NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH PLANNING MINSTER TO DISCUSS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000744 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR OES/IHA AND OGAC DEPT PASS USAID FOR GH/OHA AND AFR/SD CDC FOR NCIRD/GID/DEEB TREASURY FOR PETERS, IERONIMO AND HALL BAGHDAD FOR DUNDAS MCCULLOUGH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KISL PGOV KHIV ECON KOCI EAID PREL NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH PLANNING MINSTER TO DISCUSS PEPFAR FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE OF U.S. GOVERNMENT ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Ambassador met with the head of the National Planning Commission April 9 to discuss need for a President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Country Partnership Framework (CPF) Agreement and the way forward towards achieving one in the near future. Ambassador and Minister for Planning Shamsuddeen Usman agreed that health was an essential area within national development planning and required an interministerial approach to attain sustainability in health services - complemented by engagement with civil society organizations. Both also cited the need to bring in best practices from other countries' efforts to boost the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. The Minister committed to setting up a joint working group, which would meet soon and then bring in Nigerian participants from the regional, state and local levels, in part to identify what was working (and not) to leverage existing in-country best practices. He would also bring in the Governors Forum. Addressing his broader planning responsibilities, Minister Usman said the GON was looking to achieve near-term concrete goals, with a strengthened emphasis on monitoring and evaluation. He said he had been citing USAID as a model for the latter. Referring to the Paris Declaration, he stressed the importance of unifying the continuing wide variety of accounting and reporting formats used by different donors. Mission Director agreed to work closely with Usman and staff as they mobilized coordination efforts in support of the Seven Point Agenda of President Yar'Adua. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) Ambassador met with Minister Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman at the National Planning Commission (NPC) on April 9, accompanied by AID Mission Director and Economic Counselor. Usman was accompanied by several of his senior staff, including PermSec Mongye and International Cooperation Director Bahaya. Dr. Usman welcomed the Ambassador by saying he was impressed by the "new style" she had brought to U.S. engagement with Nigeria and praised the way she had been reaching out proactively, not only with government ministers, but also with villagers and others. She was projecting the image of the U.S. as "a humane and approachable country" to Nigerians. Usman also lauded the "image change," perceived in Nigeria and elsewhere, with the coming into office of the Obama Administration. PEPFAR FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Ambassador briefed Usman on USG Team Nigeria's Framework for Partnership with the GON, which aims to support the goals of the GON Seven Point Agenda. Health is a major part of the USG's efforts in Nigeria, and we were looking to partner with the GON more concretely in that arena. The Ambassador referred to the PEPFAR Country Partnership Framework (CFP)Paper presented late last year and her letter to Usman in February 2009 proposing a partnership strategy. She had noted that health had not been identified as a focus area in the GON's 2020 Vision. (Usman and his PermSec acknowledged that was a serious oversight and said health would be added in to their Vision 2020 planning document). ¶4. (SBU) The USG was interested in working with the GON within an interministerial framework to improve coordination and sustainability of HIV/AIDS control and prevention efforts. While the CPF framework would likely include the Ministries of Health, Education, Finance, and Women's Affairs, the National Planning Commission was the obvious coordinating body within the GON, especially as the counterpart organization for donor coordination, she noted. The Ambassador said that the USG was looking for the best way to bring our resources and planning and fuse with the GON's vision and its own resources. We were looking for a true partnership, not with the U.S. leading, but with both sides working together, she added. A CPF would be a mutual document. The U.S. side envisioned wraparounds as key components, along with engagement with women, youth and the media. THE WAY FORWARD -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Dr. Usman welcomed the initiative towards a framework agreement, and said the Planning Commission would be pleased to help toward its realization. He stressed that health and education were seen together within the GON development vision. He said it was ABUJA 00000744 002 OF 002 "interesting and exciting" that the U.S. was the first to come to the GON with a strategic approach to working together. He agreed with the Ambassador to form a Ministerial working group that would involve the concerned GON ministries and the various USG agencies working on HIV/AIDS. He already had agreement from the Minister of Health to move forward. He suggested involving state-level representatives, as they work with local government authorities to ensure implementation. Initially, the GON would convene internally, the NPC would then move quickly to meet with the involved USG agencies and then bring in the ministries and other parties, likely to include representatives from all geographic zones to ensure clarity as to where states' efforts were working, not working, or could use improvement. The NPC and the USG Team could make a joint presentation to the larger group. Usman also agreed that joint monitoring efforts made sense as the CPF agreement got up and running and could be applied in other areas as well. As the process moved forward, it would be important for governors to be involved and to visit other states, to see and to share what was working. He agreed to the importance of involving community and women's organizations and the media in anti-HIV/AIDS efforts under the emerging agreement. GON PLANNING APPROACH -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Speaking more broadly about his area of responsibility, Usman said the NPC's role was to support "strategic planning, not state planning." It was up to the individual substantive ministers to set specific targets to be achieved by 2011, with the NPC providing technical assistance to put those efforts in a comprehensive and achievable framework. The government had a lot of challenges before it, and sometimes officials at the director and deputy director levels tried to hang onto their turf, but Usman was determined to effect coordination, including through coordination with key donors and also by working with donors like USAID to ensure that best practices were identified and put into practice. Admittedly, there was skepticism about the Seven Point Agenda, due to past failures to produce results, but the GON was committed to clear targets and associated monitoring and evaluation (M & E). USAID and the EU were seen as models for M & E, Usman said, and he was open to any technical assistance that might help the GON reach its near-term goals and accelerate development efforts. DONOR COORDINATION -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Usman noted that he had just completed a term on the board of the African Economic Research Consortium, which was supported by 15 public and private sector donors, all of which utilized different accounting and reporting formats. Citing the Paris Declaration, he stressed the importance of unifying such donor means of communications. USAID Mission Director agreed to keep close contact with Usman and his senior staff as they worked to improve donor coordination and monitoring and evaluation across the board. Ambassador and Mission Director confirmed the USG commitment to broader donor coordination even as the USG worked bilaterally with the GON on the PERFAR Partnership Framework Agreement. ¶8. (SBU) COMMENT: The NPC's Usman appears fully committed to creating and effecting a workable agreement. Ambassador is sending Usman a follow-up letter to confirm key points agreed to in this discussion. Ambassador will be sending the follow-up letter to Usman to not only reconfirm discussion but to continue to encourage his leading the formation of a strategic Inter-Ministerial group that would advance the CPF and other health and social issues such as education and polio. This opening with the NPC Minister would allow for another US-GON working group under the Mission's Framework for Partnership and hopefully get the GON to improve its coordination and financial commitment to these issues. END COMMENT. ¶9. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos. SANDERS