VZCZCXYZ0021
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #2175 3061936
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021917Z NOV 07
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0000
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0000
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 0000
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0000
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0000
RUEATRS/TREASURY DEPT WASHINGTON DC 0000
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC 0000
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC 0000

UNCLAS STATE 152175 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
NSC FOR ABBY DEMOPULOS/DAN PRICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN SOCI UK
SUBJECT: UK DEVELOPMENT MINISTER SEEKS SUPPORT FOR PM'S 
"CALL TO ACTION" INITIATIVE ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT 
GOALS 
 
REF: LONDON 3903 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Shriti Vadera, U.K. Parliamentary Under 
Secretary at the Department for International Development 
 
SIPDIS 
(DFID) met with IO Bureau Assistant Secretary Kristen 
Silverberg on October 22.  Vadera said she wants to put more 
emphasis on private flows and less on government social 
spending for development, and wants to take the lead from the 
U.S. approach -- a departure from prior DFID practice.  As 
the standard-bearer for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "Call 
to Action" Declaration (reftel), and a close economic 
confidant of the PM, Vadera is seeking common benchmarks that 
signatories can use to show they are implementing the 
Millennium Development Goals without duplicating UN or World 
Bank monitoring.  She emphasized that when companies assist 
with development in their areas of expertise, there is great 
potential to spur growth.  By focusing on these private flows 
in a meeting that precedes the upcoming conference to 
follow-up on the Monterrey Consensus in Doha in 2008, the 
U.K. hopes we can set a more constructive tone than the G77 
likely attempt to focus on increasing official development 
assistance (ODA).  She agreed to work on finding a good time 
to schedule this meeting, since there are so many scheduling 
conflicts in the run-up to the conference.  Vadera also 
sought support for PM Brown's International Health 
Partnership initiative. 
 
End Summary. 
 
Shifting the Development Balance to Private Sector Growth 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Minister Vadera said the U.K. is trying to realign its 
development policy on achieving growth to put greater 
emphasis on development and less on social spending, 
something that the U.S. does well and that she advocates. 
She said even if the U.S. is criticized for focusing on 
private flows, supposedly to shift the focus away from ODA, 
it should be instead be commended for being on track to meet 
the commitments it made in 2005 at the G8 summit in 
Gleneagles, Scotland. 
 
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (U) Vadera said PM Brown's "Call to Action" initiative in 
July at UNGA should demonstrate how signatories are achieving 
the MDGs and keeping their promises, while looking at 
performance indicators such as whether the investment climate 
has improved, 
and the number of days it takes to do business.  She averred 
that World Bank economic growth analyses lack statistical 
rigor.  While she does not want to duplicate efforts already 
underway at the UN or World Bank, the U.S. and U.K. should be 
able to pursue a common agenda and get buy-in from other 
signatories. 
 
¶4. (U) The U.K. Declaration on the MDGs for the private 
sector should be a way for companies to use their strengths 
to increase development, Vadera said.  For example, U.K. cell 
phone giant Vodafone recently set up a system to coordinate 
resource transfers such as workers' remittances by telephone. 
 HMG is also talking with the Coca-Cola company about 
improving distribution networks for water.  And Bechtel is 
working with the African Development Bank to share best 
practices on assessing the feasibility of development 
projects.  These plans are better for development than just a 
voluntary agreement to abide by principles of corporate 
social responsibility, and should be highlighted in relevant 
high-level meetings, suggested Vadera. 
 
Timing for high-level meeting on MDGs 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Minister Vadera admitted the U.K. was having some 
difficulty scheduling a date for the summit on the MDGs 
because high-level meetings of UNGA in 2008 are likely to 
conflict with the annual U.K. Labor Party Conference and UN 
SYG Ban won't commit to a date yet.  Vadera said she wanted 
to make sure a meeting took place before the conference to 
follow-up on the Monterrey Conference on Financing for 
Development (FfD) in Doha scheduled for in the last quarter 
of 2008. Vadera said that the meeting would probably be a 
two-day event with the first day being reserved for private 
sector groups, and the second day for heads of state.  The 
outcome of the first meeting would be an important factor in 
steering the second. 
 
