VZCZCXRO1982
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV
DE RUEHFR #0637/01 0511227
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201227Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5013
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000637 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB, EUR/WE, S/CRS, F 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID KDEM KCRS FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE: MFA ON DEVELOPMENT, GOVERNANCE, STABILITY 
AND RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Econ Counselor and Econoff met February 14 
with Jerome Walter, Counselor to Minister Delegate for 
Cooperation and Development Brigitte Girardin, and Herve 
Magro, Deputy Director for Governance in the MFA's General 
Directorate for International Cooperation and Development, to 
take stock of recent changes in French development policy. 
Magro is generating a strategy paper for the GOF on dealing 
with fragile states and post-conflict reconstruction.  He 
said France was unlikely to stand up an inter-ministerial 
organization modeled after S/CRS or the UK,s PCRU, and that 
his concern instead was in ensuring that government actors 
were operating on similar assumptions -- and in common 
information environments -- in conflict/post-conflict 
situations.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Walter confirmed that in several respects French 
development policy continued along a well-trod path.  France 
continued to focus attention on numerical targets, and was on 
track to meet its Millennium Development Goal target of .5% 
of GDP in 2007.  Given the stringent budget picture and the 
eventual end of debt forgiveness as a major component of 
Official Development Assistance, he admitted to some concern 
about funding to meet future targets however. Though aid was 
recognized as legitimate use of public funds by the French, 
polls indicated that public opinion was prone to question the 
efficiency and utility of aid.  Asked to comment on a 
February 13 op-ed in French daily Le Monde charging that much 
of the increase in French aid had been a chimera, Walter and 
Magro acknowledged some disgruntlement in the NGO community. 
In order to reach spending targets the GOF was having to 
channel more of its ODA through international organizations. 
This was particularly true with health-related spending. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Chirac airline ticket tax dedicated to UNITAID 
was expected to produce about 200M euros this year, and 
Walter claimed there had been no signs of negative effects on 
air travel. Development policy had also taken on board global 
warming, particularly in water management projects and 
planning for effects on biodiversity as humans and animals 
migrate due to climate change. Africa remained the focus for 
bilateral aid, and the GOF was on the whole satisfied that EU 
development policy reflected a consensus in which its views 
were taken into account.  Asked about plans in Afghanistan, 
Magro and Walter listed a number of ongoing or completed 
projects, including in cotton production and health.  But 
although Afghanistan had been added to the list of "priority 
zone" countries for French development assistance, more 
robust involvement was not in the cards.  French added-value 
was particularly strong in francophone Africa, and that would 
remain the priority. 
 
¶3. (SBU) With the adoption of a new interagency policy on 
democratic governance approved in December, Magro noted that 
French thinking on this issue had matured after years of 
interagency discussion. Magro's office is responsible both 
for formulating and executing policy in this area, of which 
he provided an overview. In contrast to the U.S., which saw 
governance largely as the application of basic principles of 
good management, Magro said the French approach was 
increasingly to reach out to local actors and incorporate 
indigenous cultural and social mores into an effective 
approach to good governance.  The resulting view stressed 
both the importance of strengthening and legitimizing the 
state on the one hand, and of promoting the development of 
social capital and civil society capacity on the other. This 
was an inherently "political" process, which did not allow 
for a template that could be easily applied to all cases.  He 
contrasted the French approach in particular to the recent 
emphasis of the World Bank on anti-corruption, which he 
claimed had virtually excluded other aspects of governance. 
France had publicly taken issue with this approach. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Magro also noted that his office had responsibility 
for looking at stability and reconstruction issues for the 
Minister Delegate for Cooperation, and said he was in the 
process of drafting a strategy paper that would outline a 
more systematic approach to the issue.  Coordination and 
cooperation with the Ministry of Defense in particular would 
be a challenge. But Magro thought it unlikely that France 
would follow the U.S. or UK model of establishing an 
inter-agency structure incorporating representatives of 
different ministries in permanent structures. The MFA had a 
well-developed sense of how to manage short-term crises, and 
was beginning to think through the challenges of rapidly 
delivering critical services in a post-conflict environment 
with an eye toward ensuring long-term stability and 
development. He cited policing and the judiciary as examples 
of key functions that needed to be quickly delivered to 
prevent the re-emergence of conflict. 
 
PARIS 00000637  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment: If there was concern about the impending 
departure of President Chirac--whose personal engagement has 
strongly marked the French development agenda for the past 
ten years--our interlocutors did not share it with us. On 
governance, France's approach leaves it a great deal of room 
to maneuver, and we will need to look to specific examples to 
determine what this may mean in practice. Magro,s skepticism 
about an S/CRS-type mechanism for France echoes what we,ve 
been hearing here for some time.  Although Ambassador 
Pierre-Andre Wiltzer was appointed "High Representative for 
Security and Conflict Prevention" in 2004, in practice his 
mandate has been narrowly focused on peacekeeping and 
demilitarization issues.  As the French begin to grapple with 
possible adjustments to the way in which they manage 
post-conflict situations, we should look for opportunities to 
engage with them. Magro in particular expressed a strong 
interest in meeting with U.S. officials involved in such 
work.  The April multinational exercise hosted by the GOF,s 
National Defense General Secretariat may provide such an 
opportunity. 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
STAPLETON