Tim W Hayes 11/06/2007 02:13:27 PM From DB/Inbox: Tim W Hayes
Cable
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UNCLAS SENSITIVE SECSTATE 152799
SIPDIS
CX:
ACTION: ECON
INFO: FCS POL DCM AMB CONS PA RAO FAS MGT PMA
DISSEMINATION: ECON /1
CHARGE: PROG
VZCZCAYO181
OO RUEHAK
DE RUEHC #2799/01 3092247
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O P 052230Z NOV 07
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA IMMEDIATE 1916
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA IMMEDIATE 6157
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA IMMEDIATE 9448
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN IMMEDIATE 7544
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO IMMEDIATE 8653
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA IMMEDIATE 8399
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO IMMEDIATE 7482
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL IMMEDIATE 5298
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO IMMEDIATE 1376
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW IMMEDIATE 9260
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON IMMEDIATE 4525
INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0481
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3056
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 5529
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 STATE 152799
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
USOECD - CHARLES RANDOLPH
PAUL REID
CURTIS STONE
USOAS FOR BOB MANZANARES
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AU BR CA CI EAID ET JA KDEM KS MX NL NZ PL PO
PREL, TU, UK, OAS, DA, OECD
SUBJECT: STEERING GROUP NON-PAPER FOR THE PARTNERSHIP FOR
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE (PDG)
REF: A. STATE 106990
B. STATE 108794
C. STATE 115400
1. (SBU) This is an action request; please see para 5.
2. (SBU) Background: The Partnership for Democratic
Governance was successfully rolled out at a well-attended
high level event co-hosted by OECD and UNDP in New York on
October 1, 2007. The Department appreciates Posts' support
and efforts which made the launch of the PDG a great success.
The current founding members of the PDG are: Australia,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New
Zealand, Poland, Turkey, the U.S., OECD, UNDP, OAS and the
Inter-American Development Bank. The U.S. and other founding
members must now turn our attention to effectively
implementing this new multilateral initiative at OECD.
Founding members will meet in Paris on November 12 to have an
informal discussion on PDG implementation and to prepare for
the first meeting of the PDG,s Steering Group tentatively
scheduled for January 28-29, 2008. The UK and possibly
France will participate in these discussions as observers but
have not yet joined the PDG. Paris, London and Berlin are
slugged for information only.
3. (SBU) Action Request: Drawing on REFTELs and key PDG
material at www.oecd.org/pdg, Department requests action
posts to convey points contained in paras 4 and 5 and deliver
the non-paper in para 6 on outstanding governance issues of
the PDG to host governments. Embassy should ask for initial
comments on the draft non-paper by COB November 15 and inform
host government that the U.S. hopes to discuss issues in the
non-paper with delegations at the November 12 meeting in
Paris. We view this as a working document and welcome
comments and input from other partners as we move forward.
4. (SBU) Pilot Assessments: Department requests that Posts
inform other partners that the U.S. has begun to seek input
and assessments from our own embassies and USAID missions on
potential PDG pilot programs in Africa, Asia and Latin
America. Given the relatively short initial period for the
PDG Advisory Unit of three years, we think it is important to
feed as much information to the new unit as possible and
inform its decisions about dialogue and exploration with
target countries. We expect UNDP to begin similar
assessments and welcome their participation in the
development of templates and procedures for selection of
target countries; however, posts should encourage other
partner countries to join us in gathering and feeding
information to the new unit as soon as they are able to in
parallel with UNDP,s development of its own assessment
framework.
5. (SBU) Country Co-Chair: OECD Secretary General Gurria will
chair the first Steering Group meeting of the PDG but the PDG
terms of reference require that a co-chair be selected at the
first Steering Group meeting. The U.S. feels strongly that
the other co-chair of the Steering Group should be a partner
government serving perhaps on an annual rotating basis. We
believe that Chile would make an ideal first country co-chair
for the Steering Group and posts should communicate this view
to host governments and seek their opinions on this issue.
6. (SBU) Begin non-paper:
Non-Paper: PDG Governance Issues
This non-paper addresses two important issues that members of
the PDG will need to decide in the coming months:
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AU BR CA CI EAID ET JA KDEM KS MX NL NZ PL PO
PREL, TU, UK, OAS, DA, OECD
SUBJECT: STEERING GROUP NON-PAPER FOR THE PARTNERSHIP FOR
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE (PD
(1) Standards for admitting new members into the Partnership,
as outlined in the attached OECD note; and
(2) Principles that should guide the process for selecting
countries for PDG-sponsored assistance.
