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Viewing cable 06ADDISABABA1400, ETHIOPIA: PRIME MINISTER AND BILATERAL DONORS
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| Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06ADDISABABA1400 | 2006-05-19 09:36 | 2011-08-25 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Addis Ababa |
VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB
DE RUEHDS #1400/01 1390936
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190936Z MAY 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0659
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
UNCLAS ADDIS ABABA 001400
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR AF DAS YAMAMOTO AND AF/E
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV EAID PREL PHUM ET
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIA: PRIME MINISTER AND BILATERAL DONORS
MOSTLY AGREE ON GOVERNANCE AGENDA
¶1. SUMMARY: After nearly four months of donor requests for
a high-level meeting on democratic governance, Ethiopian
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, senior ministers, and advisors
met with the Charge, other donor Ambassadors, and heads of
cooperation on May 8 to launch a dialogue on governance with
representatives of the Donor Assistance Group (DAG). Senior
government officials presented their views on three pillars
of Ethiopia,s democratic governance process, namely the
Ethiopian Constitution, state and non-state institutions of
democratic governance and the fostering of a culture of
democracy in Ethiopia. The Prime Minister and donor
representatives agreed that there are no fundamental
differences over the principles of democratic governance
between Ethiopia and donor countries. The Prime Minister and
development partners agreed to begin dialogue on specific
governance issues in the context of the country,s poverty
reduction and sustainable development strategy. All agreed
on the importance of meeting regularly, deepening dialogue
and building trust. END SUMMARY.
¶2. Participants at the meeting on the Government of Ethiopia
side included: Prime Minister Meles, Capacity Building
Minister Tefera, Finance and Developent Minister Sufian
(MOFED), MOFED State Minister Makonnen and Neway Gebre-Ab,
chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. Ambassadors
and heads of cooperation of all bilateral donors were
invited, and most showed up. All bilateral donor countries
had representation. The GOE had insisted, despite strong
objections from the DAG, that major multilateral institutions
such as the World Bank, United Nations and ADB not be
invited. The GOE argued that multilateral donors should be
focused on economic, rather than political, governance.
-----------------------------------
THREE COMPONENTS OF DEMOCRATIZATION
-----------------------------------
¶3. The Prime Minister opened the meeting by stating that its
purpose was to launch a dialogue on political governance with
representatives of the DAG and to discuss areas of mutual
interest related to governance. Noting that some recent DAG
working papers had asserted that the Ethiopian government and
donor countries had different concepts of democracy, Meles
stated that the process of democratization in Ethiopia had
three components: the Constitution, which served as the
base; state and non-state institutions of democratic
governance, which served as the primary structure; and
lastly, Ethiopia,s culture and tradition of democracy.
--------------------------------------------
CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR EXPLAINS CONSTITUTION
--------------------------------------------
¶4. Chief Economic Advisor Neway said that Ethiopia,s
constitution provides the necessary framework for democracy
in Ethiopia. The Constitution clearly states that the
country is a multi-party, parliamentary democracy in a
federal state (Articles 31, 29, 2, 56), and delineates
political rights and social rights, without any priority
given to either individual rights or collective rights, he
said. Furthermore, the Constitution clearly indicates the
sovereignty of the people in establishing the executive and
legislative branches, while the judiciary is formed in
another way. These institutions, as well as public opinion
(expressed through periodic elections and free media),
provide checks and balances, he said.
¶5. According to Neway, key differences between the Ethiopian
Constitution and that of other countries include: reference
to the self-determination of peoples and nationalities, which
allows groups to secede if they meet certain criteria;
allowing for a multilingual state; and the unambiguous
affirmation that land is owned by the state and the people of
Ethiopia.
-------------------------------------
INSTITUTIONS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
-------------------------------------
¶6. Minister of Capacity Building Tefera discussed democratic
institutions associated with the State:
-- Parliament: simple majority, ruling party leads
decision-making, opposition deserves to be heard, oversees
the Executive branch of government;
-- House of Federation: interprets the Constitution, handles
issues of self-determination, determines division of revenues
and subsidies to regions, protects minority peoples rights;
similar to European constitutional courts;
-- Executive Branch: civil service reform underway;
-- Judiciary: the Constitution guarantees an independent
judiciary, and the government is convinced that it is
independent. Judicial reform has significantly improved
efficiency in the past few years, with cases now coming
before the court faster. The process for appointment of
judges in Ethiopia is consistent with that of other countries.
-- Other state institutions include the Human Rights
Commission and the Ombudsman, both mentioned in the
Constitution and just starting; and the National Electoral
Board.
¶7. Political parties: According to Tefera, parties that do
not respect the Constitution and rule of law are therefore
not real political parties. Illegal funding of political
parties, and an undemocratic culture in Ethiopia based on
history, were additional problem, he said. A dialogue
between the ruling EPRDF party and opposition parties is
underway. While asserting that there was a lot of
self-criticism within the EPRDF, Tefara said the EPRDF sought
to promote greater tolerance of broader debate and criticism
from outside the party.
