Subject: meeting with Burundi VP [NOTES]
From: Amitabh Desai <[email-masked]>
To: Bruce Lindsey <[email-masked]>, Laura Graham <[email-masked]>, Doug Band - PC <[email-masked]>, Justin Cooper - PC <[email-masked]>
Cc: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Bari Lurie contact <[email-masked]>, Gregory Milne <[email-masked]>, Dennis Cheng <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:57:38 -0400

At his request I met today with Gervais Rufyikiri, VP of Burundi. He asked if WJC and CF could be more involved in Burundi. We specifically discussed CGI, health, agriculture, and energy:

-          CGI. I pitched CGI as best place for Burundi President to come and meet a broad range of potential partners. They're going to try.

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-          CHAI. Burundi currently has access to CHAI pricing agreements but CHAI has no staff in Burundi. We discussed connecting CHAI folks with Burundi health minister/team.

-          Agriculture. Burundi imports food and faces rising food prices (similar to what we see in Rwanda and Malawi) - we discussed CDI; I explained we require donor funding in order to launch any new programs; they said they understand. Next step is to connect CDI folks with Burundi agriculture minister. Perhaps this could be next CDI country - if of interest for WJC, of interest for a donor, etc.

-          Energy. Burundi is facing enormous fuel price issues and shortages (reflecting broader regional challenges) and we discussed WJC's work on climate and whether anything could be done to assist Burundi in this regard. Coincidentally we met a donor recently *(Yossie Hollander) who is interested in this specific issue in Africa so perhaps we can connect him with Burundi folks and/or if WJC wants we could explore a programmatic role for CF. Easier lift would be to connect the donor with Burundi folks directly.

Unless you have concerns, I'll go ahead and connect CHAI and CDI folks with Burundi folks for follow-up discussions - making clear we should not commit to anything without first identifying funding. And I'd welcome your guidance on the energy idea and whether we should consider a program or just connect the donor with Burundi.

Thanks,
Ami