Okay, good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. Welcome to our third USIP DRC diaspora dialogue. My name is Raymond Gilpin and I, in addition to my work as leading USIP's efforts on the confluence between economics conflict and peace building, I also have responsibility for priority country focus on the DRC and we are very happy to be able to do this. I see a number of familiar phases around the room. So some of you might be familiar with the United States Institute of Peace and for those of you who are not, I'll just quickly point out that we are not a branch of the United States government. We are mandated and funded by United States Congress in its belief that an institute like ours could help focus attention on helping make peace and resolve conflict around the world. We don't formulate policy, we don't advocate policy, but our work helps influence development of policy and improve policy implementation in various areas, in various conflict arenas around the globe. DRC is one of our countries of focus. Over the last three years we've had a number of events that are focused on mining, on conflict, on gender, on business, on regional dimensions of conflict. And we've also published a number of special reports and peace briefs on these topics. We have done some work in the DRC. In 2008 we had a business survey in the northeast and the south looking at conflict and business dynamics. Earlier this year we had a meeting on corruption in the business sector in Kinshasa. And the DRC diaspora dialogue is an important part of what we do. It's important because we believe that the diaspora has a very important part to play in not just development prospects, but also in garnering a viable intellectual capital to help move the DRC along. And so we provide a forum for the diaspora to do three main things. Firstly, to exchange ideas. Secondly, to help build consensus around workable solutions and recommendations. And thirdly, to enable the diaspora to engage productively with policymakers and practitioners who are based in Washington, D.C. A number of people in the community have asked repeatedly why another conference, why another meeting? Because what the DRC requires is action. We're tired of having meetings and talk shops and issues relating to discussion rather than seeing more action. That is true, but there are four reasons why I believe that the DRC diaspora dialogue is important. The first is that we also firmly believe that action is important, but action has to be informed. Action has to be informed by not just research but also by the views of the broader constituency. And we feel that quite often the diaspora voices are lost in this context. Secondly, we believe that dialogue is an ongoing process. It does not stop when action starts. We need to continue discussing so that we evaluate as we go along and we know whether or not we are making progress. The third reason is that there are still many misconceptions out there, both in the DRC and in the diaspora and in policy communities around the world about what is relevant for the DRC, what works and what doesn't work, and how best to address the myriad challenges facing the DRC. And the fourth and I think most important reason is that I believe that we still have this gap in both policy development and advocacy where the diaspora voices are not as loud as they should be and they are not as integrated, not just here in Washington DC but also in the DRC. And we believe that this provides a forum for the diaspora not just to be able to reach consensus on a number of key issues and help to forge collective action and support behind those action-oriented points. And so that's why I believe that this is important. What do we hope to be able to do today? Firstly, we want to take stock of what's current and what's appropriate. Secondly, we want to catalog practical solutions and help map an agenda for action. Thirdly, we want to be able to engage both policymakers and practitioners. And an important part of this effort is to be able to have the diaspora dialogue with people working in the DRC. And our launch time speaker today will be the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who has direct responsibility for the DRC, Susan Page. She'll be coming to engage with you. And so you'll have a better idea about where U.S. policy is going and she'll be able to listen to your input and hopefully channel those appropriately. And the fourth output from today is we want to be able to take all the excellent publications and put them together as a publication which we would title diaspora voices in these areas. There are two main panels that we will be focusing on. This morning we'll talk a lot about development-related issues at this afternoon about political and security issues. And the panels are constituted exclusively of DRC diaspora professionals. We didn't choose them, we didn't appoint them. By we, I mean USIP. But we believe that we have people who would not be lecturing us but who will be leading discussions and helping make the question and answer session a lot more productive. So I'm really looking forward to this. But before I introduce the first panel, let me turn it over to Dr. Kitenga who would give us a brief background about where we've, how far we've come as a group in this diaspora series. Kitenga, please. Thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Kitenga Ngambua, obviously from the Congo. First of all, I want to thank USIP for its leadership in actually putting the Congo very significantly on the map in terms of discussions around issues and problems that affect the country. In terms of the challenges the country is faced with and in terms of working towards finding ways to address those problems. And so this, which is a third meeting, had two previous meetings which in fact had prepared for this to happen today. We met in October of last year and during that meeting we broke up into three different groups. One looked at the mining sector. The second one looked at the private sector. And the third group looked at the zero-tolerance policy with regard to corruption and impunity in the country. And that meeting in October was basically a brainstorming meeting where people from the Congo and friends of the Congo sat together and looked at some of the problems affecting each one of those areas. When it came to mining, for example, we talked about the fact that so much of the Congo wealth in eastern Kivu is channeled out of the country with no return or no significant return to the country. There is a lot of blood associated with the mines that come out of the Congo. And some of the things we talked about had to do with how do we control to the extent possible the flight, if you will, of those minerals and how do we demilitarize that particular sector in the Congo. When it comes to the zero-tolerance sector, for example, people in that group talked about corruption and the fact that it basically has paralyzed the functioning of the government. It's basically become a culture in political sphere in the Congo. And the fact that the legal system in the Congo doesn't work makes it difficult to address issues around corruption. And as far as the private sector is concerned, one of the things that was discussed was the fact that the Congo is one of the most difficult countries in the world in terms of doing business and what can be done to allow the creation of a legal framework which makes it easier for people to go into the country, invest and do business. So that was October. In March of this year, we came back again in the same venue, and this time we came to listen to some of the key actors in the Congo, both in terms of the US government and also in terms of the international community. As far as the US government is concerned, we had representatives from the Treasury Department, the Health Department, and the Paragon was represented by someone from Africa. And of course, USAID also was part of the discussions. The World Bank was here, the IMF was here as well. Each one of these representatives shared with us what it is that his or her agency or department is doing in the Congo. So it was for us a listening opportunity, but also it was an opportunity that allowed us to ask questions and to propose some ideas as to how certain things can be done in a different way. At the end of that meeting in March, we agreed and again USAID was kind enough to extend an invitation to the Congolese diaspora to organize a third meeting, which is today's meeting, one during which we Congolese could propose Congolese solutions to Congolese problems. And basically here we are today and as Raymond said before, one of the main objectives of this discussion is an exchange of ideas. Basically the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing exchange of ideas and as he put it so eloquently, even when actions are taken, the conversation ought to continue. And so that's where we are today and we got up as Raymond said, we have a panel of people who are going to talk about some department issues and I'm going to send the floor back to Raymond. Thank you. Thank you very much Dr. Kitange. Before I introduce the first panel, I would also like to welcome the folk who are joining us by live webcast. We have about 50 people who signed up for live webcast, so if you are there welcome and if you would like to participate in the discussion and we have a couple of email addresses that are available, I think one is drcdiaspora at usip.org. Please send your questions or comments in and we have people who would filter your questions and comments to the panel and I think we are bilingual, we could take your comments in both French and English and so welcome to the people who are joining us by live webcast. We have a very capable panel and they would be discussing a number of economic development issues this morning and we have copies of their bios outside and so I wouldn't go over their very impressive and extensive bios but what I would do is just introduce them briefly in the order in which they would be speaking. I think first we would be looking at the DRC's health sector and we are very fortunate to have Dr. Malonga with us this morning who has a lot of experience in the health sector both as a health sector professional and as a national professional and so he will be sharing his thoughts about a development program for the DRC's health sector. He will be followed by Dr. Kitenge who will be talking about education and then Mrs. Agnes Lotteta would give us her views on the mining sector and then Dr. George Alula would discuss what I think we have called his view of the A Marshall Plan for the DRC. We have a very, very, very packed panel and what my duty is to ensure that the discussion flows and that we could have as much of a dialogue as possible so I'm going to be very strict with time and we'll make all of their presentations available then as I told you we're going to have a publication but I'm going to ask them to be as succinct as possible 10-12 minutes maximum per speaker. I would actually stop you after 10-12 minutes and give the next speaker an opportunity so that we could have time for Q&A and a very, hopefully, vibrant exchange and so the floor is yours, Dr. and we look forward to your comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, so I will try in 10 minutes to desert my thought about the health sector and the economy. As the Chairman has said, the presentation is available so I'm going to be ready to skip over. My presentation is going to have three sections. The first section is going to present the situation in Congo today. Sorry, first presentation, where we want to take Congo tomorrow. Second section is where do we stand as of today and how to move from today to tomorrow. So DRC has said that it's going to achieve these millennium goals by 2050, so in about three years. So these are goals. We want to have under five mortality rates less than 40 and then we can see also where do we stand. Let me say that really the indicators in DRC are very, very bleak. We used to have the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. But now our infant mortality rate is above the African average. So we are in a very, very bad situation. And you can see that even the government spent less than $10 per capita per year. We are going to go through a series of slides to show how bad the situation is today as far as health is concerned. So we can see that under five mortality per region is what we have as human resources. 