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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 000453 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
STATE FOR AF/EPS/SDRIANO, EB/EPPD, E/APENCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ETRD EFIN XA SF
SUBJECT: READOUT OF THE JANUARY 17-18 MEETING OF THE BLAIR 
COMMISSION FOR AFRICA 
 
 
(U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified.  Please handle 
accordingly; not for Internet distribution. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  At a January 17-18 meeting in Cape Town, 
seventeen African ministers of finance grouped with members 
of the Blair Commission for Africa to consult on the 
Commission's report due February.  Chancellor of the 
Exchequer Gordon Brown attended the event as the last stop in 
a six-day tour of Africa (including Kenya, Tanzania, 
Mozambique, and culminating in South Africa).  The Commission 
for Africa and consulting ministers issued a communiqu that 
called for the doubling of official development assistance 
(ODA), 100% debt service relief, special and differential 
trade for African countries, the creation of an International 
Financing Facility (IFF), and for rich countries to commit to 
Millennium Goals target of 0.7% of Gross National Income for 
official development assistance.  Both Brown and South 
African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel delivered speeches to 
open the meeting.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Sixteen African finance ministers joined eight of 
seventeen Blair Commissioners for Africa and selected others 
to consult on the Commission's report due in February during 
a two-day meeting in Cape Town on January 17-18. 
Participants included: 
 
-- Abdelatif Benachenou, Finance Minister, Algeria 
-- Luisa Dias Diogo, Prime Minister and 
      Finance Minister, Mozambique 
-- Sogue Diarisso, Finance Minister, Senegal 
-- El Zubair Ahmed El Hassan, Finance Minister, 
      Sudan 
-- Donald Kaberuka, Finance Minister, Rwanda 
-- Khushhal Khushiram, Finance Minister, Mauritius 
-- Goodall E. Gondwe, Finance Minister, Malawi 
-- Michel Meva'a Meboutou, Finance Minister, 
      Cameroon 
-- David Mwiraria, Finance Minister, Kenya 
-- Celestin Bayohgha Nembe, Deputy Finance Minister, 
      Gabon 
-- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister, Nigeria 
-- Timothy Thahane, Finance Minister, Lesotho 
-- Abou-Bakar Traore, Finance Minister, Mali 
-- Minister Mekonnen, Advisor to the Prime Minister, 
       Ethiopia 
-- Trevor Manuel, Commissioner and Finance Minister, 
      South Africa 
-- Gordon Brown, Commissioner and Chancellor of the 
      Exchequer, U.K. 
-- Paul Boothe, on behalf of Ralph Goodale, 
      Commissioner and Finance Minister, Canada 
-- Linah Mohohlo, Commissioner and Central Bank 
      Governor, Botswana 
-- Fola Adeloa, Commissioner and Chairman of 
      Nigeria's FATE Foundation 
-- William Kalema, Commissioner and Chairman 
      of the Uganda Investment Authority 
-- K.Y. Amoako, Commissioner and Executive Secretary 
      of the Economic Commission for Commission (UN) 
-- Anna Tibaijuka, Commissioner and 
      Executive Director of UN HABITAT 
-- Koosum Kalyan, Shell International, Business 
-- Mass Lo, LEAD, Civil Society 
-- T.F. Nkodo, Vice President, African Development 
      Bank 
-- Wiseman Nkuhlu, NEPAD Steering Committee Chairman 
 
Influential Commissioners such as former Senator Nancy 
Kassebaum, British Secretary of State for International 
Development Hillary Benn, and French President Chirac's 
Personal Representative for Africa Michel Camdessus did not 
attend the meeting. 
 
¶3. (SBU) By all accounts, the consultation came off without a 
hitch.  British High Commission First Secretary Andrew 
Millar, who attended much of the meeting, reported to Econoff 
that "there was little of the cynicism that dogged other 
consultations."  Major events included a forward leaning 
keynote speech from Chancellor Brown, and an opening address 
by South Africa Finance Minister and Blair Commissioner 
Trevor Manuel. 
 
Brown Calls for Aid, Trade, and Debt Relief 
------------------------------------------- 
¶4. (U) In his speech to African finance ministers, Chancellor 
Brown called on developed countries to provide more aid, more 
trade, and more debt relief.  Noting that 80% of Africa's 
external debt was now held by international financial 
institutions (IFI), Brown said that he had already discussed 
detailed proposals with participating finance ministers and 
commissioners to use IMF gold to write off IFI debt.  Brown 
also called for a doubling of aid to Africa, the creation of 
an "International Financing Facility" to raise $100 billion 
in official development assistance, of which $10 billion 
would go to primary education and $20 billion to 
infrastructure.  Brown also said, "Let the Commission for 
Africa also be the first official report to call for trade 
justice."  He further declared that the Commission for Africa 
saw its task as mobilizing donor support for NEPAD, the 
African Union, and African country development programs. 
 
Manuel Builds on Monterrey 
-------------------------- 
¶5. (U) In his opening speech, South African Finance Minister 
Trevor Manuel was upbeat in his assessment of Africa.  He 
claimed that Africa was strengthening its regional economic 
institutions to fulfill the role assigned to them by NEPAD. 
Africa had more democracy, fewer conflicts, more stable 
economies, and more growth now than ten years ago.  As a 
consequence, investment flows were improving.  He cited World 
Bank studies concluding that Africa's absorptive capacity had 
improved.  Development partners, he said, should support 
Africa by ensuring that official and private finance was 
sufficient to fund national development programs.  Referring 
several times to the Monterrey Consensus, Manuel said that 
the international community had arrived at a basis for 
partnership.  While the Monterrey Consensus had offered 
strong principles, however, it had not offered much action. 
He lamented the fact that the Paris Club provided more debt 
relief to Iraq in one day than it had to all Heavily Indebted 
Poor Countries (HIPC) combined.  Manuel also spoke to role of 
domestic financing strategies, policy reform, and taking 
advantage of trade opportunities.  He said that African 
finance ministers should see the Commission for Africa as an 
opportunity to voice specifics as to what would move WTO 
negotiations along as well as create economic benefits for 
Africa. 
 
