VZCZCXRO4688
RR RUEHGI RUEHRN
DE RUEHNR #0048/01 0111217
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 111216Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0377
INFO RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0005
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/USAID WASHDC 0003
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE USD FAS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 0001

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 NAIROBI 000048 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR C MARISA PLOWDEN AND EEB/TPP/ABT GARY CLEMENTS AND GEOFFREY SPENCER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAGR EAID ETRD PREL KE
SUBJECT: THE GLOBAL HUNGER AND FOOD SECURITY INITIATIVE: DIPLOMATIC 
ACTIONS IN KENYA 
 
REF: STATE 127466; STATE 124059 
 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
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¶1.  Post appreciates the Department's interest in implementing the 
President's Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (GHFSI) in 
Kenya.  We believe Kenya could become a successful GHFSI partner 
country and our engagement could catalyze market-driven 
agricultural reform in the region.  Despite existing agricultural 
inefficiencies resulting from poorly designed production and 
production-procurement policies, high tariffs and non-tariff 
barriers, Kenya has taken positive steps during the past two years 
toward developing an improved policy framework and functional 
mechanisms - considered by the Government of Kenya (GOK) to comply 
with the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program 
(CAADP) principles -- that could facilitate a successful GHFSI 
program.  Kenya is strategically important to the U.S. given its 
proximity to Sudan and Somalia, and acts as a regional hub for 
trade and a driver of economic growth in East Africa. 
 
 
 
¶2.  Post enjoys strong bilateral and multilateral reach with both 
bilateral and regional USAID presence, Foreign Agriculture Service, 
Foreign Commercial Service and other key agencies.  The presence of 
headquarters and regional centers of multiple international 
organizations and foundations dealing with agriculture and rural 
development provides a unique opportunity for multilateral and 
public-private partnerships.  As described in detail in the 
Mission's draft Global Hunger and Food Security FY 2010 
Implementation Plan, the existing strong partnership between the 
U.S. and Kenya on agriculture, combined with the success of current 
USG strategic development programs in the sector, will serve as an 
effective platform for mobilizing GHFSI activities and achieving 
results quickly.  We are also fortunate that our new DCM, who 
serves as post's point-of-contact for the GHFSI, came to us from 
three years as the DCM to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. Agencies in 
Rome, where he participated in discussions of global agricultural 
issues with G8, G20, NGO, and multilateral participants leading up 
to the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative.  The Ambassador and DCM 
are strongly committed to working with Kenya to become a model for 
the GHFSI, working in partnership with public, private, academic, 
and multilateral partners. 
 
 
 
¶3.  In sum, we believe this is an opportune time to increase our 
engagement with the right kind of investments in capacity-building, 
policy-development, staple food value chain development, and 
related interventions to push Kenya toward reaching its potential 
to become food secure.  Real success in the agricultural sector 
will, however, require the GOK's commitment to the political reform 
agenda, including the critical fight against corruption, that 
overarches all of Kenya's fundamental problems.  That is why our 
approach on GHFSI will be fully integrated into the larger USG 
policy strategy here.  With a more consistent demonstration of 
political will to enact reforms, the GOK can do much more to 
advance sustainable food security in Kenya.  Below follows the 
country team's consensus on appropriate diplomatic actions to 
implement the GHFSI. 
 
 
 
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CHRONIC HUNGER IN KENYA 
 
----------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  Despite Kenya's potential for achieving food security, there 
are consistently two to four million people receiving emergency 
 
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food aid each year.  Kenya currently faces a short-term food 
security crisis as a result of drought and the effects of 
post-election violence.  Chronic food insecurity exacerbated by a 
continued rise in food prices and poor urban and rural purchasing 
power has contributed to increased malnutrition.  Humanitarian 
agencies are currently providing emergency food aid to 3.8 million 
(an increase from 2.6 million last year) pastoralists, 
agro-pastoralists, and marginal agricultural households.  In 
addition, there are other populations that are chronically food 
insecure.  These include approximately 1.5 million school children 
in drought-affected areas who require school feeding programs, 
roughly 2.5 million poor in urban areas who are unable to meet 50 
percent of their daily food requirements, about 2 million 
vulnerable poor in rural areas who are affected by HIV/AIDS, and up 
to 100,000 persons displaced by the post-election crisis who have 
not fully recovered their livelihoods.  According to the UN 
Children's Fund (UNICEF), more than 200,000 children five years of 
age or younger are affected by moderate malnutrition and 
approximately 30 percent of children under five years old suffering 
stunting. 
 
