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15 February 2006
Millennium Challenge Corporation To Step Up Review of Recipients
New chief says his group will be "more assertive" with countries applying for aid
Washington – President Bush's Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) foreign aid program will deal more assertively with potential developing-country recipients, according to the head of the program.
In a February 14 speech to the Society for International Development in Washington, John Danilovich, chair of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which administers the program, said he is committed to providing clear guidance about its standards “immediately” to countries it selects as eligible.
Applicant countries, for example, will be expected to consult local, private companies and nongovernmental organizations about plans for economic development before submitting them, according to the MCC.
To date, the MCA has committed more than $1.5 billion toward aiding economic development in poor countries, according to Danilovich. The MCA targets aid to poor countries that can show results from ruling justly, investing in people and promoting economic freedom.
The application process for aid has evolved in the past few years, and Danilovich indicated that there would be greater scrutiny ahead.
The MCC’s board has approved eight “compacts” for MCA grants -- with Madagascar, Honduras, Cape Verde, Nicaragua, Georgia, Vanuatu, Armenia and Benin.
Danilovich, who has served in his post three months, already has gained a reputation for taking tough stances in holding MCC partners to standards. Within weeks of taking the helm, he suspended Yemen from the MCC’s “threshold” program.
The threshold program provides smaller grants to countries to help them promote the economic and political reforms necessary to qualify for the bigger compact grants. Five threshold agreements have been approved, but not all have been signed.
In another example of maintaining standards, Danilovich and the MCC board delayed approval of a compact with Armenia due to irregularities in the November 27, 2005, constitutional referendum in that country.
In a December 16, 2005, letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Danilovich outlined concerns about the referendum, including allegations of “fraud, electoral mismanagement, mistreatment of individuals from opposition political parties and uneven access to the media.”
Similarly, Benin’s compact agreement is contingent on a successful election in that country. The MCC said Benin’s participation requires “that a successful election be held on the agreed date and according to terms of Benin’s constitution.”
Danilovich said he hopes to increase the MCC’s staff from 180 to 300 by the end of 2006 and to add several more countries to its list of compact and threshold partners.
President Bush’s budget proposal asks Congress for an increase of $1.2 billion in funding for the MCC to $3 billion in fiscal year 2007, or 71 percent above the level for fiscal year 2006. Congress has approved less than the president's request for MCA every year since the program was established.
A transcript of Danilovich’s speech is available on the MCC Web site. For additional information about the program, see Millennium Challenge Account.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
