WORLD FOOD PROGRAM FIGHTS ANEMIA, WANTS SATELLITE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HAVANA 000248

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2019
TAGS: ECON EAGR PGOV PREL IO CU
SUBJECT: WORLD FOOD PROGRAM FIGHTS ANEMIA, WANTS SATELLITE
IN CUBA

REF: HAVANA 78

HAVANA 00000248 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: COM Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) The World Food Program (WFP) is working to fight
anemia and provide emergency assistance to hurricane victims
in Cuba. Although Cuba is food insecure (importing 80
percent of its food),few Cubans suffer from malnutrition,
according to the WFP country director. However, anemia
caused by iron deficiency affects approximately one million
Cubans. WFP provides direct food assistance and is working
to upgrade a domestic plant that should soon be able to
produce a cereal fortified with iron and other minerals. The
UN system in Cuba is seeking funds from Spain to further this
effort. Government of Cuba (GOC) cooperation with WFP's
emergency operation to provide food storage and direct food
assistance to people affected by last year's three powerful
hurricanes has been slow, bureaucratic, and expensive. To
improve its general operations, WFP requested USINT
assistance with an application to import and operate a VSAT
from a U.S.-based company. End Summary.

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ONE MILLION SUFFER FROM ANEMIA
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2. (SBU) On April 16, World Food Program country director
Sonsoles Ruedas called on the Chief of Mission (COM) to
discuss WFP's program in Cuba. WFP's primary focus is to
support the Cuban National Plan for the Prevention and
Control of Anemia. GOC studies demonstrate that the
prevalence of anemia in Cuba's eastern region is more than 40
percent, affecting mostly children and pregnant women. The
goal of the National Plan, in line with the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals (MDG),is to reduce that rate to
15 percent by 2015. Ruedas called anemia the "only important
health problem" in Cuba. Ruedas said the main problem in
Cuba is dietary, i.e. not how much food but what food is
consumed. The USD 11.5 million WFP project seeks to affect
the Cuban diet through supporting mineral enriched cereals to
improve the eating habits of households in the eastern
provinces of Las Tunas, Granma, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba,
and Guantanamo. This program intends to reach 254,600
children from 6 months to 3 years old and 214,000 children 4
to 5 years old for a period of five years.


3. (U) The Cuban ministries involved in the WFP program
include the Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic
Cooperation (MINVEC) in charge of overall coordination; the
Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) responsible for
implementation and evaluation of the communication strategy,
regulating the corn-soya blend imported and produced locally,
and general food and nutrition oversight; the Ministry of
Food Industry (MINAL) responsible for producing the fortified
food; the Ministry of Domestic Trade (MINCIN) responsible for
distributing the food; and the Federation of Cuban Women
(FMC) to facilitate the implementation of the communication
strategy and publicize methods for cooking and storing the
corn-soya blend.


4. (U) In the short term, WFP is importing a corn and soy
based cereal fortified with iron, zinc, and calcium for free
distribution through a network of government run local stores
or bodegas. The corn-soya blend is a mixture of cornmeal,
soy flour, and soybean oil fortified with vitamins and
minerals. To advertise the benefits of this product, WFP has
enlisted Cuban 2008 Olympic gold medalist Dayron Robles as a
spokesperson. WFP is also producing (i.e. paying for) local
television programs showing mothers cooking with the
corn-soya blend, including in a number of local dishes. The
blend is also commonly added to milk and sweetened.


5. (U) More long term, WFP is helping the GOC modernize the
Lactose Bayamo (formerly Nestle) plant. WFP is providing

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technical expertise and installing an extruder (from
Switzerland) required to fortify the corn-soya blend with
additional minerals. Ruedas said the Cubans should be able
to produce the blend locally by August of this year.
Initially, WFP will buy the soya blend from the Cuban
factory, then give it back to the Cubans for distribution
through the bodegas. This arrangement is expected to
continue until 2012 when the plan is for the GOC to have
sufficiently increased their portion of the acquisitions to
continue the program on their own.


6. (U) In addition to the WFP project, the UN system in Cuba
has applied for a USD 9.4 million grant from Spain's MDG
Achievement Fund to target anemia in pregnant women and
children under five years old. The focus is on increasing
and diversifying the production of local agricultural and
industrial products rich in micronutrients, in particular
iron. The proposal also improves the distribution and
marketing of such products to targeted populations and
strengthens surveillance and monitoring mechanisms for food,
nutrition, and anemia. The UN system will also work with
MINVEC, MINSAP, and MINAL, but also link with the Ministry of
Agriculture (MINAG) and Institute for Food Nutrition and
Hygiene (INHA). This would be the first project funded by
Spain's MDG Achievement Fund in Cuba. To date, the UN's
concept paper has been approved and it is in the process of
writing up the detailed program for final approval. The UN
System also applied for a grant from the same fund for a
private sector development project, of which Ruedas did not
have much information because WFP is not part of the proposal.