0.2 medical doctors per 10,000 people. Even if the budget is allocated less than 60%, the budget already is very, very small. But even that is only a little less than 60%. Now we have a lot of donors. But you can see that most of these donors they've come to support what are called vertical programs. And as I'm going to show it later on that also is really making our situation worse. What is our past? How did we come to that situation? This slide shows that the evolution of the GNP since 1960 when it became independent. As you can see, we are worse off. We are not very, very good in 1960, but we are less than 50% of what we were in 1970. Now you can see that we started going, we went down between 62 and 65. You know the reason? That was the time where we have our first rebellions. And then we start moving up till 1975. That's a very, very important milestone in the history of Congo. 1950, 1975. And then we started going down. I'm going to explain why. Now if you move back in 1885 when the country was created by King Leopold II, you'll see that our evolution has gone through three phases. From 1885 to around 1930 and then from 1930 to 1950, 1975 and then 1976 up to now. Three phases, I'm going to describe them. The first phase was really when Congo had a shock with the colonization. This is what happened. King Leopold II started to establish a very, very abusive regime with the red rubber. Please, I'm going to insist on the red rubber because we are going to come back now to the red coltan. Now red rubber was because Mr. Dunlop and Goodyear discovered vulcanization. And now we are going to the same process because unfortunately we have discovered computer and cellular form. And because of that we had Congo had the first spread of very, very dangerous disease like the African human tripanatomiasis which is a sleeping sickness. It was not introduced by the Belgium but the spread of the disease was followed by the introduction of colonization and then some other communication like smart box and leprosy and tuberculosis. And then phase two started when the nephew of King Leopold decided to change. He then introduced a system where he thought that Belgium would benefit from a prosperous Congo, King Albert. He came to Congo, that's a picture of him when he was in 1909 when he was still a prince. Remember his uncle had never visited Congo. King Albert came and then he started a new regime. And the regime is going to be sustained because we are going to have a string of benevolent leaders including Mobutu. Now this I'm talking about the young Mobutu. Mobutu the nationalist. Mobutu before 1975. You can see him here with his private physician, Dr. Close. Some of you might not know him. This is Glenn Close's father. Okay? Dr. Close is one of the champions of Congo. And I'm a citizen of this nation of champions because we need champions. Then phase three started when Mobutu the nationalist became Mobutu the monotheist. What happened in the 1970s? First, the oil shock. Second, the independence of Angola. Third, the end of the Vietnam War because Congo benefited a lot from the Vietnam War because we were selling them copper. And then, unfortunately, phase three has yet to be finished because we are still after Mobutu's demise. We had Kabila and then the international struggle for oil in the Ituri coal plant in Kewu. And then, also important, we had a spillover of Angola's, Uganda's and Rwanda's. So these are the three phases of Mobutu. We think that really we can still dream. We can quadruple the performance of sector by 2030 by establishing a two-pronged system. The red component is going to be the provision of good quality health services that is going to be supported by the blue component the supporting provision of good quality health services. Next. These are the activities that we are going to propose. We are going to propose that we construct health facilities, equip them, provide drugs and then pay for services. The cost is going to be this. The investment cost and the current cost. It looks like I don't have time. And we hope that we are going to have funds coming from the government, from the users and from donors. We start with that, and we hope that by 2030 we are going to change the situation where the country is going to be taking care of itself.  Donal fatigues because some people might say what I have put on the slide. Next. People, Congolese might have these problems. From what we see, everywhere when the aid is not well received by the people they become very angry and sometimes they fake compliance. On the other side, these are the problems that donors have. Next slide. But we think that if we can ensure what I call the essential triad, meaning if we can have good leaders and we can have champions that are going to advocate and if we have resources, I think we can achieve those. And we contend that the mission, the agenda is not impossible. And second, we say that this is the senior condition for national, regional and global peace. We have done that before. These are the stories, success stories of Congo. We have been able to develop the first primary health care in the world. China, Cuba, they have copied our system. We have developed the best public and private partnership in the world because this is the only country where you see government and FBO, Facebook organizations working together. We have been able to control the African sleeping sickness very, very well. We have been able to control AIDS. And with USAID, we have, I think we have implemented one of the best USAID funded projects in the world. Next. This is what we have invented. This is what Congo invented and it was taken by the Chinese and the Cubans. This is our system of health zones and then secondary hospitals and dental hospitals. Please. Next. We have divided our country into 306 zones and then we can see that some of the zones are managed by Catholic Church, some of them are by the front-end church. Next. This is our, what we did to control the sleeping sickness in in 1960, the disease almost wiped out. Next. We, Congo, we have made the contribution to the knowledge about HIV and we have been able to stabilize HIV. You can take the picture of Africa, you see that Congo has remained an island where HIV has not been able to explode like in certain other parts of Africa. And this is the project that was financed by USAID and I contend that this is one of the best USAID funded project in the health sector in the world. I think USAID is very, very happy with that. And in spite of the world, in spite of all the problems you can see that we started, we can see an improvement, a slight improvement of the situation in Congo. I'm almost there. And if we do that these are the benefits that we're going to derive from the agenda. Next. It's very important that we do that because Congo is very, very important. These are the next. My final slides just say that if Congo is prosperous, stable Africa and the world is going to benefit. Because as France has said, Africa is like a revolver and Congo has the triggers of the world. Here. Please, let me finish by saying that yes, the West has interest in the peace in Congo because the poor man, we, the poor man cannot sleep because of hunger that you the rich cannot sleep because the poor man cannot sleep. And you cannot sleep when you have a volcano close to your house. This is the Iceland volcano and we are coming to a global village we cannot afford to have stable spots. Thank you very much. Dr. Kitanga please. Thank you. I'm going to talk about education. The microphone. And first of all, indulge me in sharing with you a thought by Durkheim who views the object of education is to stimulate and develop in the individual a certain number of physical, intellectual, moral and I added civic states which are demanded of him or her by both the political society as a whole and by the particular milieu in which he or she is specifically destined. I'm going to also talk a little bit about what John Dewey who's quite well known in this country the philosopher and educator who believes that education is the fundamental approach of social progress and reform. I go back to Durkheim who believes that any country, any society at a certain stage of its development needs some kind of an education system that is going to move it forward. And I think that the Congo now that we look at almost 50 years of independence and we look to the future after the 50 years what kind of a society do we want and to what extent do we believe that education is going to play a role that in fact creates the kind of society we want. And so before I present to you my dream about the educational system in the Congo, let me talk very briefly about what the current conditions of the system is or rather. And I'm just going to use a few statistics from the World Bank. First of all almost 20 years ago countries around the world met in Jonsien in Thailand to talk about the education for all. And all the countries at the conference agreed to move towards basically providing opportunities for universal education, at least basic education for all by Iran right now. But as we speak between 95 I'm sorry, 92 and 2006 based on the statistics by the World Bank the enrollment rate for primary education in the Congo was at about 70%. The enrollment rate of the same numbers to the secondary school went down to 22%. Of those 22%, only 42% went to college and we're not talking about the graduation rate which is even more abysmal than the enrollment rate. And if you look at the graduation rate at the completion rate for elementary school by 2006 remember 72% enrolled but only 40% of those who go to school graduate as far as elementary school is concerned. If you look at the Congo next door during the same period of all the students who go to school 73% at the same level of elementary school graduate for the Congo 40%. Now, I'm not an economist of education but if an economist of education were to study the impact of those losses in terms of the economic production you have a huge amount of labor force wasted not produced of course you have tax revenues which wouldn't come into the country because these people weren't trained, couldn't work and of course the expenditures the government puts into educating these people are wasted because in the end the human capital is not produced. So at least in terms of numbers that would be very significant. If you look at the educational system today again three basic adjectives would qualify dysfunctional poor quality and out of sync with what the development priorities of the country are. Just think of the five chantiers that the current government has proclaimed as the chantiers for pushing the country forward. I would be hard pressed to find any direct link between those five chantiers and the educational system today that would help to support the accomplishment of those goals. And as we know again we talked about corruption earlier the quality of education in the Congo is perhaps among the worst in Africa why? Because grades are sold and bought very openly basically undermining both