INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: U.S. Goals for Global Fund Board Meeting In

Published: Mon 8 Nov 2004 07:07 PM
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS OTTAWA 002983
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
STATE FOR S/GAC: PEARSON; HHS FOR OGHA:STEIGER;
STATE PASS AID FOR GH: MILLER
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KHIV PREL TBIO CIDA
SUBJECT: U.S. GOALS FOR GLOBAL FUND BOARD MEETING IN
ARUSHA, TANZANIA: CANADA
REF: SECSTATE 232461
1. (SBU) SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST: Canadian aid officials
take a more sanguine view than the US both of future funding
prospects for the Global Fund and of performance of grants
awarded so far, possbily because they rely for information on
the Global Fund secretariat. They would welcome more details
of U.S. analysis of the problems we see in this area. Action
request: please provide further details on U.S. views
regarding specific grants and our overall analysis; we
believe more detail might change Canadaian views on the
issue. On the Board review procedure, Canadian have promised
us an answer next week.
2. (U) Post Delivered reftel demarche and paper to Dr.
Ernest Loevinsohn, CIDA Director General for Program against
Hunger, Malnutrition and Disease, (Canada, Germany,
Swtizerland, UK rep) and followed up with Canadian Senior
Coordinator Suzie Djakcasu.
3. (SBU) Responding to our arguments against proceeding with
Round Five at this point, Djakcasu said that Canada is less
concerned about the availability of funds than we are.
CIDA's analysis is that actual donations have outpaced
pledges to date and that, extrapolating from experience, it
is reasonable to expect that sufficient funds will be
available for both Round 5 and renewal of existing grants.
She commented that she understood why we might want to take a
more conservative approach and want the funds actually in
hand, but CIDA sees the planned replenishment mechanism, the
first conference on which will take place next year, as
evidence that we are moving toward a more predictable funding
environment. Djakcasu argued further that the Fund already
makes commitments that are not fully funded, i.e. five-year
grants for which only three are granted up front; in essence,
the Fund is already effectively banking on the future. She
also observed that there is always substantial time between
the calling of a new Round and the actual awarding of the
grants in which Board members and the secretariat can get a
clearer picture of the financing situation. She promised to
see if she could share CIDA's internal analytical papers with
us.
4. (SBU) Performance and accountability: Djakcasu questioned
our view that many grants are in trouble, and asked for more
information on the precise proportion, or indeed which
specific loans, we feel are in trouble and/or are
inadequately reported and documented. She noted that CIDA
has relied for its evaluation of how grants are doing on the
performance review of the first 25 grants discussed at the
Partnerships Forum. CIDA's assessment from that meeting was
that 8 were doing well, 12 were adequately documented, and
that 5 were underperforming. CIDA does not necessarily
believe all is well, however. The GoC has received scattered
reports of trouble through its own missions, and would
welcome more detailed information on where we think the
problems are. ACTION REQUEST: Any further analysis that we
can share with the Canadians would be helpful.
5. (U) With regard to the U.S. points on the proposed
procedure for Board review of grants, CIDA will give us a
response after a planned conference call early next week with
the other constituency countries.
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa
CELLUCCI
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