Financing for Development 
------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Vadera said she did not want the "Call to Action" 
initiative to shift the focus away from the FfD agenda, and 
that she planned to give a statement in New York on October 
23 to reinforce that idea.  However, she added that she hoped 
that by shifting the focus within MDG implementation towards 
private sector flows to achieve growth, and away from social 
sector spending, we would set the right tone for the FfD 
review and reduce any impact of the G77's intent to focus on 
increasing aid flows. 
 
Entrepreneurship 
---------------- 
 
¶7. (U) On a separate matter, Vadera expressed support for the 
UN Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UNIIE) 
fund, that the Department has been designing with the UN 
Development Program (UNDP) and the Kauffman Foundation of 
Kansas City ("the foundation of entrepreneurship").  Vadera 
expressed concern that during the meetings of the High Level 
Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence last year, 
developing-country representatives hesitated to support such 
a fund because they thought it would take away from ODA.  The 
U.K. was also hesitant to support UNIIE because the UN does 
not have a great capacity for entrepreneurship promotion, 
although now that Christian Thommessen (former CEO of IBM 
Norway) has been hired in UNDP to lead the initiative there 
is greater potential.  Vadera was scheduled to meet with 
Thommessen in New York on October 23.  Vadera also indicated 
that she would like to meet with Kauffman Foundation CEO Dr. 
Carl Schramm when he visits London on November 13 to launch 
Global Entrepreneurship Week with Prime Minister Brown. 
 
Improving Health Care Systems 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) The U.K., said Vadera, supports improving education 
and health programs as a priority because without human 
capital, you can't attract financial capital.  The goal of 
the "International Health Partnership" initiative, she 
asserted, is better coordination and sustainability.  First, 
donors must coordinate with the recipient country's health 
development plan.  Second, donors must agree to coordinate as 
long as it adds value -- multiple programs should add up to 
be greater than the sum of their parts, not less.  And 
finally, while aid is being distributed, donors should take 
advantage of the moment to start developing a permanent 
health system that is sustainable.  Vadera said that while 
she understands that the U.S. and U.K. diverge on the concept 
of state-provided health services, in fact she thinks we 
agree that states that receive social spending must be 
responsible. On the issue of foreign healthcare workers, 
Vadera said HMG has signed a code of conduct to not recruit 
healthcare workers from abroad because they are so scarce in 
developing countries, where they are needed most. (For 
example, there are more Malawian doctors in Manchester, 
England than in Malawi.) 
 
Comment: "Proceed with Caution" 
------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Vadera's message was at variance with the position 
we are used to hearing from the U.K. Mission in New York and 
from our DFID contacts in London.  It is possible that 
because Vadera is a political appointee, she holds the 
potential to put greater emphasis on highlighting the 
sustainable benefits of private sector flows to achieve 
economic growth and reduce poverty.  However, she also has a 
reputation for tailoring her message to fit her audience and 
saying what her interlocutors wish to hear.  Vadera 
successfully dodged discussion of the Secretariat's revised 
Millennium Development Goal "performance indicators," 
possibly because on September 18, DFID jointly issued a press 
release with the UN Population Fund that said the new 
performance indicator on reproductive health had been 
"endorsed by the General Assembly."  In fact, the GA only 
"took note" of the report that contained the new indicator on 
October 8, while the U.S. statement pointed out that member 
states never agreed to the performance indicators and that we 
did not wish to be judged by them. 
(http://www.ususnnewyork.usmission.gov/press releases 
/20071008 232.html) Future meetings with Vadera should reveal 
if her focus on private sector flows gains traction in DFID. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Coincidentally, IO/EDA's office director met with 
UNDP private-sector chief Thommessen in New York on October 
¶24.  Thommessen said that in Vadera's call on him on October 
23, she had asked about our planned UNIIE initiative, and 
expressed a strong desire for the U.K. to take part, a 
positive development. 
RICE