The Millennium Challenge
Corporation, MCC, is an independent agency of the US government that disburses
aid to developing countries. Maureen Harrington is the vice president of policy
and international relations for the MCC. She tells Voice of America English to
Africa Service reporter Joana Mantey in Accra, Ghana, that the role of the
agency can profit from other donor agencies' efforts, "Because we are new, we
have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other donors for the past
50 years."
The program
offers two levels of assistance. "Large compacts" disburse funding of up to 700
million dollars for poverty reduction. They go to countries that have reached a
high level of democratic development and have proven economic management
skills. Smaller grants make up what are called "threshold programs," which are
designed to help countries to qualify for the large compacts.
"The
program is global," she says," but a large majority of our assistance goes to
African countries." These include
Ghana, Tanzania, Cape Verde, Benin and Burkina Faso, Namibia, Lesotho,
Madagascar and Morocco.
The
MCC makes a five-year commitment. Funds are made available on a continuous
basis to ensure that ongoing projects are not interrupted. Beneficiary
countries are also given the freedom to create and manage projects funded by
the MCC.
"One of our core
principles is based on country ownership. So for the compact countries, not
only do they decide what the priorities of the compact are, they also design
the compact, implement and are held responsible for the result." Harrington
says.
Not
all projects are given support under the program. Harrington briefly describes the MCC goals in selecting countries:
"Countries
will have a broad consultation process by reaching out to civil society, the
private sector, parliament and government and [identify] the key constraints to
growth. The key criteria we use when we are deciding what program to finance
are the extent to which these programs are going to reduce poverty and offer
economic growth."
Harrington
said after four years of operation, the MCC, is bearing fruit:
"We are beginning to see some of the policies have a big impact," she explains. "For example, the number of days to start a business has lessened. Also some of the opportunities for corruption are being reduced through our programs."
