Gender Policy
MCC recognizes that gender inequality can be a significant constraint to economic growth and poverty reduction. MCC's new gender policy is grounded in MCC's mission to reduce poverty through economic growth and, one of its core principles, country ownership. This policy is the result of an organization-wide effort informed by current thinking in the field and by on-going dialogue with the development community. The policy provides guidance to our country partners on how to integrate gender throughout Compact development and implementation and describes the roles and responsibilities of both the country and MCC in implementing the policy.
Look for the policy to be available on MCC’s public web site in December 2006 and watch your email inbox for an invitation to an outreach event that will further explain MCC’s gender policy .
Term of the Month:
Strategic Objective Grant Agreement
Strategic Objective Grant Agreement: This is the formal agreement, commonly called a SOAG (SOW-ag), that USAID uses when it administers and manages a Threshold country's program on MCC's behalf. The agreement binds the Threshold country to achieve specific objectives within a certain time frame (usually about two years) to improve its rankings on one or more of MCC's 16 eligibility indicators. The SOAG states the amount of MCC Threshold Program assistance, the specific indicators that will be addressed, the activities that will be undertaken, the expected results and the legal requirements that apply to the assistance.
Read the Agreements for each Threshold country by visiting the Countries page.
Ask the Expert: Vince Ruddy
Ask Vince Ruddy, Resident Country Director for El Salvador, a question about the newly signed El Salvador compact. Should your question be chosen, it will appear with an answer in next month’s Millennium Challenge Monthly. Ask Vince a question.
Vince Ruddy
Resident Country Director, El Salvador
Vincent Ruddy joined the Millennium Challenge Corporation in March 2006 as the Country Director for Latin America. In this role, he led the transaction team working with the Government of El Salvador, advancing its proposal for MCA funding and negotiating a five year, $461 million Compact. Mr. Ruddy assumed the position of Resident Country Director (RCD) for El Salvador in November 2006. The RCD is responsible for managing all MCC activity and relations in the assigned country and oversees all aspects of Compact implementation in country.
Prior to joining MCC, Mr. Ruddy served as Director/Chief of Party for 3 major development assistance initiatives, including highly successful projects in the Philippines, Jordan, and Colombia. As a consultant, he has worked in more than 25 countries on trade and investment promotion, policy reform, and private sector development, including recent experience with forestry and agro-forestry initiatives in Latin America. He has advised governments, private national and multinational companies, along with a variety of international development organizations, NGO’s, bi-lateral donors and multilateral development banks. Mr. Ruddy lived and worked for 4 years in Central America, serving private companies, public agencies, and academic institutions. His work included the management of marketing and sales for a regional leader in free zone/industrial park development, along with researching and co-authoring three case studies for a leading graduate school for business administration (INCAE).
Mr. Ruddy received a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is fluent in Spanish.
Notable Quotable
“…We've done a good job talking about democracy but we sure haven't done a comparable good job in promoting the long-term efforts that actually build institutions after the elections are over and the international monitors have gone home. We have to give citizens more tools and we should be talking more about the successes of this administration… the relief efforts after the tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan, the global AIDS program, the Millennium Challenge grants.”
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks to a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York
October 31, 2006
|
The Newsletter of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