Membership Standards: In accordance with the attached OECD
note, all countries wishing to join the Partnership must
subscribe to the PDG's Declaration of Principles and
Objectives. The issue is whether this is both a necessary
and sufficient condition for membership, or whether
additional standards should be applied in considering the
accession of new members prior to and after the January
Steering Group members.
From the outset, the U.S. has understood the PDG to be a
group of like-minded democracies. The U.S. therefore
believes that the democratic character of countries applying
for membership should be an important factor in admissions
policy. At the same time, we recognize the inherent and
practical difficulties of reaching agreement among all
partners on an objective and credible set of democracy
indicators and applying them consistently -- and in a
compulsory manner -- to specific cases.
In consequence, it is the U.S. view that each member of the
PDG should formulate some set of standards for evaluating
applications for membership and, at its discretion, exercise
its right to veto countries that do not meet these standards.
The U.S. believes the following democracy guidelines would
be useful in evaluating membership requests to protect the
'like-minded' nature of the Partnership. The U.S. also
believes that a coordinated set of guidelines among partners
would minimize disagreements and the necessity of any
partners to break consensus. We believe that all PDG members
should base their membership decisions on similar standards.
-- A "free ranking" from Freedom House
-- A score of 50 percent or higher in the World Bank's Voice
and Accountability Index
-- Practical experience in establishing legitimate,
effective, and accountable democratic institutions that would
help the PDG to achieve its objectives.
Eligibility Standards for Assistance: The United States has
also conceived the principal, if not exclusive, aim of the
PDG to be helping emerging democracies to improve their
governance capacity and service delivery to their citizens.
We recognize, of course, that the definition of emerging
democracies should be sufficiently flexible to reflect the
reality that democratic transitions are often protracted and
incomplete, and that some fragile and post-conflict states
need assistance in strengthening governing institutions, even
if they are not yet exemplars of democratic practices, to
successfully get on a democratic path.
Although there is agreement that governments of any country
on the OECD DAC list of Official Development Assistance
recipients can contact the PDG for advice or assistance,
whether to approve such requests will require a
recommendation from the Advisory Unit and a separate decision
by the Steering Group under the rules of consensus. As with
the case of membership, the United States does not seek
formal agreement among PDG members on democratic guidelines
for the assistance selection process. However, the U.S.
will observe the following guidelines in making these
decisions within the Steering Group and again believes that
close coordination in partners' decision-making will be
important for the success of the PDG. We, therefore,
encourage other PDG Partners to adopt similar guidelines.
-- Countries seeking assistance from the PDG must be willing
to accept stringent provisions for assuring accountability,
auditing, monitoring, transparency and open citizen feedback
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AU BR CA CI EAID ET JA KDEM KS MX NL NZ PL PO
PREL, TU, UK, OAS, DA, OECD
SUBJECT: STEERING GROUP NON-PAPER FOR THE PARTNERSHIP FOR
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE (PD
in the implementation of the PDG-sponsored projects, based on
best practices developed by the Advisory Unit.
-- Applications for assistance should take into account a
candidate's performance on Freedom House scores based on
civil and political liberties and the World Bank's indicators
of voice and accountability, government effectiveness, rule
of law, and control of corruption.
-- There should be a strong presumption of denial, with
exceptions made on a case-by-case basis, for requests for PDG
services from any country that received a Freedom House
ranking of "not free" and a score of under 50 percent in the
World Bank's Voice and Accountability Index.
Conclusion: The United States believes that the approaches
laid out above strike the right balance between two competing
desiderata: preserving the flexibility of the Partnership to
make politically sensitive decisions taking into account the
special circumstances of individual cases, and maintaining
the democratic character and purposes of the Partnership's
membership and operations. In the spirit of partnership, the
United States would welcome the views of our PDG partners on
the guidelines set out above -- or others that might be
usefully applied to our decision-making process in the PDG --
and hope we will be able to achieve consensus on a way
forward.
6. (SBU) Points of Contact: Comments on the non-paper should
be provided directly via e-mail to EEB/EPPD Nancy
Smith-Nissley (Smith-NissleyN(at)state.gov) and EEB/ODF
Christine Harbaugh (HarbaughCM(at)state.gov) copying S/P
members Dick Sokolsky (SokolskyRD@state.gov) and Jean Geran
(GeranJM(at)state.gov).
RICE