The Courier

The EU financed 80% of the cost of elections.

© François Misser

This open and collaborative approach was apparent in the areas of national reconstruction and also in support to the electoral process. Both were prerequisites for the preparation of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), which the Commissioner for Development, Louis Michel, proposed in December 2006. It should see a doubling of funds for the period 2008–2013, compared to €411 million available over the previous period.

Following up from Operation Artemis (June–August 2003) which consisted of a European military force securing the area of Bunia in the Ituri district in the east to allow the UN to deploy its ‘blue helmets’ and provide access for humanitarian organisations to reach local populations. The Commission set up an €8 million programme to restore law and order in the East. This was implemented by the NGO ‘Réseau des Citoyens’ (‘Citizens Justice and Democratic Network’).
“We had to start at the very beginning”, the Head of the EU Delegation in Kinshasa, Carlo De Filippi, explains. “The public prosecutor’s department was closed and the prison open”.

Contrary to usual practice, advance payments had to be made to magistrates so they would agree to return and start to put the judicial system back into gear in an area abandoned by the Government years before.

Ensuring election security

The EU was also influential in the eventual success of the electoral process, contributing 80% of the estimated total cost of €400 million, the Commission alone providing €165 million. The Commission also financed the European Election Observation Mission, headed by General Philippe Morillon, and supported the creation of the thousand-strong Integrated Police Unit (IPU) with the task of protecting those involved in the transition process and ensuring security during the elections. Currently, the National Operations Centre of the Independent Electoral Commission, which is 95% EU-funded, is preparing complex local elections, with a total of 6,000 representatives to be elected and a far greater number of candidates.

There is unanimous agreement that the European Union Force (EUFOR), deployed from June–December 2006 at the request of the UN to ensure security during the election in Kinshasa, played an influential role in August 2006 in ending conflict between troops and supporters of the two candidates in contention in the second round of voting that had threatened to scupper the entire election process.

The Commission spent €25 million on training and equipping police officers to protect ballot boxes and polling stations, as well as providing other election resources country-wide. At the same time, more than 30 European police officers are supervising the IPU and other European experts are helping the Congolese Government to lay the foundations for police reform under the EUPOL mission. Over €10 million has been earmarked by the Commission to set up a monitoring committee chaired by donors and the government, conducting an audit of the work force, as well as developing a training curriculum and a regulatory framework for the different levels of police officers.

The Commission has also broken new ground by supporting the building of an integrated national army, reinstating centres that mix soldiers from different factions, as well as improving living conditions of Congolese soldiers’ families, previously left to survive as best they could. At the same time, under the EUSEC mission, European troops have established a system for distributing soldiers’ pay, replacing the previous methods that followed the chain of command. This resulted in officers scooping up the pay of ‘phantom’ soldiers no longer in their command. This new system has made it possible to increase the pay of low-ranking soldiers from US$10 to US$25 per month. Now, the objective is to establish a republican army. But there’s still a long way to go. The Congolese have the challenge of still having to integrate 73,000 soldiers, observes Colonel Patrick Dave, Deputy Head of the EUSEC Mission. This is a crucial step. “We can invest millions into development, but what use will that be if the Congolese soldiers continue to live off the back of the population?” asks Carlo De Filippi.

Rehabilitating protected area

The EU is also taking action to support good governance. A total of €33 million has just been given for building capacity and improving systems of management and control of the Ministry of Justice and the National Audit Office, as well as those of natural resources. “The citizens are expecting this. Here, someone who has money doesn’t have to pay a lawyer, he buys the judge”, explains Carlo De Filippi. The private sector is also waiting for these reforms in order to start investing in earnest.

As for institutional support, the EU is coordinating its action with other donors. The Commission has participated in a World Bank-managed trust fund to strengthen capacity in the most important sectors of European support (infrastructure, health, environment, the protection of nature, etc.) “In the area of conservation in particular, the challenge is considerable”, says Cosme Wilungula, Director of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature. Now funded to the tune of €2.2 million by the Commission, the buildings were being renovated during our visit.