The Communiqu 
-------------- 
¶6. (U) At the close of the meeting, the consultative group 
issued a communiqu.  It stressed the need for urgent action 
and welcomed the Commission's broad approach, which included 
peace and security, governance, human development and 
inclusion, voice and accountability, and the economic issues 
of growth and poverty reduction, trade, and financing 
development.  The communiqu supported the Commission's call 
for an infrastructure financing facility to fund NEPAD and 
other infrastructure plans.  It also said that in July G-8 
Summit leaders should commit to specific, monitorable, and 
time bound agreements in the build up to the UN Millennium 
Summit in September.  The communiqu urged the G-8 to begin 
immediately and, in particular, for G-7 Finance Ministers to 
reach agreement on 100% multilateral debt relief at their 
February 4 meeting in London. 
 
¶7. (U) The communiqu declared that the Blair Commission 
should call for at least a doubling of foreign aid, arguing 
that Africa's capacity to absorb aid had substantially 
increased.  The group welcomed the idea of an "International 
Financing Facility as the most advanced and technically 
feasible" of the proposals to provide more aid, and 
encouraged the examination of special levies and 
international taxes as possible sources.  Ministers felt that 
more aid should be delivered to Africa in the form of budget 
support and grants, and that it should be more predictable, 
longer-term, and better coordinated to support country 
development plans.  Policy conditionality should be improved, 
with greater focus on building accountability to Africa's 
citizens.  Further, donor countries should set timetables to 
meet the 0.7% ODA/GNI target as promised in the Millennium 
Development Goals. 
 
¶8. (U) The communiqu urged the Commission to propose a 100% 
multilateral debt service relief for HIPC -- and other -- 
countries, and for such relief to be shaped by development 
needs and levels of poverty rather than by "the narrow 
consideration of export to debt ratios."  In addition, 
special needs of post conflict countries and middle-income 
indebted countries ought to be considered. 
 
¶9. (U) On trade, the communiqu demanded that the Doha 
Development Agenda WTO negotiations afford African countries 
better access to the markets of rich countries.  The 
communiqu encouraged the Commission to make specific and 
time related proposals for action by rich countries to break 
down their barriers and end their subsidies, particularly in 
agriculture.  Africa would require "Special and Differential 
Treatment" and transitional assistance to help it compete in 
the global economy, including fiscal reform.  During this 
period, the communique said, preferential access must work 
better and nontariff barriers, including rules of origin 
restrictions, reduced.  Help must be provided to meet 
barriers such as international health and safety standards. 
 
Press Coverage 
-------------- 
¶10. (U) The event garnered good press coverage by South 
African media.  This included a radio interview with Nick 
Sterne, Blair Commission for Africa Director for Policy and 
former World Bank Senior Economist.  During the interview, 
Sterne commented that Europeans had already agreed that the 
"injustices of the existing trading system" needed to be 
redressed.  Further, he said that Britain was looking to 
provide 100% debt service relief wherever possible.  In 
answer to a leading question as to whether countries like 
Equatorial Guinea should qualify, Sterne replied that the 
"net should be cast as wide as possible," even to countries 
that might not meet HIPC standards.  Sterne confirmed that 
the Blair Commission for Africa Report would be made final at 
the third and final Commission meeting, chaired by PM Blair, 
on February 24, and then published by the end of February or 
beginning of March.  He said that the three-month period to 
follow would be important to gather momentum for the G-8 
Summit at Gleneagles Scotland. 
 
¶11. (U) In her press conference with foreign journalists on 
January 27, British High Commissioner Ann Grant picked up on 
Sterne's theme.  She said that while Britain was under no 
illusion that it could deliver the G-8 on all Commission for 
Africa recommendations, PM Blair would lobby for the maximum 
acceptance of Commission recommendations in the three months 
leading up to the G-8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland.  Grant 
also said that Nelson Mandela had agreed to meet with G-7 
finance ministers in support of the Commission's work and was 
flying to London.  The G-7 ministers meet in London on 
February 4. 
 
On the Margins 
-------------- 
¶12. (SBU) In a briefing to G-8 diplomats in Pretoria on 
January 28, Grant said that G-8 countries needed "to make a 
concerted push on trade, aid, and debt issues" in 
consultation with NEPAD and the African Union.  She said that 
both the G-8 and the EU had a heavy set of commitments, in 
addition to British priorities on Africa and climate change, 
so it was important to take advantage of "unprecedented 
coincidence of opportunities for cooperation," including the 
UN Millennium Summit in September and the Asian-African 
Summit in Indonesia in April. 
 
¶13. (SBU) On the margins of the Cape Town event, Finance 
Minister Manuel commented to reporters that while South 
Africa supported the revaluation of IMF gold to pay for debt 
relief, it would want to be represented in the decision 
making process to make sure that much of it would go for 
African debt relief.  This comment to the press evoked some 
surprise at the National Treasury in Pretoria, which had not 
vetted the minister's statement. 
FRAZER