the value of that education and the credibility of the degrees that are conferred to students in the country. And so if we think of the system as being dysfunctional of poor quality and out of sync with the priorities of development what can we do? First of all one of the issues around poor quality has to do with both teacher education and teacher training which leads to issues of either under qualification of teachers or non qualification of teachers. And to give you an idea I remember myself after high school I taught English all the way to the 12th grade of secondary school. I just didn't think that was right and that's all there was at the time. And today you have people with 10 years of education who are teaching in elementary school and are considered to be qualified teachers. So there is a serious issue of teacher education and teacher training but part of the lack of quality also has to do with teacher pay. As we know I remember when I was working I think at the time was in 1998 1988 with a bachelor's degree I was being paid 20 dollars a month and I'm sure that that's probably less today and in fact even the 20 dollars didn't come every month and it's worse today. So as we think of all these poor qualities dysfunctional and out of touch educational system I divided the suggestion box into about three areas. Remember only 70% of students at the age of school are able to enroll and yet the country participated in the 1990 conference which promised to get everybody in school by 2010-2015. So access is basically one of the problems as far as education is concerned. How do you then push access to the maximum possible? One of the activities that needs to be done is basically school mapping and school mapping is a census of school aged children in the country. We have to know exactly how many children of school age exist in the country and where they are. The second thing has to be the building of schools which would absorb these students that we would have identified. The World Bank is in the country either renovating or in some instances helping to build some new schools. The country is what it is. In terms of reaching remote places it's just impossible. There aren't in the roads and so one of the other ways one can reach as many students as possible is the possibility of organizing distance learning structures. Now I can see you saying well how do you do that in a country where there is no electricity? Well there is something called interactive radio instruction program that's been tried in a number of African countries in Zambia, Tanzania and other places that use very basic technology and doesn't require electricity. You train people to help students through the radio system to basically learn and I actually ran a program in Tanzania that did just that. So you can do distance learning in a relatively cost effective way without needing electricity. Gender sensitive buildings is an important issue as well. More about keeping students in schools than having access so much. And this simply means building structures that take into account girls conditions when they come to school. And of course one of the documents one of the reports I read points to the fact that school fees have been a serious problem in preventing children to attend school. The second part is of course the quality of education part and as far as that is concerned I split that into a number of areas. One is the curriculum and as far as the curriculum is concerned I look at it from two angles. If you look at the country today as a post-conflict country and of course a country that is aspiring to prosperity and development I think that civic and peace education is an important part of the educational system in the Congo today as we look to how to move this country forward. I look at the use of positive histories or stories of the Congolese history that would bring more addition to the country if you will and again peace education is an important part as the country looks at ways to move forward and become more peaceful. As far as development is concerned I believe that infusing ideas for entrepreneurship in schools in the Congo is a way of creating future small business owners who can also in return employ people. I strongly believe in the idea of eliminating the trucking system in the Congo you are almost bound to choose a field as early as ninth grade and your future is almost determined that early and I don't know how many of you can say that when you were in ninth grade you knew what you wanted to become with certainty but in the Congo you are almost forced to choose one path and stay in that path with no chance of coming out. I think that if the Congo is serious about education the government needs to invest more in preschool almost all of the preschool systems that exist in the country today are run by private schools not that many are run by the government itself and finally in this section I believe that there has to be a promotion of service learning as part of how students are taught and of course I think that technical and vocational schools should be should be looked at in a more positive light and of course all of this would require the development of new materials by Congolese themselves now teacher training and teacher education I strongly believe in the need for removing all teachers who have no college education in the educational system of course it's going to take another 10-15 years perhaps to get there and so what does that mean it means that in terms of departments of education the introduction of say an elementary school program in those schools of education which would train which would prepare teachers when they come out can go all the way down to the elementary school level I was in Bukau a few years back and I had the chance to speak with the president of the teacher training college there who thought that the idea was fine except that people with college degrees would not want to go to elementary schools to teach because they wouldn't be paid commensurate to their to their training if there is a political will somebody with a bachelor's degree should be paid as much as someone with the same degree teaching at a college if that person was teaching at an elementary school the government just should value the education of the person and not where he is teaching and of course the pay is to be something that the government looks at seriously finally one of the difficulties in bringing synergy as the country looks at educational problems is in my view the fact that we have two ministries of education I don't see the need for that I would advocate for one single ministry of education with two undersecretaries of education that way they're both together they look at issues that affect the elementary school and the secondary school and the person who is overseeing the education system for high education the two of them can coordinate the kinds of programs that need to be created in universities in order to address the problems that the country faces at the lower level and finally there are institutions today that are working in some of these areas EDC Education Event Center which is being funded by USCID is in the country working on some of these issues the World Bank is there USCID of course is there so I think that there are players with whom we can talk to look at ways to get the government to pay more attention to education by the way only 4.9% of the national GDP is being invested into education in the Congo I don't think that's enough thank you thank you very much as we all know the mining sector lies at the heart of a lot that goes on in the DRC and we are looking forward to Mrs Lothetta's comments on her views of how the mining sector could be more constructive and what could change if anything at all thank you very much please please be patient with me because my English is you know okay as known the Democratic Republic of Congo is a country with huge natural wealth this country is full scale configuration of the chemist Mendeleev turbo and even more because there are some elements not included on this turbo for what global production it accounts for around 34th of cobalt 10% of diamond 10% of copper 4% of tin ore zinc, cotton, boxy metal ore unfortunately right now the exploitation of the vast natural wealth not only is going to waste for the industrial world but has brought nothing but suffering and misery to the Congolese people very little of the revenue from the natural resource trade were ploughed back into the country or contributed to raising standards of living it felt economic benefits and development but it has been the cause of numerous and grave human right abuse in this country you can see all this on the report from panel of expert UN International NGOS and etc they recommend all of this report have the same conclusion there is a close connection between the violence and suffering of the civilian population leaving the mining zone DRC and the control exercised in these areas by the current army group their recommendation concrete proposal to end this situation have unfortunately remained dead letters from the Congolese authorities who sometimes find themselves being judge and parties often being shareholders in this company this explains why this situation persists and nobody wants to put its house in order because it contributes to build up individual fortune what to do my solution what I propose is the aim of this proposed solution is that the exploitation of this huge material wealth will be beneficial to both investors and the Congolese people and especially that it contributes to the effective development of DRC actually in all this partnership the Congolese side has fulfilled its obligation to the sale of mining and unfortunately the other parties did not comply or refuse to comply with their commitment first solution to secure the mining sector the exploitation right now is characterized by extensive corruption fraud pH, mismanagement and lack of transparency much of the mining the DRC is done in the formal sector by artisanal miners violations of economic rights were systematic is the must today to secure the mining asset and the most important to secure human lives in DRC by introducing an international management through the creation of an independent international organization under the auspice of the World Bank more the exploitation of this deposit must be under an international mineral and mining industry agency management such as the International Council of Mining and Metals ICMM this organization will be neutral and shall meet within it men and women honest and upright high level of technical and experts in all areas related to the exploitation processing and sound economic management financial planning their first task will be to develop a plan to develop and plan appropriate mechanism for holding long term exploitation the most professional way and most efficient possible they will be from all nationalities however with priority given to Congolese expert second solution put order in the mining sector despite the commitment to begin with a capital investment for an industrial exploitation much of the mining DRC is done by artisanal miners who are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse they have no legal right or protection no technical training in mining technique and no special clothing or equipment mineral are found almost everywhere and so artisanal miners dig wherever they work in harsh and extremely hazardous condition mineshaft frequently kills scores of miners every year including young children for that and a compromising audit is required on all companies operating throughout the Congolese territory it will examine whether the terms of the contract were freed in accordance with the framework defined then to see whether in practice the