VZCZCXRO8481
RR RUEHLMC
DE RUEHNM #1252/01 3181544
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141544Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3081
INFO RUEHCO/AMEMBASSY COTONOU 1037
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0338
RUEHFN/AMEMBASSY FREETOWN 0026
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 0402
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0053
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1804
RUEHOU/AMEMBASSY OUAGADOUGOU 8553
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0482
RUEHLMC/MCC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NIAMEY 001252 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W BACHMAN 
ACCRA FOR USAID/WA 
PARIS FOR AF WATCHER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON EAID KMCA NG
SUBJECT: November 13 Meeting with Government of Niger (GON) Prime 
Minister (PM) on Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold 
Program 
 
REF: (a) Niamey 1129 (b) Niamey 1122  (c) Niamey 920 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  In a November 13 meeting lasting over an hour, 
Ambassador Allen, accompanied by USAID program manager Mark 
Wentling, met with Prime Minister Hama Amadou to discuss Niger's 
selection as a MCC threshold country.  PM staff members Secretary 
General Malam Ari Boucar and Principal Advisor Housseini Abdou 
Saleye (formerly Niger's ambassador in Brussels) also participated 
in the meeting.  The Ambassador congratulated the PM on Niger's 
selection for the MCC threshold program, stressing that it was based 
on Niger's positive reforms to date.  The PM complained that the 
United Nation's Development Program (UNDP) again ranked Niger last 
on its Human Development Index (HDI) list.  He said that Niger's 
selection for the MCC threshold program was indeed most welcome 
news.  The PM said he will appoint a point of contact and put in 
place a highly qualified team with English language ability to 
manage the threshold program.  He tried to allay fears about Niger 
not having sufficient absorptive capacity to use and manage large 
sums of money.  Addressing the Ambassador's points about the 
consequences of backsliding, the PM responded that there would be no 
slippage in Niger's performance.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Ambassador began the meeting by congratulating the PM 
on Niger's selection as a MCC threshold country.  The PM responded 
by complaining that the UNDP again ranked Niger last on its HDI 
list.  He said this is wrong and that he had written the UNDP 
resident representative to tell him so and say that the GON would 
have no part in any work that relates to such a ranking.  He could 
not understand how unstable countries suffering from years of armed 
conflict like Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, DRC, etc. could be ranked 
higher than Niger on this index. He noted Niger's progress in 
raising school enrollments over the last few years, and refuted 
UNDP's report that the average life span in Niger had dropped, 
stating that average life expectancy in Niger had increased from age 
46 to 50. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Ambassador provided the PM with the color coded FY 07 
MCC score sheet for Niger and discussed the various indicators with 
him and the sources of the data.  The PM appeared to understand well 
the MCC scoring process and ground rules.  He indicated that he 
already has a team working on improving Niger's scores in areas 
where it is deficient and said that he will identify a point of 
contact quickly to manage the threshold program.  He claimed that 
there will be no problem finding qualified, English-speaking 
Nigeriens for the GON's MCC team and that there would be no slippage 
in Niger's performance.  He understands that an MCC program will 
take a lot of work on the part of the GON and he expressed his 
liking of the MCC program versus the IBRD/IMF approach, which "makes 
a lot of work out of meeting conditions but achieves little."   He 
tried to allay fears about Niger not having sufficient absorptive 
capacity to use and manage large sums of money.  Aware of MCC 
programs in other countries, he said he would consult with Burkinabe 
contacts on how they managed its MCC threshold program. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The PM understands that threshold funds need to be used to 
help Niger perform better when measured against MCC indicators, and 
thus understands the emphasis on education in the MCC threshold 
program announcement.  Over the long run, however, he thought that 
Niger's primary need is to increase agricultural productivity so 
that people could have enough to eat and higher incomes.  He 
indicated that if Niger reaches the compact level, he would like to 
see a focus on agriculture (especially increasing irrigation), as 
this would help address many of the areas where Niger is lagging. 
He said that full stomachs equal less corruption. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Much of the meeting was taken up with the Ambassador 
stressing the need to reduce corruption and improve other MCC 
performance indicators to qualify for the "compact" phase.  She 
mentioned the MCC suspension of Gambia, as well as the more positive 
MCC cases of Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali.  The Nigeriens are fully 
aware that potentially high levels of assistance are at stake. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The Ambassador emphasized that corruption is the critical 
indicator for the GON to control, as slippage below the bar in that 
indicator alone is enough to disqualify a country from the MCC 
program.  She also reminded the PM that scores are not determined on 
 
