AMB. RICE'S LUNCH WITH THE UN SENIOR AFRICANS GROUP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000437

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNSC XA
SUBJECT: AMB. RICE'S LUNCH WITH THE UN SENIOR AFRICANS GROUP


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Ibrahim Gambari, Special Advisor to the
Secretary-General, welcomed Amb. Rice as guest of honor at
the annual lunch of the UN Senior Africans Group on April 16.
Gambari invited Amb. Rice to take advantage of the resources
of the group, which brings ambassadors from African missions
together with high-level African officials from the
Secretariat, UN funds and programs, the ACABQ, and the
International Civil Service Commission to advocate for
African interests in the areas of policy, programs and
personnel. He and other members present asked for U.S.
support to African efforts to advance peace and security
policy, promote development, and ensure equitable
representation of Africans in the UN personnel system.
Gambari promised to present Amb. Rice with a more detailed
agenda for the group's engagement with the U.S. after
discussion at the group's May retreat. End summary.


2. (SBU) Members of the UN Senior Africans Group hosted Amb.
Rice as guest of honor at their annual lunch on April 16 and
stated their willingness for reinvigorated engagement with
the U.S. In opening remarks, Gambari noted the commitment of
Amb. Rice and President Obama to U.S.-African relations,
while Dr. Djibril Diallo, Senior Advisor at UNAIDS and the
group's coordinator, praised Rice for reaching out to African
PermReps by hosting them at her first official reception and
for being a "voice for the voiceless" in her previous role as
Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. Ambassador Rice
outlined a U.S. vision of a peaceful, democratic Africa that
could fulfill the continent's extraordinary potential, and
said that she looked forward to working with the group on its
focus areas of policy, programs and personnel.

Policy


3. (SBU) Gambari opened the policy discussion by offering the
group's far-reaching expertise as a resource should Amb. Rice
need quiet advice or research from within the UN system.
South African PermRep Baso Sangqu and AU Permanent Observer
Ratsifandrihamanana pressed Amb. Rice to take a new look at
UN financial support to AU peacekeeping in the wake of the
Prodi Report and the AU's increased willingness to take on
responsibility in places like Somalia. Tanzanian Ambassador
Mahiga advocated a strategic partnership between the U.S. and
Africa to deal with terrorism, piracy, and development -- on
the latter issue by working to preserve progress towards
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in a time of financial
crisis.


4. (SBU) Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for
Political Affairs said a growing trust deficit between
African countries and the UN had led many Africans to see the
Security Council as a vehicle for national agendas rather
than a forum for resolving international conflicts. This
trust deficit had eroded the SC's legitimacy, he said, and
given rise to calls for "African solutions for African
problems," in which the UN and other international actors
were relegated to a supporting role as donors. He cited the
rising political profile of ASEAN as another instance of a
regional organization gaining prominence in resolving
regional disputes due to a lack of confidence in the UN.
Menkerios said that this trend was not constructive, and that
SC members should counteract it by looking beyond national
interest to set an agenda of resolving common concerns that
would help repair the Council's reputation.


5. (SBU) Cheikh Sidi Diarra, Under Secretary-General and High
Representative for the least developed countries, landlocked
developing countries and small island developing states
(UN-OHRLLS),seconded the call for U.S. commitment to
continue to work towards MDGs, particularly in three
development areas that he said were notable for their
potential security implications: fighting abject poverty,
eradicating communicable diseases and addressing climate
change.


6. (SBU) Amb. Rice thanked participants for their comments,
and said that the nexus of security and development had been
an important focus of her work before joining the
administration. She quoted President Obama, saying that
Millennium Development Goals were the U.S.'s goals as well,
and mentioned the president's budget requests for sufficient
funds to pay down U.S. UN arrears, $448 million for emergency
aid to the world's poorest and most vulnerable due to the
financial crisis, and $1.1 billion for food security. Amb.
Rice acknowledged that UN support to regional peacekeeping
was an important subject for debate, but said the
administration would need to move cautiously to ensure that
support to peacekeeping missions in places such as Somalia
did not endanger Congressional support for UN peacekeeping
generally.


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Programs


7. (SBU) The two participants from the Administrative
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ),
Nonye Udo and Colleen Kelapile, made a strong pitch for
preserving UN programs on Africa in a difficult budgetary
environment. They said that during the last budget session
an attempt had been made to consolidate Africa-specific
programs, such as the UN's Economic Commission for Africa,
into larger programs focusing on developing countries
worldwide. African countries and the Senior Africans Group
felt strongly that such bodies should maintain an "African
identity" and had fought successfully to keep them: this year
a similar fight was likely, and the U.S. position would be
key. They also raised the issue of scale of assessments,
noting that the ceiling for the U.S. contribution had been
lowered from 25 to 22 percent. Many developing countries
were hoping that the U.S. would accept a return to a ceiling
of 25 percent, they said.


8. (SBU) Eleviome Eloho Otobo of the UN's Peacebuilding
Support Office made a pitch for increased U.S. engagement
with the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). He said that the
U.S. was alone among P5 nations in not having made a
contribution to the Peacebuilding Fund, and that a decision
to contribute would be an important symbolic step. Even
better would be for the U.S. also to take the chair of the
Peacebuilding configuration for one of the two countries
likely to be added to the PBC's brief, Guinea or Cote
d'Ivoire. While both were Francophone countries, Otobo said
that a former U.S. ambassador with Francophone African
experience would be a perfect choice as chair. Otobo also
asked for U.S. engagement in a more robust discussion on
peacebuilding and its implications, including questions of
the relationship between peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and
benchmarks and exit strategies for peacebuilding.


9. (SBU) UNICEF's Omar Abdi asked Rice to help continue the
agency's momentum in advancing health and agricultural
programming. Rachel Mayanja, Assistant Secretary-General for
Economic and Social Affairs and Special Adviser on Gender,
welcomed President Obama's decision on funding maternal
mortality programs and said her office hoped for continued
funding for gender programs. Diallo of UNAIDS said that his
agency's focus was ensuring universal access to treatment,
care, and support, and that he looked to the U.S. to ensure
UNAIDS is able to reach those in need.

Personnel


10. (SBU) Finally, the Senior Africans Group briefed Amb.
Rice on their efforts to ensure equitable representation of
Africans within the UN system, particularly at the middle and
entry level. African candidates are at a disadvantage,
Gambari said, due to "junior professional officer" (JPO)
programs funded by developed countries for the benefit of
their citizens. As a result, Africans are in danger of
becoming "an endangered species" in the UN system, he said.
Amb. Rice said that she would be eager to work with the
Senior Africans group, African ambassadors and others to
address the issue, and asked if group members had considered
approaching private foundations to fund similar JPO programs
for African candidates, perhaps on a matching basis alongside
African states.


11. (SBU) Gambari closed the meeting by expressing his hope
for a close dialogue and partnership with the U.S. Mission
over the years to come. He committed to discussing the
issues covered in the lunch in more detail during the UN
Senior Africans Group's May retreat, after which he would
present Amb. Rice with a more formal agenda of areas on which
the group hoped to cooperate.


Rice