VZCZCXRO0308
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUCNDT #0437/01 1172258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 272258Z APR 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6429
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000437 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNSC XA
SUBJECT: AMB. RICE'S LUNCH WITH THE UN SENIOR AFRICANS GROUP 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Ibrahim Gambari, Special Advisor to the 
Secretary-General, welcomed Amb. Rice as guest of honor at 
the annual lunch of the UN Senior Africans Group on April 16. 
 Gambari invited Amb. Rice to take advantage of the resources 
of the group, which brings ambassadors from African missions 
together with high-level African officials from the 
Secretariat, UN funds and programs, the ACABQ, and the 
International Civil Service Commission to advocate for 
African interests in the areas of policy, programs and 
personnel.  He and other members present asked for U.S. 
support to African efforts to advance peace and security 
policy, promote development, and ensure equitable 
representation of Africans in the UN personnel system. 
Gambari promised to present Amb. Rice with a more detailed 
agenda for the group's engagement with the U.S. after 
discussion at the group's May retreat.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Members of the UN Senior Africans Group hosted Amb. 
Rice as guest of honor at their annual lunch on April 16 and 
stated their willingness for reinvigorated engagement with 
the U.S.  In opening remarks, Gambari noted the commitment of 
Amb. Rice and President Obama to U.S.-African relations, 
while Dr. Djibril Diallo, Senior Advisor at UNAIDS and the 
group's coordinator, praised Rice for reaching out to African 
PermReps by hosting them at her first official reception and 
for being a "voice for the voiceless" in her previous role as 
Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.  Ambassador Rice 
outlined a U.S. vision of a peaceful, democratic Africa that 
could fulfill the continent's extraordinary potential, and 
said that she looked forward to working with the group on its 
focus areas of policy, programs and personnel. 
 
Policy 
 
¶3. (SBU) Gambari opened the policy discussion by offering the 
group's far-reaching expertise as a resource should Amb. Rice 
need quiet advice or research from within the UN system. 
South African PermRep Baso Sangqu and AU Permanent Observer 
Ratsifandrihamanana pressed Amb. Rice to take a new look at 
UN financial support to AU peacekeeping in the wake of the 
Prodi Report and the AU's increased willingness to take on 
responsibility in places like Somalia.  Tanzanian Ambassador 
Mahiga advocated a strategic partnership between the U.S. and 
Africa to deal with terrorism, piracy, and development -- on 
the latter issue by working to preserve progress towards 
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in a time of financial 
crisis. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for 
Political Affairs said a growing trust deficit between 
African countries and the UN had led many Africans to see the 
Security Council as a vehicle for national agendas rather 
than a forum for resolving international conflicts.  This 
trust deficit had eroded the SC's legitimacy, he said, and 
given rise to calls for "African solutions for African 
problems," in which the UN and other international actors 
were relegated to a supporting role as donors.  He cited the 
rising political profile of ASEAN as another instance of a 
regional organization gaining prominence in resolving 
regional disputes due to a lack of confidence in the UN. 
Menkerios said that this trend was not constructive, and that 
SC members should counteract it by looking beyond national 
interest to set an agenda of resolving common concerns that 
would help repair the Council's reputation. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Cheikh Sidi Diarra, Under Secretary-General and High 
Representative for the least developed countries, landlocked 
developing countries and small island developing states 
(UN-OHRLLS), seconded the call for U.S. commitment to 
continue to work towards MDGs, particularly in three 
development areas that he said were notable for their 
potential security implications: fighting abject poverty, 
eradicating communicable diseases and addressing climate 
change. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Amb. Rice thanked participants for their comments, 
and said that the nexus of security and development had been 
an important focus of her work before joining the 
administration.  She quoted President Obama, saying that 
Millennium Development Goals were the U.S.'s goals as well, 
and mentioned the president's budget requests for sufficient 
funds to pay down U.S. UN arrears, $448 million for emergency 
aid to the world's poorest and most vulnerable due to the 
financial crisis, and $1.1 billion for food security.  Amb. 
Rice acknowledged that UN support to regional peacekeeping 
was an important subject for debate, but said the 
administration would need to move cautiously to ensure that 
support to peacekeeping missions in places such as Somalia 
did not endanger Congressional support for UN peacekeeping 
generally. 
 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000437  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Programs 
 
¶7. (SBU) The two participants from the Administrative 
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), 
Nonye Udo and Colleen Kelapile, made a strong pitch for 
preserving UN programs on Africa in a difficult budgetary 
environment.  They said that during the last budget session 
an attempt had been made to consolidate Africa-specific 
programs, such as the UN's Economic Commission for Africa, 
into larger programs focusing on developing countries 
worldwide.  African countries and the Senior Africans Group 
felt strongly that such bodies should maintain an "African 
identity" and had fought successfully to keep them: this year 
a similar fight was likely, and the U.S. position would be 
key.  They also raised the issue of scale of assessments, 
noting that the ceiling for the U.S. contribution had been 
lowered from 25 to 22 percent.  Many developing countries 
were hoping that the U.S. would accept a return to a ceiling 
of 25 percent, they said. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Eleviome Eloho Otobo of the UN's Peacebuilding 
Support Office made a pitch for increased U.S. engagement 
with the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC).  He said that the 
U.S. was alone among P5 nations in not having made a 
contribution to the Peacebuilding Fund, and that a decision 
to contribute would be an important symbolic step.  Even 
better would be for the U.S. also to take the chair of the 
Peacebuilding configuration for one of the two countries 
likely to be added to the PBC's brief, Guinea or Cote 
d'Ivoire.  While both were Francophone countries, Otobo said 
that a former U.S. ambassador with Francophone African 
experience would be a perfect choice as chair.  Otobo also 
asked for U.S. engagement in a more robust discussion on 
peacebuilding and its implications, including questions of 
the relationship between peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and 
benchmarks and exit strategies for peacebuilding. 
 
¶9. (SBU) UNICEF's Omar Abdi asked Rice to help continue the 
agency's momentum in advancing health and agricultural 
programming.  Rachel Mayanja, Assistant Secretary-General for 
Economic and Social Affairs and Special Adviser on Gender, 
welcomed President Obama's decision on funding maternal 
mortality programs and said her office hoped for continued 
funding for gender programs.  Diallo of UNAIDS said that his 
agency's focus was ensuring universal access to treatment, 
care, and support, and that he looked to the U.S. to ensure 
UNAIDS is able to reach those in need. 
 
Personnel 
 
¶10. (SBU) Finally, the Senior Africans Group briefed Amb. 
Rice on their efforts to ensure equitable representation of 
Africans within the UN system, particularly at the middle and 
entry level.  African candidates are at a disadvantage, 
Gambari said, due to "junior professional officer" (JPO) 
programs funded by developed countries for the benefit of 
their citizens.  As a result, Africans are in danger of 
becoming "an endangered species" in the UN system, he said. 
Amb. Rice said that she would be eager to work with the 
Senior Africans group, African ambassadors and others to 
address the issue, and asked if group members had considered 
approaching private foundations to fund similar JPO programs 
for African candidates, perhaps on a matching basis alongside 
African states. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Gambari closed the meeting by expressing his hope 
for a close dialogue and partnership with the U.S. Mission 
over the years to come.  He committed to discussing the 
issues covered in the lunch in more detail during the UN 
Senior Africans Group's May retreat, after which he would 
present Amb. Rice with a more formal agenda of areas on which 
the group hoped to cooperate. 
 
 
Rice