR RJENKINS; KHUBER
DAR ES SALAAM FOR LANDRE, DCM; PWHITE, AID/DIR
DJIBOUTI FOR JSCHULMAN, PASS TO AMB. SSYMINGTON
KAMPALA FOR DECKERSON
SANAA FOR MSARHAN
KUSLO NAIROBI KE FOR DMCNEVIN
AFRICOM FOR AMB YATES, JLANIER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: MASS EAID PINS SOCI KE XA

SUBJECT: NGOs and USG Discuss Civil-Military Relations in the
Horn of Africa/East Africa

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. On July 15, USEmbassy Nairobi jointly with the NGO umbrella
organization InterAction and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa held a one-day conference in Nairobi to discuss the
evolving civil-military cooperation framework -- also known as
Diplomacy, Development, and Defense (3D) -- in the region. The
workshop was the second in a series of discussions between the
USG and the NGO community about military participation in
humanitarian affairs in general and CJTF-HOA's in particular.


2. The forum conference was an opportunity for the Embassy,
USAID, NGOs and CJTF-HOA to share their perspectives on their
roles and relationships in development throughout East
Africa/Horn of Africa. Despite disagreement on some issues,
there was consensus that the discussion between the USG and the
NGO community should be continued. End Summary.

--------------
Civil-Military Coordination:
The Discussion Continues
--------------


3. On July 15, USEmbassy Nairobi jointly with the NGO umbrella
organization InterAction and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa held a one-day conference in Nairobi to discuss the
evolving civil-military cooperation framework -- also known as
Diplomacy, Development, and Defense (3D) -- in the region. The
workshop was a follow-up to a similar conference held in 2006
aimed at promoting discussion between the USG and the NGO
community about military participation in humanitarian affairs,
particularly the role of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of
Africa (CJTF-HOA).


4. The conference included representatives from USEmbassy
Nairobi, USAID-Nairobi, USAID/East Africa and diplomatic
missions from the region; InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based
NGOs; other NGO representatives; and CJTF-HOA.

--------------
USG: USAID Leads Development,
CJTF-HOA Adds Value
--------------


5. The conference began with USG representatives from each "D"
describing their role in the partnership and their
perspective on humanitarian/development activities.


6. USEmbassy Nairobi Chargee d'Affaires (Diplomacy) described
the country team's 3D approach to coordinating CJTF-HOA's civil
affairs activities, which comes in the form of monthly working
group meetings of the Embassy's Political Section, USAID, and
CJTF-HOA. A notable 3D success was in response to the post-
election crisis earlier this year, she said. In the Rift
Valley, the Kenyan Ministries of Education and Defense
identified schools destroyed during the post-election violence;
KMOD was asked to help in reconstructing the schools. CJTF-HOA
is currently working side by side with KMOD and USAID's Office
of Transition Initiatives to support the realization of USG
strategic goals. This is a combined effort which encourages
dialogue within a community that had become divided along ethnic

NAIROBI 00002334 002 OF 004


lines in the wake of the post-election violence.


7. The CJTF-HOA Commander (Defense) emphasized CJTF-HOA's
primary goal as building the security capacity of host nations
within the command's area of responsibility. Civil affairs
activities comprise a small part of CJTF-HOA's total budget and
contribute directly to the security capacity goal, as the teams
work closely with the host nation to carry them out (e.g.,
medical and veterinary civic action programs). Ideally, the
presence of civil affairs teams will help host nation
governments increase their legitimacy and the legitimacy of
their military forces in local communities, with host nation
militaries eventually taking the lead in their partnership
activities with CJTF-HOA. The Commander emphasized that the 3D
approach has had a profound effect on how CJTF-HOA engages in
civil affairs activities. When done in proper coordination with
USAID and the Department of State, civil affairs activities can
help mitigate the stresses that contribute to instability, such
as lack of access to water and health care, he said.


8. USAID's East Africa Deputy Director and USAID's Executive
Civil-Military Counselor for Central Command (Development) both
reiterated CJTF-HOA's supporting role with respect to
development activities and discussed the close coordination
needed for success. (Note: USAID's new Civil-Military Policy
and an accompanying set of guidelines has been formally released
in the form of a Policy Paper and distributed to all Missions
and soon to COCOMS. End Note.) The new policy recognizes the
importance of collaborating with the Department of Defense and
the need to build USAID's own response capacity to security,
stability, transition, and reconstruction operations. It
underlines that the military's biggest contribution to
development goals is in long-term, strategic military-to-
military engagement, and that the Department of Defense is not a
substitute for civilian capabilities.

--------------
NGOs Voice Concerns About
Militarization of Aid
--------------


9. Participants on an NGO panel voiced general concerns about
the Department of Defense's increased participation in
implementing assistance projects. The NGOs argued that DoD's
participation blurs lines of authority and mandates and may
affect NGO funding sources and jeopardize NGO security and
neutrality.