--------------------------------------------
CONCERN ABOUT TRANSPARENCY OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZAITONS,
NGOS
--------------------------------------------
¶8. Tefera said the government was surprised by a recent
study showing the large number of membership-based civil
society organizations, including new associations of
exporters, traders or lawyers, which are key for building
democracy and represent the constitutional right to organize.
However, non-membership based organizations, mainly funded
from abroad, are "parallel networks of international rent
collectors," are not transparent and accountable locally, but
rather externally, and have unreasonably high overhead costs.
Nevertheless, the government still thinks they have a role
to play; differences need to be solved by a common
understanding on an agreed-upon definition of civil society,
he said.
¶9. PM Meles observed that institutionalization is central to
democratization and to implementation of the Constitution.
Democratic institutions in Ethiopia are modeled on those of
other countries, he said. Meles acknowledged, however, that
the GOE,s view of non-membership based civil society
organizations that are externally accountable and part of
parallel networks may differ from donor countries, concept
of NGOs. NGOs played an important role in the success of
Ethiopia,s armed struggle against the Dergue, Meles said,
but civil society and NGOs are not the same. Civil society
organizations are critical for democracy if they are
membership-based and accountable to their members. NGOs, on
the other hand, are only accountable to funding agencies, not
to the country where they work. NGOs bring expertise and
funds, but should not be involved in democratic discourse,
Meles said. There is no space for such NGOs in the
democratic process, he added.
--------------------------------------
MELES DISCUSSES "CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY"
--------------------------------------
¶10. PM Meles said building a culture of democracy in
Ethiopia was a long-term endeavor, not willed overnight, and
depended on civic education, media, and management of key
events in a nation,s history. Curriculum development for
introducing civic education at all educational levels,
largely modeled on the U.S. system, has been underway, but
implementation was weak, he said.
----------------------------------------
CONCERN ABOUT "COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE" MEDIA
----------------------------------------
¶11. Meles said media was an important forum for debate and
dialogue, if done in a civilized manner. Media can provide
information essential for engagement and participation of the
community, inform the public, and serve as an instrument of
accountability. On the other hand, media could also be
counter-productive, and thus was a two-edged sword.
Counter-productive media could be a source of disinformation,
could incite hatred and prejudice, or could be a forum for
destructive propaganda, Meles said.
¶12. Media problems arise from using informal or illegal
channels of funding, Meles said. As formal regulations have
not worked, because not all stakeholders have been involved,
informal regulations, through a culture of responsible and
responsive journalism, are needed, he added. Meles cited a
culture of intolerance among some media: some private media
were established by journalists expelled from public media
after the fall of the Dergue, and had links to various
political parties, he said. According to Meles, the way
forward includes bringing together the public and private
media for discussions to achieve optimum results,
implementing and upgrading public media guidelines, improving
the informal and formal regulations on the private media, and
moving cautiously on opening up electronic media.
¶13. Key historical events, and how they are managed and
explained, are critical to building democratic culture, Meles
said. For example, the government set up an independent
investigation of 2003 events in Gambella that partially
contradicted the government,s position. Based on the
investigation, the government prosecuted and jailed security
force members, he said, which served as the beginning of a
tradition of independent investigations to verify facts. A
second example was the aftermath of the 2005 elections, which
Meles said was an attack on the Constitution and rule of law.
The government response was to enforce the rule of law while
trying to address legitimate concerns of opposition parties.
¶14. Ethiopia,s concept of democracy was consistent with
other countries, democratic norms and principles, Meles
concluded. While the Constitution was neutral with regard to
individual and group rights, the ruling party believes that
individual rights are key, and form the basis for group
rights, he said. Ethnic federalism and self-determination
are found in other countries, such as the Quebec province of
Canada. The ruling party,s views on the fundamentals of
democracy are consistent with the norms and rules of the
Constitution, Meles said.
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DONORS HAVE "RENT SEEKING" RELATIONSHIP WITH AFRICA
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¶15. The differences between Ethiopia and donor countries are
mainly in economic policy, Meles said. The "new liberal
paradigm" has as its fundamental premise is that many African
states are involved with rent seeking or corruption, and
therefore African governments must be shackled and their
roles marginalized. Thus, NGOs and other non-state actors
receive support for service provision and other roles.
Marginalizing the African state does not bring about economic
development or democratic governance, Meles said.
¶16. African states and donors have an inherently
undemocratic "rent-seeking" relationship, Meles asserted,
with donors buying policies in return for aid. The two
beneficiaries of the rent-seeking are African states who get
the funds, and NGOs who set up parallel programs. If African
states are committed to democracy and economic development,
they should not have to sell policies, he said; this
relationship externalizes accountability and squanders the
opportunity for the countries to learn. Good policies should
not be bought, or be seen to be bought, he said. Government
should be accountable to the people, parliament, and other
representative bodies, but instead feels obliged to be
accountable to donors, Meles said.