 
 
¶5.  The GOK has recently taken steps that could facilitate a 
successful GHFSI program.  In addition, Kenya already possesses a 
well-developed policy framework along with structural mechanisms to 
facilitate donor coordination.  Specifically: 
 
 
 
-- Kenya has developed an overarching 2009-2020 Agricultural Sector 
Development Strategy (ASDS) to succeed its 2004-2009 Strategy for 
Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA).  This new strategy incorporates a 
CAADP-like framework and can serve as the blueprint for Kenya's 
food security strategy.  President Kibaki signed this document, and 
six out of the ten sector ministries have signed so far. The 
official launch is expected in March 2010. 
 
 
 
-- The agricultural sector ministries and donors jointly support an 
inter-ministerial Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit (ASCU) 
which oversees policy reform and ensures that ministerial 
activities are compliant with the ASDS principles. 
 
 
 
-- The GOK is in the process of forming a new Food Security and 
Nutrition Secretariat within the Office of the Prime Minister and 
is revitalizing the National Food Security and Nutrition Thematic 
Working Group (TWG) under the auspices of ASCU.  The mandate of the 
TWG - composed of government, private sector and civil society 
stakeholders - is to address food security and nutrition challenges 
of the country. 
 
 
 
-- The GOK is finalizing a five-year medium-term investment plan 
aligned to the ASDS and CAADP which they will present to the 
Agriculture and Rural Development Donor Coordination Group in 
mid-January 2010. 
 
 
 
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OVERALL GHFSI DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY 
 
--------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶6.  Kenya's ability to achieve food security is inherently linked 
to progress on its broad-based political reform agenda.  Kenya is 
at a critical juncture.  In the absence of a new Constitution, 
judicial, land, police and electoral reform, and a demonstrated 
ability to fight corruption, the country will likely experience 
significant ethnically-charged violence in 2012 as it did in 2008 
(with a major negative effect on the agricultural sector).  The 
thrust of our foreign policy in Kenya is to avert violence through 
 
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strenuous engagement on the reform agenda.  We propose to fold our 
GHFSI diplomatic strategy into our overall reform efforts.  Kenya 
has the robust technical expertise to become food secure, but must 
translate this strength more consistently into the political will 
to further advance and implement key reforms (including 
trade-related reforms) in the agriculture sector.  However, we can 
put pressure on the political leadership to advance policies 
consistent with GHFSI principles and firmly believe that the Kenyan 
people, 70 percent of whom are engaged in the agriculture sector, 
stand to benefit from U.S. engagement in this area. 
 
 
 
¶7.  In the coming months, the country team will be working closely 
together to develop a matrix that presents a succinct Mission-wide 
approach to the GHFSI.  We will be prioritizing interventions into 
immediate, medium, and long-term activities and actively using the 
matrix as a tool to show where we can effectively engage and which 
Embassy sections should have action and supporting roles.  We have 
tentatively identified the following key areas: 
 
 
 
-- Inter-ministerial/donor coordination 
 
-- Land reform/natural resource management/climate change 
 
-- Reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade 
 
-- Stronger integration of Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) 
within the country's economic development processes 
 
-- Bridging the gap between relief and development 
 
-- Policy assistance, advice and planning 
 
-- Public diplomacy outreach 
 
-- Promoting public-private partnerships 
 
-- Improving current capacity-building programs 
 
 
 
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IMMEDIATE HIGH-IMPACT ACTIVITIES 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶8.  While the country team continues to develop the overall GHFSI 
matrix, we have tentatively identified the following diplomatic 
interventions to support our ongoing long-term development strategy 
which we believe will begin to move the initiative forward: 
 
 
 
-- The GOK is already creating a Food Security and Nutrition 
Secretariat under the Office of the Prime Minister.  We're making 
preparations to engage early in the year at the senior level to 
help shape the way this new secretariat is formed to ensure 
long-term impact. 
 
