VZCZCXRO4748
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #1238/01 3521802
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181802Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3842
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABIDJAN 001238 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR H K.MOODY, AF/W E.PLUMB 
DOL FOR T.RASA, D.GARMS 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO USTR C. HAMILTON 
USAID FOR C. GARRETT, S. SWIFT 
EMBASSY ACCRA FOR B.SHUKIN, S.BROWN,AMB.BRIDGEWATER 
TREASURY FOR D. PETERS 
COMMERCE FOR M. RIVERO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAGR PREL PGOV EAID ELAB EIND IV
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR HARKIN CODEL JANUARY 7-9 VISIT TO 
COTE D'IVOIRE 
 
REF: ABIDJAN 1219 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Embassy Abidjan warmly welcomes your visit.  Yours 
will be the first visit by a Congressional delegation to Cote 
d'Ivoire in many years.   Senator Harkin and Representative 
Engle's roles in developing and implementing the 
international public/private accord (the "Harkin-Engle 
Protocol") is well-known here, and your visit will be an 
excellent opportunity to underscore the interest of the 
American people in seeing sustained progress in eliminating 
the worst forms of child labor in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa 
sector.  The USG is very positively viewed in Cote d'Ivoire; 
in a poll taken within the last 12 months, the U.S. was 
viewed favorably by 88 percent of Ivorians. 
 
Political Situation 
---------- 
¶2.  (SBU)  Cote d'Ivoire is beginning to emerge from a 
five-year crisis during which the country was divided in two, 
with government forces controlling the southern half of the 
country and rebel forces, known locally as the Forces 
Nouvelles, in control of the north.  In March, 2007, the 
Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA) was signed by Cote 
d'Ivoire's two primary protagonists: President Gbagbo and 
now-Prime Minister Soro.  Reportedly the result of direct 
negotiations between the government and the rebels, the OPA 
was facilitated by President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, 
who continues to play an active role in overseeing its 
implementation.  The OPA is a viable roadmap for the 
country's emergence from the political crisis.  From March 
until November, the pace of implementation was quite 
disappointing and the international community conveyed to the 
government its desire for swifter progress.  Over the last 
month, substantial progress had been made and there is now 
much greater optimism.  The President and the Prime Minister 
have committed to holding presidential elections in 2008 and 
to implementing as rapidly as possible provisions in the 
Ouagadougou Political Agreement regarding disarmament and 
reintegration of the rebel forces.  Dismantling militias that 
sprung up in western Cote d'Ivoire will also be necessary. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  The question of nationality (or "Ivoirite") is at 
the heart of the political stalemate.  A substantial number 
of individuals (estimates range from 300,000 to 3 million) 
are currently undocumented as Ivorians and are thus unable to 
participate fully in Ivorian society where the possession of 
a national ID card governs a broad swath of activities, 
including eligibility to vote and to own land for 
agricultural cultivation.  A majority of those who are 
undocumented have family ties to Burkina Faso and were 
initially welcomed into the northern region of Cote d'Ivoire 
as much-needed laborers in the cocoa sector.  While Cote 
d'Ivoire's founding father and first president 
Houphouet-Boigny took a very liberal approach to integrating 
this group into Ivorian society, his successors actively 
promoted a more restrictive approach, including changes to 
the constitution that emphasized the national divisions 
between north and south and between Christian and Muslim. 
 
¶4. (SBU) A coup attempt in 2002 quickly evolved into an armed 
rebellion that split the country in two.  The identity 
question was reportedly one of the major grievances of the 
rebelling parties.  Definitive reunification of the country 
and the restoration of government authority throughout the 
national territory will be difficult to achieve unless the 
issue of nationality is dealt with in a manner acceptable to 
both sides.  Efforts underway to address this issue include 
the holding of "audiences foraines" or public tribunals 
designed to document individuals whose birth in Cote d'Ivoire 
was never registered.  In recent weeks, the pace of the work 
done by the audiences foraines has picked up, but the total 
of persons processed remains below 100,000.  The political 
stakes in the identification process are quite high, as the 
registration of a substantial number of new voters, 
particularly in the north, could alter the demographics for 
the next presidential election. 
 
Status of Bilateral Aid 
-------------- 
¶5. (SBU)  Cote d'Ivoire has been under Section 508 sanctions 
since the December 1999 coup that removed Henri Bedie from 
 
ABIDJAN 00001238  002 OF 003 
 
 
power.  Sanctions were not lifted following the 2000 election 
due to government interference in the election with the 
intent of manipulating the results.  Cote d'Ivoire was 
suspended from AGOA benefits on January 1, 2005, due to an 
Ivorian government decision to violate the UN-monitored 
cease-fire in November 2004 and lack of progress on key 
economic reforms.  A credible election and substantial 
progress in meeting IMF/World Bank transparency goals would 
pave the way for a resumption of aid.  In the interim, a very 
small bilateral assistance program focused on electoral 
preparation (involving NDI and IFES) is directed from USAID's 
West African Regional Program based in Accra. 
 
