VZCZCXYZ0013
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #0915/01 1102106
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 202106Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6826
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 2217

UNCLAS QUITO 000915 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM AMBASSADOR JEWELL TO U/S BURNS AND U/S FORE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMGT EC
SUBJECT: GLOBAL REPOSITIONING - RESPONSE FROM AMBASSADOR LINDA 
JEWELL 
 
REFTEL: STATE 49440 
 
¶1. Summary: We are delighted to have been chosen as a Phase 1 
country for the Secretary's Transformational Diplomacy initiative, 
and we are very pleased with the early returns on what the three new 
positions we gained have allowed us to do.  Following are responses 
to questions posed in reftel as to how US Mission Ecuador has used 
the GRP positions on behalf of the Secretary's transformational 
agenda. 
 
¶2. Response to Question A: In 2006 the Department designated Ecuador 
a transformational diplomacy (TD) post and added two new positions 
at Embassy Quito and one at Consulate General Guayaquil. The new 
positions have only been fully encumbered for a few months, but 
already the new officers have allowed us to substantially expand our 
transformational activities with new audiences and leverage much 
more outreach by the entire Mission.  We've developed a National 
Outreach Strategy and are engaging a wider number of influential 
institutions and individuals - especially in provincial cities - to 
highlight the USG's many positive programs and put Mission officers 
and EFMs in direct contact with Ecuadorians, explaining more about 
who we are and what we do. We are also greatly increasing outreach 
to youth and disadvantaged groups, traditionally unreached 
audiences. We are bringing together Ecuadorians with U.S. experience 
into coherent groups that can influence public debate on Ecuador's 
future.  While the Mission had a transformational agenda in place 
before receiving the GRP-I positions, and Mission offices were 
working to transform Ecuador via traditional tools and programs, the 
new officers have allowed us to establish TD as a separate activity 
at the entry to mid level and among EFMs, and helped the Mission's 
senior managers develop the  ongoing transformational activities 
into part of a larger whole. 
 
¶3. Response to Question B: The FS-03 Public Diplomacy Officer in 
Quito is the Mission's National Outreach Coordinator (NOC).  He 
develops activities to explain USG interests and goals to 
Ecuadorians and to better engage institutions in and outside of 
Quito.  He maintains a calendar of Embassy officers' official trips 
outside of Quito for reporting, ACS and other purposes and adds on 
outreach activities (speeches, lunches, interviews) to reach desired 
target audiences (universities, service organizations, chambers of 
commerce) and plans his own trips to places we have not had time to 
visit adequately in the past.  These trips have vastly expanded the 
number of Ecuadorians we're engaging, and focused the themes on U.S. 
assistance and long-term USG goals such as anti-corruption, 
counter-narcotics and trafficking in persons. The PDO has made it 
possible to reach high school audiences that we did not have 
resources to cover previously.  The wide variety of topics, settings 
and types of schools is giving us a good insight into the best ways 
to convey our message to these future leaders and we find them eager 
for contact with us. Thanks as well to the new FSN supporting the 
position, we now have staff dedicated to developing outreach 
activities for all Mission officers, family members and Peace Corps 
Volunteers, allowing us to take much fuller advantage of the human 
capital at post than ever before. 
 
¶4. The PDO has helped create several U.S. university alumni clubs in 
Ecuador, key to our efforts to create and encourage networks of 
change-minded individuals in Ecuador.  For instance, he set up 
luncheons that I hosted for Georgetown and Harvard alumni, and other 
Mission officers and I attended a breakfast event for Fulbright 
alumni organized by the Fulbright Commission, and another for 
Michigan State alumni.  Other university alumni efforts are in the 
works.  These clubs create influential networks within Ecuador and 
with the U.S. to address issues of mutual interest.  These are 
powerful multipliers and people who know us well. The PDO has been 
able to organize much more frequent programs with more universities, 
which are often centers of out-of-date leftist thinking.  Direct 
contact dispels myths and provides new information to new audiences. 
 The PDO and his FSNE established contact with the Universidad 
Central, Quito's public university and a source of anti-American 
rhetoric, which led to an invitation to participate in an on-campus 
open house for Embassies where they promoted the Fulbright program 
and other USG exchange programs, and distributed hundreds of IIP 
books and CD's to students. Over fifty new PAS Information Resource 
Center subscriptions were generated through this outreach event.  In 
organizing community outreach events, the PDO leverages new contact 
by all Embassy sections with new audiences in creative programs that 
often generate media coverage as well.  For instance, he coordinated 
the participation of African-American Mission officers and a 
Fulbright scholar to discuss the African-American experience with 
student audiences at the Quito City Museum's "Afrodescendents" 
exhibition, co-sponsored by the Embassy. 
 