¶17. On behalf of the donor representatives, EC Ambassador
Tim Clarke responded that donors believe the GOE is showing
encouraging signs, such as review of Parliamentary rules and
procedures, inter-party dialogue, international review of
media laws, plans for NEBE institutional development, and the
new five-year Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development
to End Poverty (PASDEP) debate in Parliament. Canadian
Ambassador Boulanger called for a holistic approach to
governance, to include political, economic, social,
environmental and corporate aspects of governance. The DFID
Country Director provided specific suggestions to move the
process forward, including: having the "Neway group" meet as
soon as possible to discuss specifics of the governance
agenda under the PASDEP umbrella, holding semiannual fora
with the PM, including multilateral organizations in future
dialogue as they are DAG members, and developing a MOU with
clear principles and understandings of democratic governance.
¶18. Meles said that while there are no major fundamental
differences in our conceptualization of democracy, there are
some concepts that could lead to misunderstanding, such as
the misunderstood notion of "revolutionary democracy." He
said the World Bank changed its assistance approach to
Ethiopia because of alleged backsliding in democratization,
which was very confusing to the GOE. The government may have
allowed or encouraged this confusion by allowing the World
Bank to get involved with discussions on political
governance, he said; thus, the World Bank should not be
involved in discussions on political governance, since it is
not part of their mandate.
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MELES DISCUSSES EPRDF ROLE
--------------------------
¶19. As a left-of-center party, the EPRDF joined the
progressive democratic network, Meles said. Like European
labor parties, the EPRDF believes the state must be
pro-active and can play a role to promote equity and
equality; globalization can be a force for good if it is made
inclusive; and constitutions are the basis for democracy.
Unlike European labor parties, however, the EPRDF emphasizes
equitable growth rather than redistributing state resources
for the benefit of all, especially the poor. In Ethiopia,
Meles continued, there is nothing to be redistributed. Meles
added that another major difference is that the European
parties have labor unions and other groups as the social
basis of their movements, whereas in Ethiopia the social
basis of the EPRDF movement is the "peasantry."
¶20. According to Meles, the distinguishing characteristic of
the EPRDF is that it sees Ethiopia as a democratic developing
state, and the state plays a critical development role.
Revolutionary democracy in Ethiopia is defined by its
democratic development agenda: transforming political economy
and development by measured private sector and other
stakeholder expansion, and slowly opening political space to
allow non rent-seeking organizations to expand. The second
defining characteristic is the peasant-based social focus of
the party, Meles said.
¶21. In 2000, the EPRDF had a split in party ranks, Meles
said. Since then, revolutionary democracy has been precisely
defined, with positions and definitions published in 2001.
Later, the party articulated policies and strategies in
detail, such as the industrialization policy, based on the
party definition of revolutionary democracy. Government
positions are articulated in the policies and strategies of
the ruling party. The government is committed to
consultations, but at the end of the day, the government
makes the final decisions, he said.
¶22. As an emerging democracy, Ethiopia has flaws, but is
moving in the right direction, Meles said. It took centuries
for other democratic countries to develop democratic
institutions and culture. Meles concluded by calling for
smaller group discussions on specifics, while continuing some
discussion on fundamentals. Political turbulence should not
affect the IFIs decisions on a selective basis, which is what
happened with the World Bank, he said. He claimed that the
government had agreed with the World Bank that political
governance is not in the Bank,s mandate.
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COMMENT
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¶23. (SBU) This meeting represented the first time that the
PM and his senior government and party leaders had addressed
democratic governance questions, as well as conceptual issues
of concern such as the EPRDF,s "revolutionary democracy", as
well as the timing of political openings and democratic
institution-building. Although the meeting lasted over three
hours, this was clearly just the first step in continuing
dialogue and debate with the donors on the broad range of
governance issues, especially human rights, media,
differentiating party and state, and free and fair elections.
The Government clearly wants predictability on donor flows
to plan development strategies and priorities, while the
donors clearly want consistent respect for democratic
governance principles and institutions. While there was
broad agreement by all that there are no fundamental
differences over the principles of democratic governance,
there are still concerns about the commitment of the GOE to
actually implement the rights, institutions and democratic
culture as expressed in the Constitution and by the PM. We
now have a forum to build on for further high-level
discussion, however, a very positive development.
¶24. (SBU) The PM,s remarks about the rent-seeking
relationship between donors and some African countries show
his pique at the abrupt ending of direct budget support (DBS)
by several large donors in November 2005. His comments on
NGOs may have been more severe because of donors, insistence
that strict accountability and a role for NGOs be included in
the new Protecting Basic Services (PBS) program, which is
being set up in lieu of DBS. Post is encouraged to see the
PM,s support for member-based civil society organizations
and their role in democratic discourse. Three years ago, the
government did not approve the registration of truly
independent member associations, and now they have a seat at
the table.
HUDDLESTON