NIAMEY 00001252  002 OF 003 
 
 
the basis of a fixed scale, but vary from year-to-year depending 
upon the performance of all the other nations being graded. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The PM said poverty was at the heart of corruption.  He 
said that his government is doing all it can to combat corruption, 
citing the three commissions set up to come up with proposals on the 
subject.  He said a study found that a minimum wage of CFA 115,000 
($221) a month is required to allow a decent standard of living, as 
compared to the actual minimum wage of CFA 35,000 ($70).  The GON 
could not afford to raise minimum wage to the higher level, the PM 
said.  He said that one reason the GON moved to a continuous work 
day (i.e. allowing civil servants to leave earlier by reducing the 
long lunch period) was to make it easier for civil servants to 
engage in income generating activities after work. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Nonetheless, the PM said he wants to change people's 
outlook about corruption so that corruption is no longer viewed as 
acceptable.  The Ambassador said that the GON needs to show what it 
is doing to fight corruption in order to address external 
perceptions of corruption and GON anti-corruption efforts.  USAID 
project coordinator suggested that Niger make efforts to report on 
progress made in this area. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The Ambassador raised concerns about slippage over the 
past several months in some civil liberties (such as the jailing of 
journalists) and noted GON actions to address the education scandal. 
 The PM responded that donors underestimate the GON's influence over 
legal issues, noting that it is up to the courts to apply the laws. 
He said the GON only takes legal action against journalists when 
they involve other countries or put Niger's stability and peace in 
jeopardy.  (This is an apparent reference to journalists who were 
prosecuted for claiming that the PM was tilting Niger's foreign 
policy toward Iran and away from the West.)  The PM said the GON 
would come down hard on anyone who said that Islamic extremists were 
at work in the country because the opposite is true.  He said that 
"90 percent of what journalists are printing in Niger is lies, but 
the GON generally does nothing about it."  He added that people are 
putting many false reports on the internet.  He claimed that the 
laws being applied to journalists are ones the journalists 
participated in drafting in 1997.  He mentioned that a new set of 
laws on this subject is in the works and should be ready for 
adoption by the National Assembly in March 2007.  He suggested the 
new laws will do away with jail sentences and put in place a system 
of fines.  He noted that even the President could be brought to 
justice if he violated the law.  The Ambassador suggested that it 
may be better to refute any untruths said about him and his 
government with the truth in a "point-by-point" fashion, rather than 
jailing people. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) On the education scandal (MEBA affair - ref b), the PM 
noted that putting two ministers in jail is no small thing and that 
this had never happened in any other African countries.  The SecGen 
explained that one of the problems in the MEBA affair was the 
donors' requirement to decentralize the distribution of school 
supplies, which reduced the GON's ability to monitor corruption. 
The PM stressed that the new public contracting mechanism being put 
in place would prevent a repetition of anything like the MEBA affair 
and that the GON had learned some useful lessons from this scandal. 
He noted that his government is no longer involved in the MEBA case 
and it is entirely in the hands of the high court.  The SecGen said 
that a challenge to increasing the number of schools and staffing 
them is hiring and paying additional contract teachers, but it is 
difficult to get cash salaries to the contract teachers in remote 
locations 
 
¶11. (SBU) The Ambassador raised the matter of the GON's decision in 
October to expel the Mohamid Arabs as another example of something 
that can tarnish Niger's external image. The PM acknowledged that 
the reaction at the ground level got out of hand in this case, but 
his government quickly rectified its initial misguided reaction.  He 
noted that other ways have been found to take care of this problem 
and that the GON has no intention of expelling any groups, 
especially as thousands of Nigeriens reside in other countries. 
 
¶12. (SBU) In response to a question about the high cost of creating 
a business (an MCC indicator where Niger falls short), the PM said 
 
NIAMEY 00001252  003 OF 003 
 
 
that this was being taken care of and soon Niger would have the 
lowest business start-up costs in the sub-region.  (The PM was 
presumably referring to proposals to cut some business taxes in the 
draft budget currently being discussed by the National Assembly - 
ref a). 
 
¶13. (SBU) Finally, USAID project manager raised the matter of 
Niger's high population growth rate.  The PM responded that he 
recognizes the importance of this topic and this is why a Ministry 
was created to deal with population issues.  He said he had rejected 
that Ministry's draft population policy (reftel C) because it was 
proposing to replicate what has been done for 25 years without 
achieving any results other than an increased population growth 
rate.  He has asked his Population Ministry to develop a new plan 
that reflects the characteristics of Niger, and that is realistic 
and practical.  He mentioned working more closely with local 
marabouts (religious figures) and others to bring the population 
growth rate down from 3.3% to 3.0% by 2015.  He emphasized the need 
for people to return to the tradition of spacing children so women 
would have a child no more often than every three years.  He noted 
that educating young girls and others would be helpful in this 
area. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The Ambassador closed the meeting by informing the PM and 
his staff that she would share additional information on the next 
steps regarding a threshold program, as soon as more information 
from MCC becomes available. 
 
ALLEN