THE GLOBAL HUNGER AND FOOD SECURITY INITIATIVE: DIPLOMATIC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 NAIROBI 000048 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR C MARISA PLOWDEN AND EEB/TPP/ABT GARY CLEMENTS AND GEOFFREY SPENCER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAGR EAID ETRD PREL KE SUBJECT: THE GLOBAL HUNGER AND FOOD SECURITY INITIATIVE: DIPLOMATIC ACTIONS IN KENYA REF: STATE 127466; STATE 124059 -------------- INTRODUCTION -------------- ¶1. Post appreciates the Department's interest in implementing the President's Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (GHFSI) in Kenya. We believe Kenya could become a successful GHFSI partner country and our engagement could catalyze market-driven agricultural reform in the region. Despite existing agricultural inefficiencies resulting from poorly designed production and production-procurement policies, high tariffs and non-tariff barriers, Kenya has taken positive steps during the past two years toward developing an improved policy framework and functional mechanisms - considered by the Government of Kenya (GOK) to comply with the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) principles -- that could facilitate a successful GHFSI program. Kenya is strategically important to the U.S. given its proximity to Sudan and Somalia, and acts as a regional hub for trade and a driver of economic growth in East Africa. ¶2. Post enjoys strong bilateral and multilateral reach with both bilateral and regional USAID presence, Foreign Agriculture Service, Foreign Commercial Service and other key agencies. The presence of headquarters and regional centers of multiple international organizations and foundations dealing with agriculture and rural development provides a unique opportunity for multilateral and public-private partnerships. As described in detail in the Mission's draft Global Hunger and Food Security FY 2010 Implementation Plan, the existing strong partnership between the U.S. and Kenya on agriculture, combined with the success of current USG strategic development programs in the sector, will serve as an effective platform for mobilizing GHFSI activities and achieving results quickly. We are also fortunate that our new DCM, who serves as post's point-of-contact for the GHFSI, came to us from three years as the DCM to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. Agencies in Rome, where he participated in discussions of global agricultural issues with G8, G20, NGO, and multilateral participants leading up to the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative. The Ambassador and DCM are strongly committed to working with Kenya to become a model for the GHFSI, working in partnership with public, private, academic, and multilateral partners. ¶3. In sum, we believe this is an opportune time to increase our engagement with the right kind of investments in capacity-building, policy-development, staple food value chain development, and related interventions to push Kenya toward reaching its potential to become food secure. Real success in the agricultural sector will, however, require the GOK's commitment to the political reform agenda, including the critical fight against corruption, that overarches all of Kenya's fundamental problems. That is why our approach on GHFSI will be fully integrated into the larger USG policy strategy here. With a more consistent demonstration of political will to enact reforms, the GOK can do much more to advance sustainable food security in Kenya. Below follows the country team's consensus on appropriate diplomatic actions to implement the GHFSI. -------------- CHRONIC HUNGER IN KENYA -------------- ¶4. Despite Kenya's potential for achieving food security, there are consistently two to four million people receiving emergency NAIROBI 00000048 002 OF 006 food aid each year. Kenya currently faces a short-term food security crisis as a result of drought and the effects of post-election violence. Chronic food insecurity exacerbated by a continued rise in food prices and poor urban and rural purchasing power has contributed to increased malnutrition. Humanitarian agencies are currently providing emergency food aid to 3.8 million (an increase from 2.6 million last year) pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and marginal agricultural households. In addition, there are other populations that are chronically food insecure. These include approximately 1.5 million school children in drought-affected areas who require school feeding programs, roughly 2.5 million poor in urban areas who are unable to meet 50 percent of their daily food requirements, about 2 million vulnerable poor in rural areas who are affected by HIV/AIDS, and up to 100,000 persons displaced by the post-election crisis who have not fully recovered their livelihoods. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),more than 200,000 children five years of age or younger are affected by moderate malnutrition and approximately 30 percent of children under five years old suffering stunting. ¶5. The GOK has recently taken steps that could facilitate a successful GHFSI program. In addition, Kenya already possesses a well-developed policy framework along with structural mechanisms to facilitate donor coordination. Specifically: -- Kenya has developed an overarching 2009-2020 Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) to succeed its 2004-2009 Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA). This new strategy incorporates a CAADP-like framework and can serve as the blueprint for Kenya's food security strategy. President Kibaki signed this document, and six out of the ten sector ministries have signed so far. The official launch is expected in March 2010. -- The agricultural sector ministries and donors jointly support an inter-ministerial Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit (ASCU) which oversees policy reform and ensures that ministerial activities are compliant with the ASDS principles. -- The GOK is in the process of forming a new Food Security and Nutrition Secretariat within the Office of the Prime Minister and is revitalizing the National Food Security and Nutrition Thematic Working Group (TWG) under the auspices of ASCU. The mandate of the TWG - composed of government, private sector and civil society stakeholders - is to address food security and