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FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
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INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PRIORITY
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
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RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000128 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
TREASURY FOR OWHYCHE-SHAW 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017 
TAGS: EFIN ECON EAID KCOR PGOV CG
SUBJECT: WORLD BANK IN LISTENING MODE, GEARING UP FOR 
WOLFOWITZ VISIT TO DRC 
 
REF: KINSHASA 1857 
 
Classified By: EconCouns Greg Groth for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
 ¶1. (C) Summary.  World Bank representatives, in Kinshasa to 
talk with donors about the Bank's program for 2007, expressed 
particular interest in and concern over Security Sector 
Reform issues. They agreed with the Ambassador that the 
handing over of the fully drafted Governance Compact to the 
GDRC by the EU had been premature, but said that the Country 
Assistance Framework would be a good vehicle for GDRC/donor 
collaboration on assistance issues.  Bank officials indicated 
they would be listening closely to bilateral and multilateral 
donors in order to improve coordination at this critical 
juncture.  They indicated that their trip was also in 
preparation for a planned spring visit to the DRC by WB 
President Paul Wolfowitz.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Ambassador, USAID Director and Econcouns met January 
22 with World Bank (WB) officials Robin Cleveland, Counselor 
to WB President Paul Wolfowitz; Pedro Alba, Washington-based 
Country Director for the DRC; Jean-Michel Happi, DRC Resident 
Representative; and Auguste Tano Kouame, Special Assistant to 
Wolfowitz. Bank officials were in a listening mode and had 
met already with, among others, several European embassies, 
the IMF resident representative, and President Kabila. 
 
---------------------- 
Security Sector Reform 
---------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The WB officials showed particular interest in 
Security Sector Reform (SSR) issues.  Cleveland said that 
Wolfowitz had recently met with Javier Solano, Louis Michel 
and Jean-Marie Guehenno in Brussels, and that Wolfowitz had 
come away with the impression that there was not yet a 
unified position, particularly between the UN and EU, on how 
to address critical DDR/SSR issues and who would do what. 
 
¶4. (C) The Ambassador noted that many different players are 
active on SSR in a number of sectors.  The Bank, for example, 
has been involved in DDR, though very little has been done in 
re-integration -- an area that needs urgently to be 
addressed.  CONADER (funded by the Bank) has been mismanaged 
and ineffective, and a choice needs to be made whether to 
eliminate it and start all over, or to address the most 
egregious of CONADER's many problems now so that DDR can 
continue.  While re-starting from scratch might under other 
circumstances make sense, the down side would be that there 
is simply no time to lose in the DDR process.  The Ambassador 
also said that another top priority is administrative reform 
of the DRC military.  Bank officials agreed that with a new 
government about to be installed, this is the best 
opportunity and time for getting things right in the DRC, and 
that the results here would have positive effects for the 
whole region. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Governance Compact, Country Assistance Framework 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5. (C)  Regarding the WB/EU-led Governance Compact (GC), 
Cleveland said that she had been taken by surprise when 
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid 
Louis Michel handed the GC over to the GDRC.  She agreed with 
the Ambassador that this had been premature, risked having 
the GDRC accept the document only to lay it aside, and that 
it would have been better to have given main points of the GC 
to the Congolese President or Prime Minister for consultation 
before moving to a final draft.  She said that it was 
necessary to avoid any semblance of an ultimatum and rather 
to allow for the balance necessary in a true partnership 
between the DRC and the international community. Cleveland 
said she would share this view with Wolfowitz, and that the 
tactics used in approaching the GDRC should not undermine the 
strategy in place. The Ambassador suggested that an effective 
approach might be for the international community to applaud 
President Kabila for his strong public statements on good 
governance, for example in his December 6 inauguration 
address, and to initiate a dialogue as to how this can be 
translated into a concrete action plan. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Regarding the Country Assistance Framework, Happi 
noted that the new government, once installed, would likely 
 
KINSHASA 00000128  002 OF 002 
 
 
want to review and comment on the DRC Poverty Reduction 
Strategy Paper (PRSP), given to the IMF and WB in mid-2006, 
and suggested that the CAF would be the best method for the 
international donor community to support the PRSP and work 
with the GDRC on assistance issues. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Bank Interaction with Donors and Next Steps 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU)  On donor coordination, Cleveland said Wolfowitz 
wants to tackle the division of labor between bilateral and 
multilateral donors, but not in order to make a hard and fast 
determination of who does what where.  Instead, she said, the 
WB is willing to get behind what other donors are doing (or 
intending to do) while at the same time trying to avoid 
spreading itself too thinly.  Ambassador suggested that it 
would be helpful to determine from donors where their "fixed 
points" are (i.e., to identify who has already committed to 
do what), and to coordinate from there.  Cleveland mentioned 
specifically the areas of road infrastructure, water 
treatment, and agriculture as areas of WB interest in the 
DRC.  She noted that the WB had lost more than half of its 
technical experience in agriculture over recent years and 
needed to strengthen itself internally in that sector. 
Cleveland said that she would be sharing the information 
received from the various donors in the DRC with Wolfowitz in 
preparation for his visit to the DRC.  Cleveland indicated 
that the Wolfowitz trip might be made in conjunction with a 
Louis Michel visit, but that it would definitely take place 
sometime in the spring. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The issue of internal WB problems in the DRC, 
despite brief mention of the CONADER situation, did not come 
up in the discussions.  This may have been simply because the 
results of the WB internal investigations have still not been 
provided to Alba and Happi (as was the case in December) or 
perhaps because Cleveland did not want to discuss these 
issues in front of the DRC resident representative. It is 
good to see, however, that the WB is making an effort to 
listen to donors and intends to use that information to brief 
Wolfowitz and to plan for 2007 and beyond. End comment. 
MEECE