 
 
-- Likewise, we can provide technical assistance and support at a 
senior level to help guide the GOK as they finalize the structures 
supporting its food security strategy to make them more effective. 
We will participate, via the DCM and others, in donor coordination 
and government meetings to push the Kenyans to implement the 
reforms identified in the ASDS. 
 
 
 
-- The DCM, along with members of the country team, will hold a 
series of high-level meetings with key external players in Kenya's 
agricultural development sector -- EC, GTZ, SIDA, World Bank, IFAD, 
FAO, DFID, and WFP -- to increase our engagement, cooperation, and 
 
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coherence of engagement. 
 
 
 
-- We will demonstrate support for institutions that promote 
effective strategies for combating food insecurity.  For example, 
we will support the GOK's strategy to bring longer-term development 
to areas that have been long neglected, by showing high-level 
support to the newly formed Ministry of Development of Northern 
Kenya and Other Arid Lands and the National Policy for ASAL 
development. 
 
 
 
--We will take a very public leadership role in demonstrating how 
concerned citizens can transform under-utilized urban land to 
improve the nutrition of Kenya's poorest-of-the-poor, Nairobi's 
slum children.  We are transforming a one-acre urban plot of land 
into a model small-scale urban farm, with the production going to 
supplement and improve the nutrition of Nairobi's slum children who 
are currently provided lunch rations by the World Food Program. 
 
 
 
-- We will encourage the GOK and other key stakeholders to bridge 
the gap between long-term agricultural development and emergency 
interventions, helping to alleviate immediate crises while 
protecting assets and improving livelihoods of vulnerable 
populations. 
 
 
 
-- We will push the GOK, at the highest level, for harmonization 
and rationalization of regional trade policies. 
 
 
 
-- We will encourage the GOK to restructure the National Cereals 
and Produce Board (NCPB) in an attempt to eliminate one of the most 
significant non-tariff barriers in Kenya's agriculture sector. 
 
 
 
-- We will collaborate with the GOK and the private sector to 
encourage a more open, efficient and unobstructed grain trade to 
include providing enhanced capacity building to the sector. 
 
 
 
-- We will intervene at the senior level when the GOK indicates a 
move toward additional trade-distorting measures (protectionist 
tariffs, price fixing, dual-pricing schemes) for short-term 
political gain. 
 
 
 
-- We will encourage the GOK to abate high ad-valorem tariffs on 
imports of grains and other food ingredients and products.  The 
GOK's removal of the maize import tariff from February 2008 through 
June 2010 has facilitated and continues to enable commercial maize 
imports to reduce food shortages. 
 
 
 
-- We will engage at a high level, through DCM participation and 
Ambassador intervention as necessary, when the GOK presents its 
medium-term investment plan in January.  This is the opportunity to 
provide feedback and shape the way the GOK invests in agricultural 
development. 
 
 
 
-- We will increase emphasis on educating Kenyans about USG credit 
facilities that are currently available to assist with food 
security. 
 
 
 
-- To increase awareness of food security issues, we will hold a 
series of press workshops to train a cadre of reporters to 
 
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accurately report on food security issues. 
 
 
 
-- We will leverage the launch of new long-term programs and the 
announcement of emergency aid by holding press events - pushing for 
senior-level GOK participation -- to highlight critical policy 
issues and educate the public on food security issues. 
 
 
 
-- In the short-term, we would like to fund an agricultural policy 
climate study to highlight gaps and potential reforms in Kenya's 
agriculture policy.  A December 2009 World Bank report concluded 
that "inequities in the Kenya agricultural sector point to an 
urgent need to review Kenya's agricultural trade policy and 
re-examine the role of the National Cereals and Produce Board." 
Internal vested interests and corruption have stymied reform.  An 
independent analysis of agricultural sector policy and structural 
blockages to growth that provides prioritized actions to remove 
blockages would inform our engagement by providing an objective 
plan of action. 
 