Child Labor Situation 
--------- 
¶6.  (SBU)  Prompted in large measure by the Harkin-Engel 
Protocol, the government of Cote d'Ivoire, working with 
international industry, bilateral development agencies and 
international NGOs, has implemented a variety of programs and 
conducted a number of surveys addressing the worst forms of 
child labor.  Several diagnostic studies have been completed, 
the most recent a preliminary study conducted by the Prime 
Minister's inter-ministerial taskforce (supported by the 
international industry) published November 30.  It found that 
22 percent of children in the sample region were involved in 
cocoa production, and a majority of them were involved in one 
of the worst forms of child labor, carrying heavy loads.  The 
report demonstrates that the cocoa-growing sector is composed 
of hundreds of thousands of relatively small, family-owned 
and operated farms, many if not most of which are operated by 
people from the northern part of Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, 
Mali and elsewhere who have settled and formed communities in 
the southern cocoa-growing belt.  The survey shows that the 
great majority of children involved in farm labor are members 
(either immediate or extended) of the cocoa producer's 
family.  This pilot survey will be scaled up and conducted 
throughout at least 50 percent of the country's cocoa-growing 
regions in the coming months. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  The government of Cote d'Ivoire has also adopted a 
National Plan of Action Against Child Trafficking and Labor 
(drafted by the Ministry of Labor) that will run from 
September 2007 through December 2009.  The plan's overall 
objectives are: to adopt laws specifically prohibiting these 
practices, to determine the scope of the problem, to take 
measures to prevent these practices, and to reintegrate 
victims into society.  The plan relies substantially on the 
continued engagement of international actors. 
 
¶8.  (U)  Over a dozen international organizations and NGOs 
have programs currently underway to combat and address the 
issue of child labor in the cocoa sector.  Many are of 
focused on sensitization and education of cocoa farmers and 
cocoa communities, while others concentrate their efforts on 
encouraging children of cocoa farmers to attend school.  Some 
efforts attack the problem of child labor in cocoa by giving 
farmers practical agronomy lessons which incorporate robust 
modules explaining the hazards associated with WFCL, and yet 
others combat the problems affecting cocoa farm families by 
conducting adult literacy campaigns, again with elements that 
discourage WFCL. 
 
¶9.  (U)  A preliminary study of efforts to monitor and 
eliminate WFCL, carried out by contractors engaged by Tulane 
University's Payson Center under a grant from the DOL 
provided an initial review of the multiple efforts to assess 
and end WFCL. 
 
¶10.  (U)  The cocoa and cotton sectors taken together support 
some 9 million people in Cote d'Ivoire, nearly half the 
population.  Cotton output has dropped by more than 50 
percent since 2000.  Cocoa output has remained essentially 
stable, hovering at the 1 million ton mark since 2000, with a 
slight dip to 950,000 in the 2002-03 harvest.  International 
industry and Ivorian shipping companies estimate that up to 
200,000 tons of cocoa per year have been trans-shipped 
through Ghana and Togo to evade artificially low prices since 
2000, but those numbers appear to have come down since 2006. 
 
Economic Context 
-------- 
 
ABIDJAN 00001238  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶11. (SBU)  Cote d'Ivoire's political crisis has had a 
predictably negative effect on many parts of the economy. 
Economic activity in general remains sluggish and per capita 
income has slumped.  Overall GDP grew by 1.8 percent in 2006, 
a slight recovery over 2005; growth in 2007 is projected to 
be 2 percent.  This growth can be attributed primarily to 
higher export earning from oil and refined products (now $1.3 
billion annually, reasonably steady cocoa revenues ($1 
billion) and proceeds form an expanding telecommunications 
sector.  However, the majority of the population is not 
better off.  Per capita income declined by 0.6 percent in 
2005 and 0.7 percent in 2006; a 0.2 percent drop is predicted 
for 2007.  Economic activity in the north of the country 
remains well below pre-crisis levels. Inflation has not been 
an issue until recently; the average consumer price rise was 
about on-half a percent from 2004-2006. Rising oil prices 
have increased transportation costs and the exchange rate has 
accelerated in recent months in line with the Euro's 
appreciation vis-a-vis the dollar. 
 
¶12. (U)  The hardships brought on by the division of the 
country triggered a substantial movement of people from north 
to south; several hundred thousand people have been 
internally displaced since 2002. Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa 
growing region has been particularly affected by these 
population movements.  There has also been a significant 
increase in poverty. According to World Bank estimates, the 
poverty level has increased 5 percent, from 38.2 percent in 
2002 at the onset of the crisis to 43.2 percent in 2006. 
Modest improvements in economic activity have been noted 
since the signature of the OPA, and civil servants are 
beginning to return but huge challenges loom ahead. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  A bright spot in the U.S.-Cote d'Ivoire 
relationship has been our PEPFAR program. Cote d'Ivoire is 
one of 15 focus countries that receives funds for HIV/AIDs 
prevention, education, and treatment; the USG is by far the 
largest supporter of HIV/AIDs activities in Cote d'Ivoire and 
of the health sector in general. In 2007, the PEPFAR program 
received $85 million; we expect an increase to about $120 
million in FY 08.  Ensuring the proper use of these funds is 
a central focus of our PEPFAR team.  We have made remarkable 
strides in terms of expanding treatment and are working to 
improve joint efforts with the government of Cote d' Ivoire 
to tackle ongoing issues with stigma and HIV/AIDs 
education/prevention activities. We would gladly arrange a 
visit to a PEPFAR project should this interest you. 
 
¶14. (U)  Once again, we look forward to your visit. 
NESBITT