¶5. The FS-02 Economics Officer works on both TD and outreach 
activities. His transformational activities are focused on long term 
change and leadership.  For instance, he is actively pursuing 212(f) 
corruption visa revocations and ineligibilities for "deserving" 
Ecuadorians, showing GOE and Ecuadorian public that we are an ally 
in the fight against corruption.  He is developing strong working 
E 
 
relationships with new Under Secretaries in economics-related 
ministries to maintain productive, high-level dialogue with the 
current administration, and using contacts in ministries, with 
academics and in provincial capitals to identify future Ecuadorian 
leaders and to recommend them for USG-sponsored programs such as the 
International Visitors program.  He is also searching for synergies 
with other agencies at Post like USAID (competitiveness) and FCS 
(anti-corruption) in order to complement each other's programs 
rather than duplicate them.  In the area of outreach, he developed 
new themes and new audiences for our most important economic 
messages. For instance, he changed the core theme of the Economics 
outreach speech from "Free Trade Agreement" to "Competitiveness," to 
de-couple outreach from the more specific (and now stalled) FTA 
issue to a broader message that encourages Ecuadorians to develop 
consensus for reforms that promote market-based, open international 
economic engagement.  He is increasing engagement with business and 
political leaders in Ecuador's provincial capitals in order to 
understand the challenges that exist outside of Quito and Guayaquil, 
and to examine how local leaders are responding at the municipal and 
provincial levels. During his recent trip to one provincial capital, 
for example, he met with university economists, gave the Economics 
outreach speech at a local university, and along with the FCS 
officer held a round table discussion with business leaders. 
 
¶6. The FS-03 Public Diplomacy Officer in Guayaquil has re-opened 
Consulate outreach efforts to the entire consular district, 
re-engaging with audiences long neglected and reaching out to new 
ones. She is finding creative ways to engage university level 
audiences and faculty.  For instance, she met with the Univ. of 
Guayaquil Dean of the Social Communications School, arranged a 
meeting between the post's English Language Specialist and the 
English language teaching staff, put the school's radio station on 
distribution for the Embassy's weekly radio program, and donated 
materials to the English Department's library.  She uses the two 
U.S.-Ecuador bi-national centers in Guayaquil and Cuenca to maximum 
extent to expand the profile for USG speakers and programs. For 
instance, she oversees the PAS grant to the BNC Guayaquil to 
administer the WHA-sponsored College Horizons English language 
scholarship program for low-income Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous 
students.  The CEN contacted more than 60 public high schools and 
recruited 350 candidates for the 25 available slots, hosted an 
orientation session/reception for 125 public school officials, NGOs 
and private foundations, and an orientation/reception for parents 
and students.  Future plans include visits by consulate staff to the 
high schools of our College Horizon students, a visit by the CH 
students to the Consulate, and a meeting with me.  In her outreach 
efforts, she has been able to leverage all Consulate resources to 
engage new audiences in new ways, for instance when she helped the 
Consular officer coordinate the Guayaquil visit of a group of HBC 
Morehouse College officials who recruited Afro-Ecuadorian students 
for Morehouse, met with local Afro-Ecuadorian leaders and visited 
Afro-Ecuadorian communities to build leadership networks with them. 
 
 
¶7. Response to Question C:  The two PD positions are accomplishing 
exactly the work outlined for them, correcting misperceptions, 
countering misinformation and fostering better mutual understanding. 
The Econ position has been working on most of the issues outlined in 
the job description such as corruption and trade, but because the 
FTA faltered, the trade focus shifted to a broader agenda of 
economic reform, still well within the transformational parameters. 
After a few months experience with these new positions, seeing what 
works and what doesn't, we are now refining further the specific 
policy transformations that will be the top priorities in the 
political and economic areas. 
 
