MCC Testifies before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa

Testimony

Read the testimony as submitted for the record.

Washington, DC—The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Deputy CEO, Rodney Bent, testified today before the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health and laid-out MCC’s strong commitment to transformative, sustainable development in Africa.

“Yesterday, MCC announced two new aid agreements, one with Mozambique for $507 million and
another with Lesotho for $363 million. This means that about $2.4 billion of the total $3.9 billion that
MCC has approved for Compacts around the world support projects in Africa,” Mr. Bent said.

“We were established by Congress to be a different type of foreign aid agency,” Mr. Bent said today. “Experts are, and should be, judging MCC’s success on whether we are generating reforms in Africa and elsewhere. Is MCC creating the foundation for long-term economic growth in our eligible countries, and is the development we are offering transformative and sustainable? The answer to that, I believe unequivocally, is yes.”

“As policy reforms take root, as transparency increases, as the institutional and leadership capacity deepens among our African partner countries, we create the best environment for sustainable development,” according to Mr. Bent.

“Are countries consulting with their citizens and presenting well-designed programs that will transform the lives of the poor? We partner with our African countries and ask them to do a great deal of the work for their own development in order to ensure the sustainability of outcomes well beyond our period of investment.”

“Furthermore, we feel success should be measured according to whether project implementation is being done in an effective and transparent way, and, most importantly perhaps, when completed, did the projects deliver the desired results?”

Mr. Bent also discussed MCC’s unique and highly praised model of pairing foreign aid with
accountability and requiring good governance, while at the same time developing partner countries’
governance capacity by insisting on their ownership of the grant development process.

Mr. Bent’s full statement as submitted to the record is attached.

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Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States government corporation designed to work
with some of the poorest countries in the world, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and elimination of extreme poverty.