conditions as stipulated have been satisfied on the ground from a legal standpoint technical financial and taxation in the case of no compliance with contract terms proceed with determination of contract third solution redefining a new partnership a new type of partnership between the Congolese government and investors it's important to redefine a new approach a new partnership between the Congolese government and investors and renegotiate a transparent manner the terms of partnership that are not clear and are often an opaque management that encourages fraud from the companies involved for that it will require to generalize and formalize administrative procedure a. in terms of organization and governance of the partnership by setting up organizational chart of the management b. the conditions of release of capital c. respect of the contract terms d. in matters of financial management and accounting e. as a regard to the economic performance and financial f. in the distribution of revenue it's absolutely a must to review and correct at the same time and in collaboration with the Congolese authority the mining code this important tool which regulates the mining sector was designed by the same mine operator consent and was in fact teller to secure their privileged position turns out in practice in coherent and consistent with a healthy allocation of concessions exploitation and export control for the fourth solution recovery of fees not paid or covered by fraud proceed to a fourth recovery of all fees and taxes owned by business guilty of abuse for example the last year there was the senatorial commission leads by the senator mutambati boy and the report put forward that each year Congolese government losses about 400 million of dollars in fraud and it's only in the Katanga province of Katanga about this conference concern this party that exists in almost cases between the amount of deposits and the acquisition of potential value in metal content there to be clear I'm going to give you an example you have two apartment or two houses to sell one of these apartment of house has equipment and the other one is empty are you going to sell the two prices it was happening in Congo they sell this concession without taking account of the content of minerals in this concession tax evasion all this matches or export both in the volume of export in value in metal content which are underestimated especially must be focalized on what is happening in the two provinces of Kivu and Oriental province where both exploitation and export of mineral completely fall outside the Congolese government control it's known that all fees and charge profit rather to neighboring countries Wanda and Uganda where the mineral are transiting this money will be accommodated in a special account hosted by the World Bank to avert a humanitarian crisis that has reverted the DRC and found development project in this country the fifth solution treatment and processing of oil on seed the complexity of the other particularity to take into account is the high concentration of minerals and their complex composition within the oil between 3 to 5 percent of metal while in other countries this level is only about 0.8 percent of metal and the same mineral find themselves into a complex mixture of composite containing several type of minerals the Democratic Republic of Congo is became a far west the mining sector is under control of dangerous negotiators without any technical skills and financial capabilities who came from everywhere and served with the complicity of local authorities it's a must today to act not only to stop the massacre in Congo but also because those mineral deposits that are considered a loss for whole humanity they are not renewable the industry album in the world needs them as well as they are a guarantee for the reconstruction and their sustainable development for Congo like UNESCO a UN agency protects all concerning the population culture throughout the world it will be very helpful and secure for everyone to put Congo is huge natural wealth under control of an international mineral and mining industry agencies such organization will work and use the expertise of Congo is diaspora to set up a new management given all this it's clear today that the Democratic Republic of Congo needs a new leadership with a new vision for sustainable development in this country for this I think that Congo is diaspora in the United States should be involved working with American government and justice and other private organization thank you thank you very much Dr. Lula please okay I have a challenge because I have to present a kind of business plan for 40 billion state bond in 10 minutes and just before to go to my presentation I'm really glad of everything that I hear from my colleague engineer, mama and yes I'm really proud that we duplicate each other at such level so she say the country is we have full of natural resource we have also identified that we have 23 trillion of gold reserve known but unexploded in the Congo the other point is that we speaking about the minerals in Kivu today 2009 around the world you have 4.5 billion cell phone around the world if you can imagine only one cent one dollar per phone coming back to the Congo since we cannot raise taxes it will be very interesting to launch such idea and work on it the plan that we trying to present is a four year plan to rebuild the Congo it's based on the Marshall plan that the US took action to fight or to prevent the communism to expand in the western Europe but today the threat is on another side the terrorism threat around the world and Congo is the country where the nuclear resource material is and need to be secure for the stability of all the world Congo is a market of 17 million people we have 11 provinces we hem to go to 26 province I will Mama and I just spoke about the resource that we have but the ERC is a very strategic partner for the rest of the developed world why why we need the recovery plan we need to stop the genocide that is ongoing in the Congo this is for our humanity concerns 6 million people die 2 million people internally displaced we have a broken state that means the security of the world is in stake because of the terrorism as I just say and the world financial stability is also in stake with 23 trillion gold reserve we can't shake any marketplace in the world those are the leaders who lead this country through its story we will skip this very quick just to get some points what we do with what Dr. I just say we lost 10 million people and many survive with and severe next so as I say we have a global impact on the technology progress the defense jewelry automotive industry and the global economy stability through the gold I put this picture the Hiroshima bombing from the material coming from the Congo so there is a book that I wrote out there they know the economic genocide that can explain more this is not the issue here and I will go very quickly to show the human disaster in the Congo I draw the line between the Jewish woman and the Congolese woman situation very quick showing the children Jewish and Congolese children housing has been destroyed people thrown on the streets same picture for the Jewish in 1945 next slide again this is just to show the disaster where this recovery program is very important to put in place so the mining sector that Mamania just said the artisanal way of doing we can try to find a way to move from artisanal to industrial mining process so the aim here is how we can stop the international community willingness and stability management because the Congo is going toward every 10 years but this is controlled by outside forces so we need to solve the conflict of interest by going through a state-born on 140 billion guarantee by the United States as the main partner this will bring Congo to the free market world and play its place as a world raw material supplier most of the investment or this is the outstanding debt of the Congo are from bilateral cooperation no private debt is outstanding for the Congo so we tried here to in this slide to show that Congo is a natural resource supplier to the international market with those rebellion we cannot play our role for this market we need to establish a direct link between the Congo and our customer I put in this slide the process from the research and development you go to the natural resource area and all the distribution supply chain that we're talking about here so we need just to bring Congo to put those plants to refine the product so we will add more value and take the world market the world market is running today at 20% of its full capacity because out of 6.7 billion population in the world only 1.5 have access to modern world so any kind of business is working at 20% of its capacity so we can move this is the structure of the bond the bond who can purchase the bond we put some numbers US 50% UK and China the same level Germany, Japan Belgium 5 billion for each so everybody has a partnership with the Congo to invest in different sector that will be shown in the next slide so we Uganda or Congo 10 billion to repair the war in Kisangani 2000 Rwanda has not been tried yet but we can use the 10 million due to the Congo to set up to put the setting in place to respond to education the skill that we need as my previous colleague just presented so it will be the benefit for the investor as I say US by taking putting the Marshall Plan in place they have a strong ally with Europe European country they have job creation the industry in the US progress a lot they benefit from the Marshall Plan that they launch to rebuild European economy the year in the case of Congo we will have a direct supply chain from the Congolese and the international market will be played in the standard developed by the OECD organization and most of all it will stop the rape and mass killing and population displacement and insecurity this is just to show you where the cell phone the industry the most of them are used in the world China with more than 600 million cell phone so think about it one cent per cell phone per month if they cannot give us per month they can give us once a year that's 400 million just to build the school the industry that we need to transform our product so this money will be used to invest in the defense, justice security, infrastructure building, healthcare, education transportation system state recreation large and diverse production industry so bear with me just put some number but according to by taking the example of the US budget or UK or France or the country of the same size we can have how we can use this money here in this picture I'm just showing that for the defense of the Congo to secure the country we will put 33 billion dollars out of this money to secure the country so we know who is flying who is getting inside the country buying US equipment to secure the country that is really needed for the Congo the industry are a French structure my miners just spoke about it we need to invest on building our equipment building our facility to produce and to diversify the industry the only industry is not only the mining industry we need to think about all different industry that need to be developed in the Congo so how do we go from here and to implement this very important thing the first step is the security we need to bring peace in the Congo justice then we can move starting on developing infrastructure to develop our agriculture bring food back to the Congolese people develop the food distribution network we need to have the senses that just Dr. Kiteng say to know where we need to invest for the education we need the Congo plan to move from 11 provinces to 26 provinces so we need those numbers to know where the money will be going by the number of the population