The extent of the task ahead is clear. Armed groups are decimating the hippopotamus of the Virunga National Park on the Rwandan border and the white rhinoceros of the Garamba National Park on the Sudanese border is also under threat in the face of indifference by local decision-makers.

What is more, wildlife parks have been invaded by unauthorised small-scale miners and mining firms who have obtained licences to operate inside certain wildlife reserves. In response to this, the Commission has allocated €5 million for the rehabilitation of protected areas and for the training, salaries and equipment of 500 national guards in the Virunga National Park.

In addition, other action under the regional ECOFAC programme – with a budget for the Congo of €15 million – includes €1 million granted by the Commission to support the ERAIFT post-graduate training school for integrated management of tropical forests. Situated on the campus of the University of Kinshasa, this school trains African managers in forest ecosystem management, and its new centre for operations, which was opened in February.

The Commission invested €108.6 million in maintenance of the ‘Route Nationale 1’, the principal road between Kinshasa and Kenge (Bandundu) and the rebuilding of other key roads. This work is crucial to ensure regular food supplies and for a drinking water distribution network in Kinshasa.

Currently, the poor state of the roads actually causes loss of goods (70% of all products on some routes) due to spoilage, explains one project manager. Around 300 km of roads are being rebuilt in Equator as well as roads for agricultural use in Kasai in partnership with Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC). In addition, a €22 million urban development programme is to be used for training, decontamination, solid waste management, anti-erosion control and the cleaning out of drainage networks. Also, under the Water Facility, two projects for a community-managed drinking water supply systems are planned at Mbuji-Mayi and Kinshasa.

Responding to urgencies

The Commission is also present in the health sector with a €80 million programme in North Kivu and the two Kasai provinces, as well as in the Eastern Province. All focus is on building capacity and setting up a national medical supply system. Added to this, an emergency rehabilitation programme of €65 million was approved in 2006 for the Eastern war-ravaged part of the country. It involves the rebuilding of roads and rural tracks to facilitate agricultural products getting to market – for sanitation and for the supply of agricultural inputs. The objective is to bridge the gap between emergency programmes and the development programmes of tomorrow.

The DRC also benefits from Commission budgets for food aid and food security, for NGO co-financing, as well as approximately €40 million of funds per year from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). In total, the Congo has received over €700 million of support from the Commission since 2002. Up to now, the EU has taken care of the country’s most urgent needs, closing obvious gaps in infrastructure and preparing the way for a development and reconstruction support programme.

This will continue to be discussed with the new government and is to be financed with 10th EDF monies. Last year, the Commission absorbed the Congo’s largest debt to the European Investment Bank of €105 million, offering the prospect of EIB participation alongside the World Bank in funding the rehabilitation of the Inga dam.

Buoyed by all this activity, hopefully a new era is beginning. The DRC is moving from a state requiring ‘transitional assistance’ to a more structured form of cooperation, aimed at supporting the objectives of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper drawn up in July 2006 by the transitional government (with the support of the Bretton Woods Institutions), as well as the objectives of the new government’s programme.

Democratic Republic of Congo

• Area: 2,344,885 km2
• Population: 57.5 millions (estimation 2005)
• Main cities: Kinshasa, Mbuji-Mayi, Lubumbashi, Kisangani, Kananga, Goma
• Languages: French (official), Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili, Tshiluba (nationals)
• Religions: Catholic, Protestant, Kimbanguist, Muslim, Animist
• GDP: 7.1 billion US dollars (estimation 2005)
• GDP per capita: 123 US dollars
• GDP growth rate: 6.6% (2006)
• Main exports: diamonds, oil, cobalt, copper
• Primary education rate: 64% (2002)
• Infant mortality rate: 126 deaths/1,000 live births (1st year)
• Access to electricity: 6%
• Access to drinkING water: 22%
• Sources: IMF, PRSP of DRC

For more information:

Marie-France Cros, François Misser, Géopolitique du Congo (RDC), Editions Complexe, Bruxelles 2006

www.editionscomplexe.com