nutrition challenges of the country. -- The GOK is finalizing a five-year medium-term investment plan aligned to the ASDS and CAADP which they will present to the Agriculture and Rural Development Donor Coordination Group in mid-January 2010. -------------- OVERALL GHFSI DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY -------------- ¶6. Kenya's ability to achieve food security is inherently linked to progress on its broad-based political reform agenda. Kenya is at a critical juncture. In the absence of a new Constitution, judicial, land, police and electoral reform, and a demonstrated ability to fight corruption, the country will likely experience significant ethnically-charged violence in 2012 as it did in 2008 (with a major negative effect on the agricultural sector). The thrust of our foreign policy in Kenya is to avert violence through NAIROBI 00000048 003 OF 006 strenuous engagement on the reform agenda. We propose to fold our GHFSI diplomatic strategy into our overall reform efforts. Kenya has the robust technical expertise to become food secure, but must translate this strength more consistently into the political will to further advance and implement key reforms (including trade-related reforms) in the agriculture sector. However, we can put pressure on the political leadership to advance policies consistent with GHFSI principles and firmly believe that the Kenyan people, 70 percent of whom are engaged in the agriculture sector, stand to benefit from U.S. engagement in this area. ¶7. In the coming months, the country team will be working closely together to develop a matrix that presents a succinct Mission-wide approach to the GHFSI. We will be prioritizing interventions into immediate, medium, and long-term activities and actively using the matrix as a tool to show where we can effectively engage and which Embassy sections should have action and supporting roles. We have tentatively identified the following key areas: -- Inter-ministerial/donor coordination -- Land reform/natural resource management/climate change -- Reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade -- Stronger integration of Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) within the country's economic development processes -- Bridging the gap between relief and development -- Policy assistance, advice and planning -- Public diplomacy outreach -- Promoting public-private partnerships -- Improving current capacity-building programs -------------- IMMEDIATE HIGH-IMPACT ACTIVITIES -------------- ¶8. While the country team continues to develop the overall GHFSI matrix, we have tentatively identified the following diplomatic interventions to support our ongoing long-term development strategy which we believe will begin to move the initiative forward: -- The GOK is already creating a Food Security and Nutrition Secretariat under the Office of the Prime Minister. We're making preparations to engage early in the year at the senior level to help shape the way this new secretariat is formed to ensure long-term impact. -- Likewise, we can provide technical assistance and support at a senior level to help guide the GOK as they finalize the structures supporting its food security strategy to make them more effective. We will participate, via the DCM and others, in donor coordination and government meetings to push the Kenyans to implement the reforms identified in the ASDS. -- The DCM, along with members of the country team, will hold a series of high-level meetings with key external players in Kenya's agricultural development sector -- EC, GTZ, SIDA, World Bank, IFAD, FAO, DFID, and WFP -- to increase our engagement, cooperation, and NAIROBI 00000048 004 OF 006 coherence of engagement. -- We will demonstrate support for institutions that promote effective strategies for combating food insecurity. For example, we will support the GOK's strategy to bring longer-term development to areas that have been long neglected, by showing high-level support to the newly formed Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands and the National Policy for ASAL development. --We will take a very public leadership role in demonstrating how concerned citizens can transform under-utilized urban land to improve the nutrition of Kenya's poorest-of-the-poor, Nairobi's slum children. We are transforming a one-acre urban plot of land into a model small-scale urban farm, with the production going to supplement and improve the nutrition of Nairobi's slum children who are currently provided lunch rations by the World Food Program. -- We will encourage the GOK and other key stakeholders to bridge the gap between long-term agricultural development and emergency interventions, helping to alleviate immediate crises while protecting assets and improving livelihoods of vulnerable populations. -- We will push the GOK, at the highest level, for harmonization and rationalization of regional trade policies. -- We will encourage the GOK to restructure the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in an attempt to eliminate one of the most significant non-tariff barriers in Kenya's agriculture sector. -- We will collaborate with the GOK and the private sector to encourage a more open, efficient and unobstructed grain trade to include providing enhanced capacity building to the sector. -- We will intervene at the senior level when the GOK indicates a move toward additional trade-distorting measures (protectionist tariffs, price fixing, dual-pricing schemes) for short-term political gain. -- We will encourage the GOK to abate high ad-valorem tariffs on imports of grains and other food ingredients and products. The GOK's removal of the maize import tariff from February 2008 through June 2010 has facilitated and continues to enable commercial maize imports to reduce food shortages. -- We will engage at a high level, through DCM participation and Ambassador intervention as necessary, when the GOK presents its medium-term investment plan in January. This is the opportunity to provide feedback and shape the way the GOK invests in agricultural development. -- We will increase emphasis on educating Kenyans about USG credit facilities that are currently available to assist with food security. -- To increase awareness of food security issues, we will hold a series of press workshops to train a cadre of reporters to NAIROBI 00000048 005 OF 