we need to develop the public administration and the health care system come here with this number according to what Dr. Miatujila just showed by putting 8 billion on the health care system to build all those health system area next next so as I say this is just a repetition of where the money will be going we need to create the transportation company building having our home airline company having car maker building car, bus, truck inside the country we put this part of the progress around 15 billion just to put all those highly needed industry in the country so we as I say also the refinery to refining or to smelt our product we have the very huge energy capability to provide the energy all around the African continent we need to develop the telecommunication industry the cabling Congo has the copper and everything to provide cabling to all African country and also around the world we need to develop the railway system so we can connect our country from north to south to west as I can next slide Congo is in the African continent that means the African continent being in the middle of the world we think that it's time to connect both ocean, Indian ocean to Atlantic ocean through the DRC so we develop what we call the David Star Transportation Network David Star is the shape of the Israeli flag with two triangles Kinshasa, Kinshasa Mbandaka Bukavu, Congo in Bandundu and Mbandaka again with the advantage that you can connect Angola to Egypt now through this transportation network and also South Africa to Nigeria and western side of the African continent that show exactly that developing the Congo will take the development of the African continent through such a very huge transportation network so what will be the return on such kind of investment you have a fixed return because of the state bond 3-5% it's a warranted return but also the other sector that the investor being state or private sector will be benefiting I put here in this slide just to show you the country that have been dealing with the U.S. after the Marshall Plan or during that time U.S. allies most of them has a gross domestic production around 35,000 that means each individual has $35,000 more than what we have actually if we compare with the Congo at 300 and the Congo Braza are 4100 next so to conclude I would say that a strong and stable DRC is for the best interest of all stakeholders so using this plan we can provide for our population made in food, education mental development, infrastructure development of an economic structure consistent with growth of diversity and cost advantage benefiting of our population and also the international market the great region peace and development will come along with such kind of program the African continent will benefit of it and the Congo state will be reinstated and we will have a very peaceful and prosperous Congo for the 21st century I brought here a presentation that can move us from despair to hope, hope is very important I hope that going this way we have a win-win agreement between the DRC and all stakeholders in the Congo and all those who come before me said it I really think about to bring a new leadership in the Congo and I thank you so much for your attention Thank you very much to all the panelists for what I think have been very thoughtful and well researched presentations I could tell that the panelists are not just speaking from their wealth of experience but also from the heart because issues relating to Congo's and Congo's future are very very central to all of them and all of us now is the time to discuss we have about an hour to share share our opinions and to share thoughts and comments and maybe to push the panelists a bit more on some of the recommendations that they have made or some of the conclusions they have reached what we would do is take questions in groups of three or four and then pose them to the panelists and have them respond but first of all I'd like to take questions from our online participants they have asked about three or four questions and had asked the panelists to be as brief as they could be in responding to these and then after this particular set of questions we would then open it for your questions. The first question from somebody participating online is if you could tell us for each of your sectors specifically how could people in the diaspora make contributions to improve health education mining and the economy what specifically would you suggest that they could do the second question I think it would probably be to you Mrs. Lolletta it's about the international thin research industry initiative the Congo that is looking at ways to clean up the supply chain and to make buyers of mineral oils from the Tinos from the Congo more responsible and accountable and do you think this international initiative has any chance to A. succeed and B. benefit the people in the mining sector and the third is a general question and it probably is more suitable for the afternoon's panel but I'll pose it here as well it is do you think that Africa the US Africa command that its presence in the DRC would help the DRC economically not politically or security wise economically that's the question and we know that Africa presence at the moment is training it has a training contingent out in the DRC do you think that Africa would be beneficial economically so I'll start from the doctor on the right and if maybe you could just tell us specifically if you have a message for the diaspora how could diaspora people who have both the experience and the training in the health sector how could they be useful people from the diaspora can contribute in three ways let me start with those who have a lot of financial resources they could emulate what Mutumbodi Kembe did maybe not build a very sophisticated hospital but a health center those who have expertise they can contribute by sharing their ideas with people who are in DRC maybe devoting some time teaching because we have some schools we have universities people are not well paid maybe these people could devote some of their time to go there and work pro bono the third way to contribute is to adopt a health facility or by providing let's say $20 a month to a health facility or by paying for the family members because access to health is also limited by an availability of funds some of our family members they are sick but they can go to they can't go to hospital because for instance a C-section or an appendectomy is very, very expensive in DRC it costs $150 come on I think we can contribute we can pay for the insurance of our family members $150 to save the life of somebody is not that expensive so there are three ways they can contribute thank you very much doctor in addition because he said there's three ways first is to invest if you are a person of means second is to teach to help build capacity and the third is to have regular contributions to adopt a facility in the health factor is there anything different and you might also want to comment on the AFRICOM question for me I'm going to respond in terms of what can be done for education education yes I think some of the things that doctor said also apply to education I just thought about teach Congo could be one thing that can be done go back and teach I've been trying to do that for some time now for some reason it's just impossible to get the bureaucracy there work but again go back and teach for free there are so many schools and universities in the country which could benefit from the return of those of us who can do that so you can teach Congo is one thing the idea of renovating hospitals or dispense health clinics also applies to schools you know when we were here in March we saw the disparity between what schools were as the World Bank is working there and what they are now in terms of what's being done we can identify a village and say why can't we target this one particular village a school there and do what we can to help that school be brought up the part with modernity and I think the third thing that would be again I'm not sure what the mechanism could be in terms of adopting a child or two in a village and pay for school fees as I said before one of the reasons why access to education is difficult is the fact that there are school fees and families which cannot afford to pay them basically have their kids staying at home so if we can adopt children just for the purpose of funding their education that's one way to also help thank you and you wanted for us to address the Africa no just for you to say it no view economically would it be a plus or a minus we know that Africa is training a very small contingent of the Congolese army the one economic benefit albeit small that I could foresee through this is the employing of some Congolese as part of the base there are jobs created that way and that's part at least of the local economy in the area in which this training is taking place thank you I need a translator madam letter needs a translator could someone with good French because the question was there's an international initiative to help clean up the supply chain in the tenant industry and probably broaden it to other commodities as well do you think international initiatives are helpful in the DRC I I think it's very important I think it's very important to implicate the international community officially to involve the international community officially to be able to negotiate with the Congolese experts saying that they accept to negotiate with Congolese experts who are independent who have nothing to do with the government those who are independent who are not employed directly with the government who are capable of the experts in the area of expertise why I am saying that we all know that what is going on there in Congo we all know that what is going on there in Congo we all know the the Uganda but it is not they we are saying that the people of the country are not there In the eastern of Congo, all of those people were the cultivator, the former. Kivu used to be called the Switzerland of Congo. I was the next hour from a day to the next one, they get weapons, guns. Where those weapons come from? Who provide them? That's the question. We all know that those are multinational companies behind them. To put everything on the table and discuss what they are looking for and what we are also aiming to have in this negotiation. Thank you very much. I hope my translation was good. That's right. I would say that to respond to this question is very easy for the diaspora. Each individual in the Congolese diaspora has contributed economically to sustain our country. Without the diaspora contribution, this country was dead and disappeared. So the response on that area is very straight and easy to give. On the other side, if we go to the expertise, how we can translate our expertise to the people in the Congo. Most of us, we have some experience giving advice to the people who just go back and just forget what you just discussed together. They have to learn how to use the advice that we are giving them as an expert. Don't look at me only as George. Maybe you can look at me with my expertise and say you can use it. A physician like Dr. Miatudilla is not only a Congolese, he is a physician.  And I would take the Afrikom question. The Afrikom is at its first step of trying to rebuild the far DC. This is our op. I always speak about the Afrikom seeing the U.S. military base in Europe after the World War II. U.S. military bases are in Germany, Japan, Korea, France, Belgium. What does it bring economically to those countries? Stability. One of the slides that I have shown here, you see all those countries are $35,000 or $32,000 per capita per year. That's the business. Once the stability, because people are afraid of Congo because there is war on the region. We cannot invest there. We have seen that also there is no private investment in the Congo. But bringing the Afrikom will stabilize the country and bring peace in the region. Okay, I'm sure we will have a lot of varying views on that comment. It's now open for your questions and please introduce yourself and then make your questions as short as possible. We'll start with the lady right in front. Yes. I can try. I believe that last time we came here I asked that question to Dr. Julpa.  