¶8. Response to Question D: In addition to the fantastic work these 
additional officers have been doing, and the expanded reach and 
influence they have developed for the Mission, they have also helped 
enormously in my goal to have everyone in the Mission involved in 
outreach and TD activities in order to achieve the goals first 
outlined in Quito 2235 (2005), "Transforming Ecuador: Action Plan 
for Democracy and Stability." This plan emphasized the long-term 
nature of transformational activities such as education and exchange 
programs which, if carried out successfully in Ecuador, would mean 
that in twenty years the U.S. Mission would face a less daunting set 
of challenges than we face today and would do so in a much more 
cooperative environment. The new officers leverage their own work 
and get others actively involved in programs.  We track progress in 
carrying out our TD agenda at monthly inter-agency TD meetings 
chaired by me and the PAO, supplemented by the work of other 
internal bodies such as our Democracy Working Group, our 
Anti-Corruption Working Group and our Expanded Economic Team 
meetings. 
 
¶9. Lessons Learned:  Hiring two new FSNEs to support the three GRP-I 
officers (one FSNE in Quito and one in Guayaquil) has made a 
critical contribution to our TD efforts nationwide - our efforts 
would have fallen short without that element. The FSNE in Quito 
works directly with the PDO Quito to find new audiences, suggest 
 
ideas for outreach, plan transformational activities, catalog the 
information gained through these activities, and follow up with new 
activities.  This two-person team works full time to support the 
other two TD officers, as well as all Mission personnel involved in 
outreach and TD activities.  Their combined effort is essential to 
the work of planning and conducting these activities, which requires 
a sustained effort and the "institutional memory" that a dedicated 
and energetic FSNE can provide. We would be even more successful if 
the positions came with a budget supplement that allowed us to 
increase travel funds.  We are covering these new and extra costs 
out of our current budget levels, with some strain and tradeoffs.  A 
final observation:  language skill is critical to the success of 
these positions. 
 
¶10. To prepare Mission employees for outreach activities, the 
Embassy Information Section conducted media training sessions for 
FSOs and FSNs to show them where to find information useful for 
their outreach activities (Embassy's Website, Fact Sheets and 
Talking Points), and to conduct mock interviews to improve their 
on-camera and on-air communication techniques. 
 
¶11. Next Steps:  After several months of experience conducting TD 
activities with our new officers, we are in the process of refining 
some of our TD goals and tying them more closely to desired 
political and economic policy outcomes. The TD officer in the 
Economics Section, for instance, is developing a TD matrix that will 
integrate the various Mission Sections' economic development 
activities (PL 480 programs, USAID job creation assistance, FCS 
programs) into a complementary package that has greater impact and 
is easier to explain to the public.  The TD officer in PAS Quito 
participates in Political Section planning activities (and is 
reviewed by the Political Counselor) in order to help that section 
achieve its goals through TD activities.  The PD officer in 
Guayaquil is identifying the mix of audiences and activities 
(university outreach, English Teaching assistance, speaking 
opportunities, cultural activities, assistance to U.S. volunteer 
missions) that will have the greatest transformational impact and 
writing those into updated work requirements. 
 
¶12. POL and FCS have FY07 outreach plans in place and Consular and 
USAID will soon begin outreach activities outside of Quito.  We have 
begun English teaching conversation tutoring in Quito high schools 
using EFMs and GSO officers.  We are setting up activities for Peace 
Corps volunteers to explain USG efforts in health and environmental 
protection.  We are looking for Americans outside the Mission 
(Fulbrighters and American college exchange students) to visit Quito 
high schools for English teaching.  We will establish a "Volunteers" 
page on the Embassy website to highlight U.S. private-sector efforts 
to help Ecuadorians.  We plan to bring together Ecuadorians who have 
benefited from USG TD efforts, such as IMET courses, PAS exchanges, 
NAS/DEA training, and USAID programs into meaningful, thematic 
groups where they can collectively have an impact.  We have a 
structure in place to analyze Outreach progress and results.  As we 
expand our activities, more and more Ecuadorian institutions are 
requesting programs, leading to a positive "snowball" effect of 
expanding audiences and opportunities.  The transformation has just 
begun. 
 
JEWELL 
 
 
 
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