7. (C) Ruedas lamented that the number one priority
identified by the GOC for the Spanish funded UN project, if
approved, is the modernization of a plant in Pinar del Rio
"for some reason." She said that the new Minister of Food
Industry Maria del Carmen Concepcion Gonzalez is the wife of
First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and has
significant influence in these projects. She is from Pinar
del Rio, which also explains why Machado Ventura has spent a
lot of time lately in that province touting the questionable
progress of the post-hurricane recovery, according to Ruedas.

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HURRICANE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE
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8. (SBU) Ruedas, originally from Spain, arrived in Cuba from
her previous post in South Africa in August 2008, six days
before the first of three hurricanes tore through Cuba. WFP
underwent two emergency operations in Cuba: first to support
around 86,000 victims of hurricane Gustav in Isla de Juventud
through general food distribution; and second to address the
food requirements of 1,078,000 beneficiaries through targeted
general food distribution for six months from October 2008 to
March 2009. This second operation focused on the most
affected provinces of Isla de la Juventud, Pinar del Rio,
Camaguey, Las Tunas, Holguin, and Guantanamo. In addition to
direct distribution through the government ration system of
beans, rice, vegetable oil, canned fish, and a corn-soya
blend, WFP provided temporary food storage facilities and a
supply of liquid gas stoves for community kitchens for food
preparation.


9. (C) Ruedas said WFP has mobilized funding for 70 percent
of the USD 5.7 million required for these post-hurricane
operations, noting several times that WFP was "unable" to
accept U.S. offers of assistance. She does not expect to
receive any more funding and WFP has nearly distributed all
of its assistance. Ruedas complained that the GOC refused
WFP offers to assist with the internal transport and delivery
of emergency assistance. The Government of Cuba said it
could handle it themselves, "but they can't." Ruedas said
that MINVEC's subsidiary company Donation Administration
Enterprise (EMED) responsible for processing the import,
handling, and distribution of donations nationwide was
extremely ineffective. (EMED was created in 2002 to organize
the donation delivery process working with the Cuban Civil
Aviation Institute, Customs, the Ministry of Transportation,

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the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, and provincial
authorities.) Examples of EMED's "slow, bureaucratic, and
expensive" work include:WFP air lifted protein fortified
biscuits at great expense only for EMED to let them sit on
the tarmac for ten days; EMED sent containers of canned fish
intended for Isla de Juventud to Pinar del Rio by mistake.
Ruedas said she was going to push to use the much more
effective Cuban Civil Defense distribution network in any
future emergency assistance scenario.

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NO SIGNS OF AG REFORMS
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10. (C) When asked if she had seen any signs of improvement
in agricultural production after several minor GOC reforms,
Ruedas said that Cuban agricultural policy still did not make
much sense to her. For example, the GOC has donated 2,500
tons of sugar to WFP for programs in Colombia and North
Korea, while at the same time Cuba imports sugar for domestic
consumption from Colombia. Regarding the much publicized GOC
program to lease idle land to private and state farmers
(reftel),Ruedas said that any progress has been slow and
bureaucratic. She reiterated what we have heard from several
contacts, that the right to access the land is useless
without the inputs necessary to work it.

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Satellite Connections
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11. (C) Ruedas ended our conversation by handing the COM a
letter seeking USINT support for the WFP's goal to import and
operate a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) through U.S.
based Emerging Markets Communications (EMC). Currently, UNDP
is the only UN agency that operates a VSAT in Cuba using
Norway-based operator Telenor. WFP is reliant on the
extremely slow, expensive, and unreliable Cuban
communications system for phone and internet service. The
VSAT would allow WFP to link to headquarters-based
applications and provide a backup communications channel
during natural disasters. The Cuban Ministry of Informatics
and Communications has granted WFP a license to operate a
VSAT in Havana. EMC and WFP are still in the process of
preparing their U.S. licensing applications.

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COMMENT
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12. (C) Ruedas was very frank regarding her critiques of the
Cuban Government, especially in delivering emergency
hurricane assistance. She also admitted that because Cuba
does not suffer from malnutrition per se, one will have to be
creative to think of a role for WFP after the conclusion of
the anemia program in 2012. The pending Spanish grants will
boost UN inroads with Cuba's most expansive health issue and
create additional links between Cuba and the Spanish
government. Licensing issues are the one area in which the
UN system in Cuba is not shy to request or receive U.S.
assistance. We urge the Department to support the upcoming
WFP request to import and operate a VSAT system as both
practical support for the humanitarian work WFP is doing in
Cuba and an example of how the U.S. telecommunications sector
can penetrate the Cuban market.
FARRAR