10. InterAction's Director for Disaster Response described basic
humanitarian principles and outlined the NGO emphasis on
community participation, local capacity and local staff. She
also described InterAction's guidelines for working with the
Department of Defense. (Note: See
www.interaction.org/hpp/military.html for InterAction's
organizational guidelines. For broader civil-military
interaction guidelines -- finalized in July 2007 by governmental
and nongovernmental stakeholders and facilitated by the U.S.
Institute of Peace -- see
www.usip.org/newsmedia/releases/2007/0807_ guidelines.html
End Note.) While the NGO community greatly appreciates the
military's contribution to training peacekeeping forces and
providing protection to civilians, they question the connection
between military civil affairs activities and CJTF-HOA's goal of

NAIROBI 00002334 003 OF 004


building security capacity.


11. CARE's consultant on civil-military relations called the 3D
approach "unbalanced" and posited that that the Department of
Defense is inappropriately taking the initiative in development.
Even USAID's assistance has become more oriented toward
security, he claimed. He criticized CJTF-HOA for not
understanding the local interests and ethnic dynamics of the
communities being served, especially in border regions. He
observed that some communities viewed the U.S. military as a
belligerent in the Somalia conflict, thus complicating the
reception of military civil affairs projects in their area and
confusing the population about the relationship between NGOs and
any military. (Note: The CARE findings have not been
verified/corroborated generically, and remain opinions based on
specific interviews. End Note)


12. PACT's Kenya Senior Program Officer echoed the sentiment
that some people view civil-military activities with suspicion.
Kenya's North Eastern Province provides the example, he said, a
province which was under martial law until the early 1990s. One
of CJTF-HOA's goals has been to help the Kenyan Department of
Defense improve its relationship with the communities of North
Eastern Province, yet local communities still have negative
associations with Kenya's military and question CJTF-HOA's
attempt to raise the Kenyan military's profile, he said.

--------------
Discussion: Open and Frank
--------------


13. The discussion period gave participants an opportunity for
frank dialogue. A CJTF-HOA representative discussed how civil
affairs teams have gradually gained acceptance in local
communities by holding open forums to discuss their work and
then completing their work as agreed upon with local
authorities. An NGO representative countered by asking whether
local communities would ever see the work of civil affairs teams
- either national or U.S. - as altruistic. While communities
may accept civil affairs projects in their own self-interest,
one NGO observer stated, their suspicions of any military
activities would not change.


14. Some NGO representatives expressed discomfort at the idea
of directly supporting civil affairs teams on aid projects.
USAID's own acceptance of Department of Defense funding (i.e.,
1207 funding) also presented a conundrum for some in the NGO
community, causing some to rethink their relationship with
USAID, one representative said.


15. In response, the CJTF-HOA Commander reiterated the
rationale for U.S. civil-military activities:

- They train partner nation militaries in civil affairs
activities such as veterinary vaccination programs which build
trust and rapport with local populations. Currently, CJTF-HOA
provides the equipment, delivers the knowledge, skills and
abilities to partner national military counterparts. In the
future, CJTF-HOA seeks partner nations to take the lead in these
efforts, with CJTF-HOA playing a supporting role in training to
country-specific needs as identified by the partner national
governments;


NAIROBI 00002334 004 OF 004


- CJTF-HOA can access high risk areas which can help advance
USG and host nation development priorities;

- Civil affairs activities, such as medical civic action
programs, provide collaboration opportunities that lead to
security capacity building efforts;

- Civil affairs activities can mitigate stresses that
contribute to instability, such as lack of access to water,
healthcare, veterinary/medical actions; and

- Civil affairs activities provide the collaborative
opportunities for CJTF-HOA to better understand cultural
dynamics to effectively tailor programming and projects to
support partner militaries as well as enhancing long-term
security capacity building objectives.


16. At the end of the day, participants from all sides made
concrete recommendations about what should happen next. CJTF-
HOA discussed its plan to systematically evaluate the
effectiveness of its humanitarian projects in building security
capacity and to gauge local communities' perceptions of its
work. NGO representatives asked that USAID remain their main
interlocutor with the USG, and for local interagency working
groups to solicit and respond to NGO concerns about CJTF-HOA's
activities. One NGO representative suggested that the
Department of Defense could best contribute to its security
objectives with military-to-military training on topics like
gender awareness, civilian protection and HIV/AIDS.


17. Despite disagreement on some issues, there was consensus
that the discussion between the USG and the NGO community should
be continued. Many participants expressed interest in holding
follow-on meetings both regionally and at the country team level
to continue addressing the issues that were raised.
Participants fully endorsed USAID as the lead interlocutor
between NGOs and the U.S. military on civil-military activities.
Participants also agreed that the conference was timely, key
issues were raised and a commitment was made on all sides to
continue dialogue.


18. This cable has been coordinated with and cleared by CJTF-
HOA and USAID.

SLUTZ