 
 
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MULTI-LATERAL AND REGIONAL COORDINATION OF GHFSI STRATEGY 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
 
 
¶9.  To move our strategy forward, we will continue to work with 
other bilateral and multi-lateral donors through existing 
structures.  Kenya enjoys well developed government-donor 
coordination mechanisms including the Agriculture and Rural 
Development Donors (ARD) Group, the Inter-ministerial Coordination 
Committee (ICC), the Technical Committee, and the Thematic Working 
Groups (TWGs) including the revitalized National Food Security and 
Nutrition TWG.  The ARD donors group and the GOK agricultural 
ministries signed a Code of Conduct in April 2009 in which 
signatories commit to good governance, to "alignment and 
harmonization in order to reduce the burden to multiple 
development, in pursuance of the Paris Declaration on Aid 
Effectiveness...", to aligning their support with the SRA/ASDS to 
meet Millennium Development Goal targets, and to improve 
efficiencies in implementing the SRA/ASDS.  We have well 
established ties to all the key players at the working level, 
including the World Bank, DFID, SIDA, EC, JICA, GTZ, DANIDA, IFAD 
and FAO.  We will continue to engage at the working level and 
increase our participation through senior-level participation in 
targeted meetings with an eye toward enhanced coordination and to 
advocate for reform. 
 
 
 
¶10.  To achieve the goals of the GHFSI, we will encourage Kenya to 
work with its neighbors to support regional integration. 
Increasing regional trade and opening up an integrated regional 
market for staples in eastern Africa will allow countries to take 
advantage of regional diversity and different harvest periods, 
moving foods from surplus to deficit areas.  Through the Common 
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East 
African Community (EAC), African governments have committed 
themselves to harmonizing policies, regulations, standards and 
procedures and moving from Free Trade Areas to Customs Unions. 
COMESA's newly launched Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and 
Southern Africa (ACTESA) is expanding regionally coordinated 
actions to open up market access for staple foods.  To be 
effective, agreements made at the regional level must be taken up, 
implemented and enforced by national governments.  We will work 
closely - supporting our programs in USAID/East Africa and 
USAID/Kenya -- to identify and promote regional policy initiatives 
that have potential to increase food security in Kenya and the 
region. 
 
 
 
¶11.  We will also coordinate closely with bilateral missions in the 
 
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region.  As a regional science and technology platform, the 
Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and 
Central Africa (ASARECA) achieves economies of scale for 
high-priority regional agricultural research.  National-level 
support to ASARECA's country partners increases the dissemination 
of these important technologies to farmers.  Regional transport 
corridor diagnostics are expected to reveal key bottlenecks and 
barriers to trade, which will need to be addressed at the national 
level.  Regional trade associations build on the strengths of their 
national members to upgrade value chains and advocate for a better 
regional policy and business environment.  Expanded training and 
capacity-building programs will be planned jointly, building 
cooperation among African educational institutions around a common 
agenda.  USAID East Africa will provide regional coordination and 
knowledge management, linking the various U.S. Government Agencies 
working toward reducing hunger, poverty and under-nutrition in the 
region. 
 
 
 
 
 
¶12.  One of the challenges we face is linking up our own bilateral 
initiatives with multilateral efforts in a way that assures country 
and regional coherence.  Clear channels of communication, robust 
program review and oversight, and rapid dissemination of new 
technologies are essential.  While existing institutions will 
provide the operational structures, Embassy Nairobi will work to 
link these structures with broader multilateral organizations in 
order to ensure independent review.  Our goal is to provide 
external expert advice and a peer review process to avoid 
politicization and contamination by parochial interests.  An 
independent advisory board or panel of experts may be useful, 
perhaps working in cooperation with or as part of the Consultative 
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) or the FAO 
Committee on Food Security (CFS).  We would welcome the 
Department's comment on whether such a model exists. 
 
 
 
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CONCLUSION 
 
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¶13.  With more consistent and sustained policy reform, Kenya can 
excel as a GHFSI partner country - and in so doing, also play an 
important role in improving food security in the region.  Real 
success will, however, require the GOK's commitment to the 
political reform agenda, including the critical fight against 
corruption, that overarches all of Kenya's fundamental problems. 
Through significant senior-level U.S. engagement -- in the context 
of our push for fundamental political reforms -- and a 
comprehensive, country-led, multi-donor approach which encourages 
market-based agricultural development and trade and provides 
mechanisms for peer review, we believe Kenya may be able to achieve 
food security.  Given the GOK's new ASDS and its well-developed 
institutional framework to facilitate coordination of agricultural 
sector reforms, a framework with which we can engage is already in 
place. 
 
 
 
RANNEBERGER 
RANNEBERGER