The Congo is in the war. What are your suggestions for the Congo to bring the peace before starting with the project? You said that you will respond to that but you didn't respond. Okay, the Congo is not only the minerals. We are rich in flora and forests. Our forests are completely destroyed. Our forests are completely destroyed. Nobody speaks about it. By the same international. We don't talk about it. How are we going to talk about it? On the education system? The Congo used to be the cradle. As you said. In the last meeting the representative of the health and human resources. Said. The Congolese are the best doctors in Africa. That's what Dr. Mientoudi said. Thanks to the expertise of Congolese doctors. If you followed this, the HIV has been continued. We always need Congolese doctors to ensure that health is the best in South Africa. Okay. By the expertise of the Congolese physicians, we have been able, the fever of Ebola, HIV has been controlled due to the expertise provided by Congolese physicians. Now when they ask us what the diaspora can do. The diaspora as always did its part. We are the ones who are helping the country, keeping the country alive. Everything that Dr. Mientoudi said about paying insurance to take care of the family back home, we're doing that every day. The diaspora is the one who is just managing the Congo economy. What are you suggesting to us because we have, I'm sorry. Okay. You can help us by bringing peace and ending all those wars. Can you hear me? Yes. The past two days we were in a conference with conflict minerals. And the whole industry was not well highlighted in terms of its responsibilities in the way things are going up in the Congo. Can the Institute of Peace bring this item to its agenda? Because the root cause of the poverty in Congo, as Dr. Mientoudi pointed out, is red rubber. And today is red coltan. During the Mobutu regime it was copper and all these things that were also controlled by the Belgians. Can you bring this issue as a peace institute so we can help the whole industry address the problem and stop Rwanda, Uganda and bringing conflict in the Congo? Because so far no one is addressing that issue seriously in regard to what is going on in the Congo. So, to my Congolese fellow, Dr. Mientoudi, can you organize Congolese medical doctors like Metser San Frontier, who are in the diaspora to go and do something in the Congo and get the tax exemption that they can get from whatever country where they are working? For my friend Kitengi, there is an effort in regard to education. We can formalize it by putting money into a bank that will lend the parent in Congo money on the nine months period so they can repay the tuition for their children. We are working on that with a bank in Kinshasa. In regard to the issue of land, Congo used to have the Bakajikalo. This is a problem I would like Congolese to think about. And since the FDL and the new constitution came, Bakajikalo was completely removed. And I think it's one of the problems we're having today. All our lands are just given away. What is going to happen is that in Zimbambwe, it is the same problem. Land. The Bakajikalo gives the state ownership of the land. It was the first constitution that recognized that and the state was the owner of the land. So it's one of the things that Mobutu held dearly and that's why you couldn't have land concession of more than 100 hectares for instance for agriculture unless you have a special decree given to you to do that. Maybe that's why we don't have industrial agriculture developed in the Congo but it can be worked out. The key here is that in the mining section today people are displaced from their villages. They cannot even access water where the mining company are doing that. So it's a major problem. It's not just looking at the conflict minerals in the east, it's not just seeing the exploitation, it's looking at also is the law. It's the constitution that was done by outsiders helping Congo move forward. All of this is a problem of leadership that is in the Congo. Do we have the right leadership to serve and help Congo move where we want it to move? That's my question. Okay, I'm going to ask, I see three hands up, any more hands up this. Okay, we'll take about four or five and then we'll come back to the panel. But I'm going to ask you to make your interventions very, very, very brief. All right, we'll start with the gentleman in the back whose hand was up first. If you could introduce yourself. Thanks. I'm Benjamin Tamboy with Tamboy Engineering. I came from California where I'm based and I was invited to the conflict mineral conference today here.  I knew her when my first year at the university and she came for the journée scientifique. The country did not at the time, did not have a thousand engineers yet. I never forget her intervention. So it's really, really upsetting to see what's going on with the constitution. With regard to mining at today date, just as Mamania has described it in Katanga province. All the area of the province is already sold. It's not something you can negotiate. The caromini has been sold completely. And not to responsible people or to responsible organizations or to responsible governments, to just advantage private people from Europe and from the government themselves. So that's why, apparently, they removed the Bacatecal law from the constitution. And of coming back to the main issue about organization. I don't know why we're talking peace in the Congo. And we don't have the courage to address the main issue, the main cause of the lack of peace in the Congo. The lack of peace in the Congo, it's not a Congolese issue. It's a foreign issue. I don't know why in this country people don't try to address that issue as it is. Could I say something about that very quickly? Two quick things. One, we'll be discussing that a lot more this afternoon. And secondly, our lunchtime speaker is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who has responsibility for the region. So I think that would be a question that would be most appropriate for her. She would be here over lunch. So if you could just ask your question very briefly so others would have an opportunity to speak. We'll get back to delving more deeply into the regional dimensions of the conflicts this afternoon. Okay. Yeah. Then maybe just a suggestion for the Congolese diaspora to get more organized and have a better connection. I do understand that we come from a long history of division regarding politics and philosophy. But at some point we need to stand up and say, hey, what do we have in common? Thank you. Thank you. The gentleman right in front was the second person, second handout. Thank you. My name is Bernard Landoni. I'm with George Mason University in the master's program in conflict analysis and resolution. My question, first of all, I just wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful presentation. But what I understand with all you have said there, my worry now is to see how we could implement, you know, from health to economy and the mining sector. I have one concern with government. If you look at most countries in Africa, we don't have at this point the capacity to allow the private sector to take control. But most countries and people have their eyes turned toward the government. And in the case of the DRC, I don't know if you will agree with me. Before we can have all these projects or programs we are presenting here, it will take the participation of the government to allow at least these things to happen. And so if we don't have a responsible government which will allow these things to happen, then everything we will be talking here will be just something that we will have in paper, but in practical it will not happen. So I would rather prefer to talk about how we could also help the DRC to move from a chaotic situation that we are in today to develop a very vibrant society by looking at developing especially the leadership you were all talking about. That would be the key. If we don't have the leadership capable of allowing things to happen, then whatever programs or projects we might have in our hands will not succeed. And so I would think we could also focus on that rather than just coming with this brilliant ideas and then which in the end will be thrown in the sea. Thank you. The lady in the pink at the back. Thank you. My name is Adlina Maizo. Good morning everybody. My question was, I'll be short, trying to make it short, is joining a little bit the gentleman back there, the young gentleman here and also here. My question is that maybe I missed it, there was answer in the morning. Is that something you can call a diaspora institute? Whatever name you want to give it, give it. And then the key is to organize. Now everybody here is talented and right. Everyone thinks to happen. So everybody could be able. I think you said win-win situation. Nobody wants to lose. Now there are many interests out there at stake in the U.S. or in Africa and particularly in Congo. But you want things to work for everybody. So I'm saying is that Congo is diaspora, I'm sure. Or friends of Congo also joining the Congo diaspora to make things happen in many fields. Economic, health, anything. You mentioned it. On the paper here it says discussion to, what did I say here, workshop aims to discuss Congolese perspectives and recommendations. Okay, we all know the problems. Now we want the recommendations. So I'm saying can we get organized? Is it possible? Congolese, non-congolese?  Can we get organized? Is that possible? Then I think once we get organized, put aside your own interest. But we need to get a situation where it's a win-win situation. If you want to put the blanket on your side, that's fine. But don't forget somebody else also wants the same blanket. So the only thing I'm saying is we all have good ideas, I'm sure here, and we can all get together to do something. The politicians, it's not easy to lead a country. Anybody wants to be, it's not easy. But what I'm saying is is it possible for diaspora to get organized so to have an impact on the local and national government back in Congo? Which will also deal with leadership here in the U.S. because the peace institute here is just giving us a venue to get together and to work out things. And also they can help us, help ourselves back there. But if you send a question, how can the peace institute help us? I'm not sure what's their goal here to help us. Yeah, maybe in some different ways, but American money works for American interest. So get organized and let's try to get a win-win situation for the Congolese and also for any friends of the Congo, that's all I have to say. Thank you. We'll have just three more, three more brief, and you had promised me it's going to be very brief. The gentleman in the back. Thank you so much. My name is George Polo. Briefly, the first question is so anybody can answer. We had Cassavo leadership, Mobutu leadership, Laurent Deserard leadership, and now Joseph Kabila leadership. Which one is less accountable? Remember the topic is responsive and accountable leadership. Tell us which one is less accountable. The second question, the second one, let me explain in French. I want to see everybody to understand and we can translate.  