VZCZCXRO1903
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #0744/01 1191158
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291158Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5879
INFO RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 1217
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0236

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000744 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR OES/IHA AND OGAC 
DEPT PASS USAID FOR GH/OHA AND AFR/SD 
CDC FOR NCIRD/GID/DEEB 
TREASURY FOR PETERS, IERONIMO AND HALL 
BAGHDAD FOR DUNDAS MCCULLOUGH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KISL PGOV KHIV ECON KOCI EAID PREL NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH PLANNING MINSTER TO DISCUSS 
PEPFAR FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE OF U.S. 
GOVERNMENT 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Ambassador met with the head of the National 
Planning Commission April 9 to discuss need for a President's 
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Country Partnership 
Framework (CPF) Agreement and the way forward towards achieving one 
in the near future.  Ambassador and Minister for Planning 
Shamsuddeen Usman agreed that health was an essential area within 
national development planning and required an interministerial 
approach to attain sustainability in health services - complemented 
by engagement with civil society organizations.  Both also cited the 
need to bring in best practices from other countries' efforts to 
boost the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.  The Minister committed 
to setting up a joint working group, which would meet soon and then 
bring in Nigerian participants from the regional, state and local 
levels, in part to identify what was working (and not) to leverage 
existing in-country best practices.   He would also bring in the 
Governors Forum.  Addressing his broader planning responsibilities, 
Minister Usman said the GON was looking to achieve near-term 
concrete goals, with a strengthened emphasis on monitoring and 
evaluation.  He said he had been citing USAID as a model for the 
latter.  Referring to the Paris Declaration, he stressed the 
importance of unifying the continuing wide variety of accounting and 
reporting formats used by different donors.  Mission Director agreed 
to work closely with Usman and staff as they mobilized coordination 
efforts in support of the Seven Point Agenda of President Yar'Adua. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Ambassador met with Minister Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman at the 
National Planning Commission (NPC) on April 9, accompanied by AID 
Mission Director and Economic Counselor.  Usman was accompanied by 
several of his senior staff, including PermSec Mongye and 
International Cooperation Director Bahaya.  Dr. Usman welcomed the 
Ambassador by saying he was impressed by the "new style" she had 
brought to U.S. engagement with Nigeria and praised the way she had 
been reaching out proactively, not only with government ministers, 
but also with villagers and others.  She was projecting the image of 
the U.S. as "a humane and approachable country" to Nigerians.  Usman 
also lauded the "image change," perceived in Nigeria and elsewhere, 
with the coming into office of the Obama Administration. 
 
PEPFAR FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Ambassador briefed Usman on USG Team Nigeria's Framework 
for Partnership with the GON, which aims to support the goals of the 
GON Seven Point Agenda.  Health is a major part of the USG's efforts 
in Nigeria, and we were looking to partner with the GON more 
concretely in that arena.  The Ambassador referred to the PEPFAR 
Country Partnership Framework (CFP)Paper presented late last year 
and her letter to Usman in February 2009 proposing a partnership 
strategy.  She had noted that health had not been identified as a 
focus area in the GON's 2020 Vision.  (Usman and his PermSec 
acknowledged that was a serious oversight and said health would be 
added in to their Vision 2020 planning document). 
 
¶4. (SBU) The USG was interested in working with the GON within an 
interministerial framework to improve coordination and 
sustainability of HIV/AIDS control and prevention efforts.  While 
the CPF framework would likely include the Ministries of Health, 
Education, Finance, and Women's Affairs, the National Planning 
Commission was the obvious coordinating body within the GON, 
especially as the counterpart organization for donor coordination, 
she noted.  The Ambassador said that the USG was looking for the 
best way to bring our resources and planning and fuse with the GON's 
vision and its own resources.  We were looking for a true 
partnership, not with the U.S. leading, but with both sides working 
together, she added.  A CPF would be a mutual document.  The U.S. 
side envisioned wraparounds as key components, along with engagement 
with women, youth and the media. 
 
THE WAY FORWARD 
--------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Dr. Usman welcomed the initiative towards a framework 
agreement, and said the Planning Commission would be pleased to help 
toward its realization.  He stressed that health and education were 
seen together within the GON development vision.  He said it was 
 
ABUJA 00000744  002 OF 002 
 
 
"interesting and exciting" that the U.S. was the first to come to 
the GON with a strategic approach to working together.  He agreed 
with the Ambassador to form a Ministerial working group that would 
involve the concerned GON ministries and the various USG agencies 
working on HIV/AIDS.  He already had agreement from the Minister of 
Health to move forward.  He suggested involving state-level 
representatives, as they work with local government authorities to 
ensure implementation.  Initially, the GON would convene internally, 
the NPC would then move quickly to meet with the involved USG 
agencies and then bring in the ministries and other parties, likely 
to include representatives from all geographic zones to ensure 
clarity as to where states' efforts were working, not working, or 
could use improvement.  The NPC and the USG Team could make a joint 
presentation to the larger group.  Usman also agreed that joint 
monitoring efforts made sense as the CPF agreement got up and 
running and could be applied in other areas as well.  As the process 
moved forward, it would be important for governors to be involved 
and to visit other states, to see and to share what was working.  He 
agreed to the importance of involving community and women's 
organizations and the media in anti-HIV/AIDS efforts under the 
emerging agreement. 
 
GON PLANNING APPROACH 
--------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Speaking more broadly about his area of responsibility, 
Usman said the NPC's role was to support "strategic planning, not 
state planning."  It was up to the individual substantive ministers 
to set specific targets to be achieved by 2011, with the NPC 
providing technical assistance to put those efforts in a 
comprehensive and achievable framework.  The government had a lot of 
challenges before it, and sometimes officials at the director and 
deputy director levels tried to hang onto their turf, but Usman was 
determined to effect coordination, including through coordination 
with key donors and also by working with donors like USAID to ensure 
that best practices were identified and put into practice. 
Admittedly, there was skepticism about the Seven Point Agenda, due 
to past failures to produce results, but the GON was committed to 
clear targets and associated monitoring and evaluation (M & E). 
USAID and the EU were seen as models for M & E, Usman said, and he 
was open to any technical assistance that might help the GON reach 
its near-term goals and accelerate development efforts. 
 
DONOR COORDINATION 
------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) Usman noted that he had just completed a term on the board 
of the African Economic Research Consortium, which was supported by 
15 public and private sector donors, all of which utilized different 
accounting and reporting formats.  Citing the Paris Declaration, he 
stressed the importance of unifying such donor means of 
communications.  USAID Mission Director agreed to keep close contact 
with Usman and his senior staff as they worked to improve donor 
coordination and monitoring and evaluation across the board. 
Ambassador and Mission Director confirmed the USG commitment to 
broader donor coordination even as the USG worked bilaterally with 
the GON on the PERFAR Partnership Framework Agreement. 
 
¶8. (SBU) COMMENT:  The NPC's Usman appears fully committed to 
creating and effecting a workable agreement.  Ambassador is sending 
Usman a follow-up letter to confirm key points agreed to in this 
discussion.  Ambassador will be sending the follow-up letter to 
Usman to not only reconfirm discussion but to continue to encourage 
his leading the formation of a strategic Inter-Ministerial group 
that would advance the CPF and other health and social issues such 
as education and polio.  This opening with the NPC Minister would 
allow for another US-GON working group under the Mission's Framework 
for Partnership and hopefully get the GON to improve its 
coordination and financial commitment to these issues.   END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶9. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos. 
 
SANDERS