Yesterday, I participated in my last Board of Directors meeting as Chief Executive Officer of MCC. The MCC Board, comprised of both government officials and private sector members, reached important decisions that are core to MCC’s model and mission to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth.

I invite you to read about the countries the Board selected as now eligible to apply for an MCC compact (Colombia, Indonesia, and Zambia) or threshold program (Liberia). True to MCC’s innovative approach to development assistance, it is now up to these newly-selected countries to consult with their citizens, prioritize their development goals, and work toward developing their compact or threshold proposal to generate the opportunity and growth essential for reducing poverty. The Board also made an important decision regarding our partnership with Nicaragua. These types of decisions are ones that MCC’s Board takes very seriously and only after close consultation and intense deliberation. You can read more about the Board’s decision regarding future collaboration with Nicaragua, and other concerns voiced during yesterday’s meeting, on our website, www.mcc.gov.

It has been an enormous privilege to work with such an outstanding Board of Directors, whose sage advice and reasoned decisions have served MCC extraordinarily well in realizing our impressive $6.7 billion portfolio of compacts in 18 countries and threshold programs in 19 countries. These grants are training farmers, registering property rights, building roads, educating and immunizing children, and supporting business development. The transition to the next administration means that a new slate of public servants will replace Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab, and USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore. The new appointees will join the four private sector members who will continue serving on the Board—Lorne Craner, Bill Frist, Ken Hackett, and Alan Patricof. The ongoing leadership of these private sector Board members ensures continuity and provides valuable institutional memory that will be of tremendous benefit to MCC moving forward. The participation of these private sector Board members is one of the most unique elements of MCC’s management, reaffirming that the fight against poverty involves not just the resources of government but also the ingenuity and innovation of civil society and private enterprise.

Year’s end is always a time of reflection, a time to ponder the milestones achieved and the goals still ahead. While we have made measurable strides in reducing poverty through MCC’s partnerships, there is still more to do. The year ahead marks an exciting new chapter in MCC’s history. Our partnerships and programs will continue. Implementation progress will continue to multiply as more projects come to fruition. Our way of awarding development assistance will continue to draw interest and attention as discussions intensify about the future architecture of foreign aid. Poll results released yesterday through the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network confirm that 70 percent of engaged opinion elites favor “reforms to improve the effectiveness of foreign aid by shifting aid dollars from less effective programs to programs that help hungry and poor people in developing countries provide for their families.” More than eight in ten “favor cutting federal programs that don’t work and making those that do more efficient.” They make the case for modernizing foreign assistance by stressing strategy, efficiency, and accountability. These are the principles we stand by here at MCC.

With change upon us, the permanence of MCC’s principles equip us well to make further progress in the fight against global poverty in 2009 and beyond. My hope for you and yours this holiday season is the same one I have for those benefitting from MCC programs in partners countries worldwide: peace, health, prosperity. Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

It was a thrill for me personally, and a great honor to the MCC, to see more than 400 people pack the prestigious Russell Senate Caucus Room of the U.S. Congress today to celebrate MCC’s fourth anniversary. The standing-room-only event among MCC friends on Capitol Hill – where MCC was brought into existence through an act of Congress in 2004 – was tangible evidence of the strong bipartisan support that our work enjoys.

It was particularly important that some of MCC’s friends from the Congress, including Chairwoman Nita Lowey, Congressman Jim Knollenberg, and Senator Norm Coleman, made time to attend the event, as well as MCC Board members Ken Hackett, Henrietta Fore, and Alan Patricof.

MCC’s main message for today was that in four short years we have accomplished an astonishing amount. I am proud to tell people that what started as a great concept has become, in the span of four short years, a great reality. What was once a group of eight people in borrowed offices is now a first-rate organization with a robust portfolio of work. We are not only one of the newest, but with fewer than 300 staff, we are definitely one of the smallest U.S. government agencies. And yet, with $5.5 billion committed in 16 compacts worldwide, we are moving ahead at great speed with much more on the way.

Events like this one today are not only a chance for us to show our progress, they are also an opportunity for us to listen to our colleagues. We want to know about their experiences, challenges, and successes in the countries where we are presently working or might work in the next few years. It is an opportunity to listen to how our programs might benefit from the insight of other groups or how together we can leverage private sector resources to build another kilometer of road, provide additional infrastructure, or strengthen community services for the poor of our partner countries. I took part in some of these conversations today and observed scores more of them taking place. People who follow MCC are, for the most part, not shy about sharing their ideas. These are often constructive inputs – which we welcome – and many times they are stories of success that we are achieving together.

Africa in particular has been an important theme this week. The Africa Society hosted its Andrew Young Lecture Series on Tuesday, where I was pleased to deliver the keynote address. Other presenters spoke at length about how more than half of MCC’s compacts and resources are dedicated to Africa. This should come as no surprise given the amount of need on the continent and the range of partners who are willing to enact policy reforms in order to secure MCC funding. I answered some tough but thoughtful questions during the event. They gave me reason to reflect on how the organization, moving from a focus on compact development to compact implementation, has a responsibility to help African countries build capacity to complete the complex task of putting MCC resources to work.

On Monday night I was also on Capitol Hill – this time as a guest of the First Lady during the President’s State of the Union Address. I was happy to hear the prominent mention of the MCC in the President’s speech and, like many of you, noted his call for full funding of the MCC program. The applause came from both sides of the aisle for good reasons. There has been a great deal of comment on the MCC and its work since this remark and I welcome the chance to talk about our programs to those who may not have been aware of MCC before the speech. On a night when all parts of our government come together united in purpose, the State of the Union underlined what I have known since joining MCC: this work matters to America. It matters to our partners. It matters to the taxpayer, and MCC will help shape the future of our country’s credibility and legacy overseas. Even though many of the people who watched the State of the Union will never visit our compact countries, the work of poverty reduction is relevant to each of them. Poverty anywhere threatens security and prosperity everywhere. This is why MCC matters and why I am proud to be a part of these short four remarkable years