The first one, we have two, I'm sorry, we have two realities. We have to face two situations, two realities, two facts. The multinational, they want to take our natural resources by force, by any means. At all prices, at all means. We have two choices. They bring us the war or by signing unfair contracts with the government. The second fact is I recall when Laurent Deserard Kabila came in power. We have seen the director of our internal revenue services and the control institution also. They have a fear of a new leadership because they were very strong on state money stealing. My question is this. During the first quarter, they just observed if the new leader knows what's going on. They were on the ground and if they would detect how to prevent any fraud. They found out that those new coming didn't know how it was working and they steal more. I ask this question to Dr. Aloula. You explained a good plan here. How would you make it effective by taking into account those two realities? I think we almost have time. I have a last question from Emira. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Emira Woods with the Institute for Policy Studies. I want to first begin by thanking USIP for convening this session and the panelists because it really was fascinating hearing your presentations. Thank you all. We are here 50 years after the independence officially of Congo. I think it goes back to this question. It keeps coming up of leadership. Overall, I fear that many of your presentations didn't go at the core, which is really the need for Congo to assert its own sovereignty from the neighbors, from the multinationals, from the international institutions. Overall, I'm wanting to hear a bit more your commentary on this question of sovereignty and rights of Congo. I think it comes in two contexts. First, on the economic side. On the economic side, the World Bank in particular has played such a pivotal role in taking away its sovereignty. For example, the discussion of user fees in the healthcare system that was really a condition placed by the World Bank and IMF, not only in the Congo, but in many other countries. And yet the solution in the discussion on health was to set up a World Bank program. I didn't understand that, really, because it does seem to take away, again, this notion of Congo needing to assert its own sovereignty. On the question of AFRICOM, I feel like that's the most blatant in terms of taking away sovereignty rights. AFRICOM was described as doing training. That sounds nice, but in reality we know it's not just training, it's also equipping, giving guns and weapons. It's one battalion that the U.S. is doing, training and arming. We also understand that China is training and arming another battalion, that the European Union is training and arming another battalion, and in the end it will be the Congolese people who pay the highest price. So this discussion was meant to talk about leadership. I think it goes to the core of what's needed in the Congo, and it keeps coming up time and time again. But on these issues of both economic rights and rights over control of one's military, rights to choose freely the leadership of the Congo and then to hold those leaders accountable. I feel like those questions have not been addressed as fully as they need to be in the presentation so far. So I really think we need a full session on AFRICOM because I think there could be a debate that goes quite steadily to the heart of these questions. But in the interest of time maybe we'll just leave it to ask you in terms of this question of sovereignty if you can expand a bit more on your comments at this point. Thank you so much for all of your questions. I have a couple of questions from online participants which sort of reinforce what Amira just said. And there's a couple from the Congolese American Council for Peace and Development, and one of the points they made was taking you to task Mrs. Lotheta. And the question was, rather than putting Congolese minerals under international control, why not make sure that the laws and the policies within the Congo are working well for the people of the Congo? Would that not be a better approach to make sure that the laws of the land regarding the mining sector are working to reinforce human development? A question I think this is for you, Professor Kitenga, was about the education sector, and they wanted to know whether a moratorium on fees would be a good way to encourage boosting up enrolment. And the question seems to suggest that this would be an incentive to stop young men from joining militias and being parts of rape gangs. There's also been a lot of interest in your martial plan, Dr. Alula, but the one question is how would you measure the effectiveness of such a plan? It seems pretty broad and in some sense is a little un-wielding, but how would you make sure that this is something that could deliver not just for the investors in the bonds, but for the Congolese people? And also have you talked to people, the potential funders you mentioned already, and what sort of response are you getting? I think that drawing us back to the issue of responsive and accountable leadership is important. Because at the end of the day, what I think we're all pulling for is a Congo that has a leadership that is responsive, not just to the needs of state building, but the needs of the people. And accountable for actions. And in your concluding comments, and we'll start with you first this time and work our way down, could you take three to four minutes just saying specifically how your ideas would help butters responsive and accountable leadership that's sustainable within the Congo context, in the economy, in the mining sector, in education and in health. Starting with you. Okay, thank you. Excuse me, motion. Sorry? Motion. Okay, you're asking a question. More positive for you. Apparently, people are not satisfied because none of them just want the pressure exactly on them. No, they're going to ask. Well, and this motion is taking another two minutes. The problem is we had questions that went on for too long and not giving them time to respond. So in their responses, they're going to try to address as many as possible. So if we'll give the panelists the benefit of the doubt that they would do justice, we can't judge that they haven't responded before they have spoken. So let's give them an opportunity to speak first and then after we'll say they haven't responded. They've all been listening. I have respect for Kasavubu, Mobutu for the first part of his power. Laurent is there, Kabila came with some idea. He didn't have time to complete it. Second question is how do we can take care of the effectiveness of knowing what is going on the ground? If you go there and try to implement to work with the same system, you will fail. But when you come out knowing how it works outside, that means your expertise. You can go and say, okay, I put this audit here and know how the information system is working. I will catch them very quickly. So I will use my expertise to solve this problem that Laurent and Kabila have, knowing how to manage the financial system of the government. I hope I answered your question. But if you need more, we will talk about it. The Marshall plan that I say, to present a business plan, it takes an hour. I have to take it to make it in 10 minutes. There is a different topic on the business plan that I could not go through in 10 minutes. But I spoke with some people who are, if I keep on talking about it because some very decision-makers are interested to know this kind of plan. They say, this is what we wanted to hear from the Congolese, because Congo is the size of Western Europe. Bear in mind, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, some part of England. That's Congo. If you give us $18 million, what can we do with that? If you give us $1 billion, what can we do with that? To take into account the fact that Chinese came with $7 billion and asking for $19.90 billion out of that. That's why we say, no, everybody will put the piece on the table. Everybody come and it costs $140 billion to rebuild this country. And so when European, American, and so have to travel in Congo, they don't have to take vaccination or try to locate where they will be living. Because we build the country on the modern standard way. I'm done with that. If I skip one question, just remind me. Yes, the military. No, sovereignty. The sovereignty here, we understand, Amy, but to respond to this question, I just came from the region where my family has been killed. I have experienced this. So when I see the experience of U.S. military base in Europe, Africa is not just saying that they really build a military base in the Congo. But if you have a vision, you can see that we will go to this point, is to secure the country. So once we have a new leadership, a new government to establish a true agreement of defense as Mobutu used to have, we will defend our country to so run down and look down. We will go play around in other places, not in the Congo. I believe in the African project and we can work on why some people may not agree for that. As you say, we can take a day, but I will finally convince you that Africa is really needed. Thank you. Ma'am. Okay. My young brother, not my son. It's my son. Raise a point. Raise two important points. The multinational involvement and Western countries. Because of this richness and other natural resources, Congo will never be in peace. You spoke about the red rubber culture. For this version of side of the Congolese. It's an American leadership, one of the Americans who traveled in this country and found it and stand up to fight it. That's the way everything will stop with the American leadership. Today we are in the same point. The Congo is not free, it's taken in all stages. Everything that is about the Congo is done outside the country. The Constitution was written in Europe. Mining code written in Europe. The European countries and especially Belgium decide who they will put to lead in this country. That's the big problem with Congo today. Sometimes I come with some solution very extreme. Saying actually in Congo, we don't need political leader. Because they are easily influenceable. Why don't we put a committee of experts to lead the country? In the first step, to put back all the management infrastructure that no longer exist. Today we can put some very wise or smart guy to lead this country. But with all the means of corruption and everything on the ground, it will never be successful. And the state budget rely on 80% of the revenue from Gekamin. And the Gekamin from its product and services around was really helping so many small business all around the country. They decided to break the Gekamin. It broke down the Congo economy. Life of many family has been broken. By taking those kind of decision, who are those Congolese expert who have been involved in such kind of decision? We are in a point where the Congolese cannot really succeed by themselves. We have to go to those people who are responsible of this situation and negotiate with them. That's the only solution in which I believe. Thank you very much. You had a couple of questions and then your views on the sovereignty issue. Let me take my questions related to education first. I think that instead of just a moratorium, the school fees should be completely abolished, at least for K through 12. And here's why. If the government can pay what is called non-in-franchise bourse to college students, then there is a way. First of all, that's a very elitist system. You make kids from K to 12 to pay to go to school. And only families that can afford to send kids to school, then once their children get into colleges, the government pays them to go to school. That's silly. Why don't you abolish school fees for K through 12? By