Speech

Regional Cross-Border Conflict Update and Planning Meeting

Remarks by Deputy Director, Cheryl Anderson

Nairobi, Kenya  | Monday, April 18, 2005

Mayfair Hotel, April 18, 2005

Welcome!

First, I’d like to extend my sincere appreciation to the USAID visitors from Washington offices for traveling all this way, and also to our visitors from Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Your active participation will be really important in shaping the future direction of REDSO’s CPMR/Governance services and programs over the next few days and weeks. I’m very glad to see some old friends here and I look forward to getting to know all of you.

I’m pleased our focus over the next two days will initially be one of the primary causes of fragility in the region: cross-border conflicts.  But I’d also emphasize that it’s important that we take into account the broader context in East Africa, including the peace processes in Sudan and Somalia.

Let me explain that USAID defines East Africa as twelve countries in total: Burundi, Kenya, DR-Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Madagascar, and Sudan. This is a huge region - - in FY04, total USAID funding in East Africa was about $1.5 billion. We’ll be focusing on six of these countries for now: Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

We made a choice early in FY04 not to focus on Great Lakes countries. Why? I’m sure Paul, Steve and Willet will say more about the reasons for this later on; there have been several limitations. But in my view, there are positive signs coming out of regional initiatives in the Great Lakes that might well require us to revisit this.

Our presentations this morning will be followed by discussion about how to maximize existing resources; and develop tools and approaches to seize regional opportunities. We’ll also hear from our Washington visitors about how implementation of Fragile States Strategy is proceeding, and the progress of the Africa Bureau in incorporating the Fragile States Strategy within a new regional strategy. My hope is our discussion of the conflict issues in the region will include the question of why conflict is occurring, but to a greater extent, focus our collective idea on how conflict is and can be addressed by regional approaches.

To me, conflict is one of the most compelling issues we face. It can be life and death in the short term. But we are well aware of the continuing limitations that face our Agency:  Congressional earmarking; competing needs; and limited funding, which means we must prioritize (we can’t do everything). And what we do, we must do well.

These two days are structured to enable us to rise above the details at a few points and spend some time widening our lens to see if we can view the whole forest, which increasingly includes the State Department and political considerations. I’d remind participants that one of our references needs to be the State/USAID Strategic Plan for 2004 to 2009, which has an important emphasis on peace and stability.

Let me just say a few words about regional anti-corruption programming, which REDSO has taken on under its RCMG team. For a number of reasons, it’s been a real challenge to launch this regional initiative quickly. Laila will say a bit more about how we’re progressing, but I’d like to say that the regional office has taken the time to develop a better understanding of the regional impact of corruption along the northern corridor. And is working hard to integrate anti-corruption into a multi-sectoral Transport Corridor Initiative, in partnership with private sector associations.

So, how can USAID and the USG best contribute to addressing the problems of cross-border conflict? I would ask you to keep these three key approaches in mind:

 

1. Defining problems regionally,
2. Seizing opportunities to lead strategically, and
3. Adding value to successful bi-lateral programs.

Finally, let me say that, having been involved in managing the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative and REDSO’s Conflict program in the mid- to late 90’s and also running the Sudan Field Office’s Program Office as recently as last year, I can appreciate the vital need for opportunities like this meeting to exchange strategic ideas and information. Looking back to the 90’s, we had compelling problems, but some good reasons for optimism about the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative’s prospects to do things like: strengthening regional organization; and developing regional approaches for conflict management. Today, there’s clearly more to do with less funding. And this requires USAID to increasingly look to regional platforms as the focus of strategic leadership and collaboration. But this can’t and shouldn’t be done without the input of everyone in the room, and the constituencies you represent. My hope is that we’ll make the best use of the technical expertise, the analytical tools, and the wealth of experience at our disposal to help Paul and his team re-think their SO 6 goals and program components for FY 2006 to 2007. I believe this will define a way forward to address the very worrying trend of increasing cross-border conflicts in East Africa.

Thank you for listening, thanks again for coming, and thanks in advance for your active participation in the upcoming sessions.