006 accurately report on food security issues. -- We will leverage the launch of new long-term programs and the announcement of emergency aid by holding press events - pushing for senior-level GOK participation -- to highlight critical policy issues and educate the public on food security issues. -- In the short-term, we would like to fund an agricultural policy climate study to highlight gaps and potential reforms in Kenya's agriculture policy. A December 2009 World Bank report concluded that "inequities in the Kenya agricultural sector point to an urgent need to review Kenya's agricultural trade policy and re-examine the role of the National Cereals and Produce Board." Internal vested interests and corruption have stymied reform. An independent analysis of agricultural sector policy and structural blockages to growth that provides prioritized actions to remove blockages would inform our engagement by providing an objective plan of action. -------------- -------------- MULTI-LATERAL AND REGIONAL COORDINATION OF GHFSI STRATEGY -------------- -------------- ¶9. To move our strategy forward, we will continue to work with other bilateral and multi-lateral donors through existing structures. Kenya enjoys well developed government-donor coordination mechanisms including the Agriculture and Rural Development Donors (ARD) Group, the Inter-ministerial Coordination Committee (ICC),the Technical Committee, and the Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) including the revitalized National Food Security and Nutrition TWG. The ARD donors group and the GOK agricultural ministries signed a Code of Conduct in April 2009 in which signatories commit to good governance, to "alignment and harmonization in order to reduce the burden to multiple development, in pursuance of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness...", to aligning their support with the SRA/ASDS to meet Millennium Development Goal targets, and to improve efficiencies in implementing the SRA/ASDS. We have well established ties to all the key players at the working level, including the World Bank, DFID, SIDA, EC, JICA, GTZ, DANIDA, IFAD and FAO. We will continue to engage at the working level and increase our participation through senior-level participation in targeted meetings with an eye toward enhanced coordination and to advocate for reform. ¶10. To achieve the goals of the GHFSI, we will encourage Kenya to work with its neighbors to support regional integration. Increasing regional trade and opening up an integrated regional market for staples in eastern Africa will allow countries to take advantage of regional diversity and different harvest periods, moving foods from surplus to deficit areas. Through the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC),African governments have committed themselves to harmonizing policies, regulations, standards and procedures and moving from Free Trade Areas to Customs Unions. COMESA's newly launched Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) is expanding regionally coordinated actions to open up market access for staple foods. To be effective, agreements made at the regional level must be taken up, implemented and enforced by national governments. We will work closely - supporting our programs in USAID/East Africa and USAID/Kenya -- to identify and promote regional policy initiatives that have potential to increase food security in Kenya and the region. ¶11. We will also coordinate closely with bilateral missions in the NAIROBI 00000048 006 OF 006 region. As a regional science and technology platform, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) achieves economies of scale for high-priority regional agricultural research. National-level support to ASARECA's country partners increases the dissemination of these important technologies to farmers. Regional transport corridor diagnostics are expected to reveal key bottlenecks and barriers to trade, which will need to be addressed at the national level. Regional trade associations build on the strengths of their national members to upgrade value chains and advocate for a better regional policy and business environment. Expanded training and capacity-building programs will be planned jointly, building cooperation among African educational institutions around a common agenda. USAID East Africa will provide regional coordination and knowledge management, linking the various U.S. Government Agencies working toward reducing hunger, poverty and under-nutrition in the region. ¶12. One of the challenges we face is linking up our own bilateral initiatives with multilateral efforts in a way that assures country and regional coherence. Clear channels of communication, robust program review and oversight, and rapid dissemination of new technologies are essential. While existing institutions will provide the operational structures, Embassy Nairobi will work to link these structures with broader multilateral organizations in order to ensure independent review. Our goal is to provide external expert advice and a peer review process to avoid politicization and contamination by parochial interests. An independent advisory board or panel of experts may be useful, perhaps working in cooperation with or as part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) or the FAO Committee on Food Security (CFS). We would welcome the Department's comment on whether such a model exists. -------------- CONCLUSION -------------- ¶13. With more consistent and sustained policy reform, Kenya can excel as a GHFSI partner country - and in so doing, also play an important role in improving food security in the region. Real success will, however, require the GOK's commitment to the political reform agenda, including the critical fight against corruption, that overarches all of Kenya's fundamental problems. Through significant senior-level U.S. engagement -- in the context of our push for fundamental political reforms -- and a comprehensive, country-led, multi-donor approach which encourages market-based agricultural development and trade and provides mechanisms for peer review, we believe Kenya may be able to achieve food security. Given the GOK's new ASDS and its well-developed institutional framework to facilitate coordination of agricultural sector reforms, a framework with which we can engage is already in place. RANNEBERGER RANNEBERGER