the money the government is using now to pay students who go to college and just do it. No longer why. The British schools? It's being reinstated. So if we can do away with that, that's one thing. The other thing is the country is being helped to negotiate its foreign debt. The money that's going to be forgiven is right. The government should use that money to help kids not pay school fees at all. So a moratorium for me is just a way of it. So I think that's the only question I think I had for education. And then in terms of the other questions, when we talked about leadership, we forgot Lumumba. In my judgment, Lumumba I think was perhaps one of the strongest leaders the country has had. Sure, because I was president, but Lumumba played a significant role in helping the country be moved forward. Although in a very short time. Mobutu started well. I'm not sure his intentions were good, but he started well and then we know what happened. Kabila the father is or was in large measures responsible for much of the trouble we're having today. Because of his thirst for power, he brought in people who should have come to the country in the first place. And now we're having problems getting rid of them. And the other Kabila, no comment. So that's as far as leadership is concerned. The issue of sovereignty is a very important issue as far as the country. And I have to say that when we basically give up the right to run our own country, I am uncomfortable with the idea of saying that we as people cannot do anything to change what's going on in the country. Sure, we have all we have the things we have, but we are not the only country in the world which possesses all the minerals and wealth. Angola is running its own country. Angola has its own leaders. Why are Angolans defending the sovereignty of their own country with all the diamonds and all they have? You may cringe at my example of Zimbabwe. I'm not using Zimbabwe because the country is being run well. I'm using Zimbabwe simply in terms of the issue of sovereignty. Zimbabwe has diamonds, but Zimbabwe is running its own country, albeit in a terrible way. So we can't absolve ourselves from the responsibility about the fact that the country is what it is. We have to take ownership of some of the problems in the country. We as Angolans do bear responsibility in terms of what's going on. Now, how do we arrive at a situation where we create responsive and accountable leadership? As an educator, I think that one of the problems is that political literacy in the country is nil. People don't vote because they understand the issues because they believe in the ideas that are being presented to them. People vote based on ethnic politics, so long as we are not helping the polity of the Congo to begin to engage in political activity based on ideas and not ethnic politics, then the problems won't go away. So as an educator, I believe in the need for more civic organizing, I believe in the need for more political education so that people understand I'm voting for this person not because he or she is from my province, but because I believe in the ideas he or she has and those ideas are in sync with my own values. And I think until we get to that point, it's going to be difficult to come up with a government that is accountable and responsive. And in terms of organizing the diaspora, I think that this idea came up in October. It came up again in March, and I couldn't agree with you more. We do need to do that. Yes, and I was talking about that a little while ago. We have to find a way to make that become something that is a reality. And there are a lot of formalities, leadership both from the region and from other parts of the country and outside of the country. We can find a way to come together as a people and organize that way. Thank you. Health sector? The health sector, I'm going to respond to the question by Juliber, Médecins Sans Frontières. I'm going to surprise you. We don't need more doctors in Congo. Actually, we have a surplus of doctors. Now, you have to understand what I'm saying by that. With 0.4 doctors per 10,000, what do you mean by that? Actually, we don't have enough means to use the physicians that we have. So we started exporting our physicians to neighboring countries. So by bringing more doctors in Congo, more Congolese doctors, we are not solving the problems. The first thing we have to do is to use those who are there. I have a cousin now who is a summer. An employee. An employee. And he graduated. He graduated. He's a doctor. Many doctors. He's trying to ask me, can you help me find a job? He has been unemployed for three years. I'm going to help him. So it's not by bringing more doctors back, using those who are there. So we have to devise ways to make sure that those who are there can be really used. Now, regarding to the responsible government, I think one of my thoughts is a thing about the essential triad. What we, our success stories in the past were possible because we have advocates, champions, leaders, good leaders. They were not always Congolese. Some of them were Belgians. For instance, King Albert was there. He did a lot. He's done a lot for Congo than the Congolese. He's the one who created for me, for me like all those things. And resources. We need those three. Now, how can we get the financial resources? I think this is what George was trying to propose. How can we get good champions? Oh, this is where maybe the diaspora can play a role. People who are dedicated, who can go beyond the duty. This is what is missing now in Congo. Champions. When King Albert started working for Congo, we had champion and doctor truly. Now leaders. Again, I'm going to surprise you. Unfortunately, I agree. I totally agree with what my sister said. We do not have the capacity to select our leaders. We don't have. Because of this tribal allegiance. Not only tribal, but people vote because you give me a T-shirt. A dollar. People are so poor that really the capacity to even finish. True. Beyond a week is limited. You give me a T-shirt. I'm going to vote for you. And in that situation, really, those multinationals, those external power, they have all the means to impose, to select. And this is what writing in my emails that even next year, if we have elections, these elections are going to be free, fair and transparent. But Congolese are going to select the leaders who have been selected by external power. There is no way you can go around that. It will take some time when you train our young people to become good voters. Now, meanwhile, what can we achieve? We are really coming here to ask you, USA, what can you do to make these multinationals, these external powers, understand that a prosperous Congo is in their interest. So this is why I showed you that King Leopold was a parasite. So he was there to eat Congo, get anything he can in very short time. Albert and Leopold Mater and Baudouin, they changed. They said, oh, Belgium can benefit from a prosperous Congo. So this is the message we should translate to these multinational powers. They can benefit more from a prosperous Congo. But unfortunately, we Congolese, we don't have now the means to select the leaders, the leaders that really can help us. So we are going to get the leaders that you people are going to impose on us. Please select good leaders. Let's think now, let's move into the win-win. Okay. Thank you very much for your comments. And I think we are going to return to issues surrounding both the political and democratic processes this afternoon. Because I believe that we need to think through a lot more dispassionately and a lot more creatively about how the democratic process unfolds currently and how it should unfold. That would ensure that a lot of what we are talking about, the responsive and accountable leadership does come into being. A number of people have either asked directly or alluded to the question about what could the U.S. Institute of Peace do to support these processes. And I think that one of the things that we do best is A, create a forum and B, provide opportunities for you and your voices to help influence policy, not just here, but also outside the United States. And one example of that is that we have as our launch time speaker the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who has responsibility for the DRC. She's going to be here, she's going to listen to your questions, and she's going to respond to your questions to provide you with a better idea about where U.S. policy is going vis-a-vis the DRC and how your excellent ideas could be integrated into strategies for lasting and effective change in your country. And so for me that's one of the primary things we could do. We provide a big tent, we make the connections, and we help you think through smart solutions. So here's what I'm going to propose. We have a light lunch prepared. I would ask that you go outside, get something to eat, something to drink. We come back in here and at 12.30 we're going to start the launch time speaker session and Miss Page would make a brief presentation and then engage you for an hour and then at 1.30 we would have a second panel that would focus on political and security issues. And so before we close, join me once again in thanking our excellent panel. And also thanking our live webcast viewers who've been sending very, very, very, very good questions. I hope that you found your questions answered and that you join us for the lunchtime discussion. Unfortunately we can't send you guys lunch, but you'll join us for the lunchtime session and also for the afternoon panel. Thank you very much. We'll reconvene at 12.30. Thank you.


So here we have a model of the Curiosity rover which NASA sent to Mars in 2011. It arrived at the surface in Gale Crater and has been analysing the rock star. Now this here, this is ChemCAM instrument which is giving me my data that I'm using for my PhD research. My research is about looking at rocks on Mars. Specifically those that have been deposited in ancient river lake and windblown environments. So these rocks are mostly sand, they're mostly mudstone and what I'm doing in terms of looking at them is trying to understand what the ancient environment was at Mars at this time, the time they were deposited. And also what happened to them afterwards if they were altered in any way after they were deposited that could indicate that there was groundwater still existing there. And these things are really important to know in terms of ancient Mars because if there were river lake environments, if there was groundwater existing for a long time then that is promising in terms of the search for life on another planet. I just love the idea of being an explorer and going out and discovering new things setting foot on a place that humanity's never gone before and that's the epitome of space science and Martian exploration. When you get that eureka moment there is no feeling like it when you're like, ah this is how this works. And so to go through my PhD with these series of questions and be able to answer them one by one while at the same time working as part of this large mission which is a collaboration between scientists around the world. It's been an amazing opportunity. There's a lot of skills that you do have to learn and develop. I'd never done computer modelling before. I came here and then that kind of formed the bulk of my PhD but you learn, you push through and you teach yourself all these things that you need and you have a lot of support. Now that I've got the PhD, I've been fortunate that I've managed to get a job which will be, so I'll be moving to Houston to work at the Johnson Space Centre of NASA and there I'll be trialling instrumentation to go on future Mars missions and also continue contributing to the Curiosity rover mission.