More Countries in Line for U.S. Millennium Challenge Account Aid
USINFO.State.gov
20 May 2005
Secretary Rice names Nicaragua, Cape Verde, Georgia for U.S. funding
Nicaragua, Cape Verde and Georgia are next in line to receive U.S. foreign
aid under a poverty-alleviation program called the Millennium Challenge
Account (MCA), says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Speaking May 20 at a board meeting of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC), Rice said the United States is “moving quickly” to extend the program
into those countries. The MCC is a U.S. government corporation that works
with some of the world’s poorest countries to promote economic growth and
the elimination of extreme poverty; it is responsible for administering the
MCA program.
The MCC later that day approved a five-year, $215 million funding agreement
with the government of Honduras. The compact is designed to reduce poverty
in the Central American nation. (See related article.)
Rice said President Bush’s vision for the MCA program is that U.S. foreign
aid will be provided to those countries that “rule justly, invest in their
own people and encourage economic freedoms” because “global development
should link greater contributions from developed nations to greater
responsibility from developing nations.”
Rice recalled that the MCC in March approved a compact with Madagascar for a
four-year, nearly $110 million program that addresses what she said were two
root causes of poverty in the African country: “a poorly functioning
financial system and a weak land-titling system.”
Rice spoke at the board meeting along with Paul Applegarth, the MCC’s chief
executive officer.
For additional information, see “Millennium Challenge Account.”
Following is a transcript of their remarks:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
FOR IMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2005
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Board Meeting of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
May 20, 2005
Washington, D.C.
(10:30 a.m. EDT)
SECRETARY RICE: Good morning. Please be seated. Thank you. I’d like to
welcome everyone to this meeting of the Board of Directors of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation. We’ll get all of our fellow Board members in. And I
think I can now state that we have a quorum and this meeting is therefore
called to order.
On behalf of my colleagues on the Board, I would like to start by welcoming
our newest member, Rob Portman. As you know, Ambassador Portman was
recently confirmed by the Senate as the President’s new U.S. Trade
Representative. In addition to becoming a member of the President’s
cabinet, that also makes Rob a member of the MCC Board of Directors. We
look forward to working with you, Rob, and welcome aboard.
AMBASSADOR PORTMAN: Thank you very much, Madame Secretary.
SECRETARY RICE: As many of you are aware, the Board unanimously approved an
MCA compact with the Republic of Madagascar at our meeting on March 14th.
The compact was officially signed on April 18th at a ceremony here at the
State Department, which was attended by a Malagasy delegation led by
President Ravalomanana. The Madagascar compact is a four-year, nearly $110
million program that addresses two root causes of poverty in Madagascar: a
poorly functioning financial system and a weak land-titling system.
President Bush’s vision for the MCC is that development assistance be
provided to those countries that rule justly, invest in their own people and
encourage economic freedoms, and global development should link greater
contributions from developed nations to greater responsibility from
developing nations.
We believe that Madagascar will be helped by this program to carry out that
vision and we congratulate their government and the people of Madagascar for
being the first to reach this important milestone of the signing of a
compact with the MCC.
I’d like to thank the MCC staff for their hard work. I know they are
working long hours and going to great lengths to get these things done and
to get them done fast, and I appreciate their efforts.
I am also pleased to note that the MCC staff are in the later stages of
compact negotiations with a number of other MCA countries. Later this
morning, in fact, we will consider a compact with the Republic of Honduras.
In addition to Honduras, we are moving quickly ahead with several other
countries, including Nicaragua, Cape Verde and Georgia, and we are hopeful
that we will have one or more of these compacts ready for Board
consideration at our June meeting.
We have a lot of work to do so, with that, I’m going to turn this over now
to the MCC’s CEO, Paul Applegarth, to provide a brief update regarding other
activities. Thank you, Paul.
MR. APPLEGARTH: Thank you, Madame Secretary. Good morning, and thank you
all for attending the public session of MCC’s Board meeting today. I am
sure you are eager to learn the outcome of the Board vote on the proposed
MCA compact with the Republic of Honduras and we’ll make that announcement
shortly after the conclusion of today’s meeting.
Because the public portion of our meeting today is so short, we are
following our usual practice of having a longer public meeting after the
Board meeting. I would like to invite you therefore to a public outreach
meeting next Thursday at CSIS where we’ll give you further updates on MCC
activities and discuss the Honduras compact in further detail.
In addition, during that public outreach meeting we will be doing something
a little different by holding a panel discussion on lessons learned so far
from the MCC consultative process. Panelists will include our counterparts
from Honduras and experts from the World Bank, Catholic Relief Services and
CSIS.
I also want to discuss the outlook for future compacts. The hard work of
our partner countries and MCC staff is now coming to fruition. As the
Secretary mentioned, MCC signed a compact with Madagascar last month and we
are looking forward, subject to Board approval, to potentially three more
compacts in the next couple of months.
A number of our threshold partners are also making significant progress and
we hope to approve some of their proposed threshold programs soon.
We are also making steady progress in the allocation and disbursement of
what is called 609(g) funding to several countries. 609(g) funds facilitate
the development and implementation of a proposed compact before it is
signed. In Georgia, we are funding up to $4.155 million for a detailed
engineering, design and environmental study for the proposed
Samtskhe-Javakheti Road.
We have also agreed to allocate 609(g) funds to Nicaragua. This proposal
calls for investing up to 250,000 to expand a major ongoing survey for
baseline data, which is being conducted by the Nicaraguan National Institute
of Statistics and Census, and we’ve added questions relating specifically to
land titling and access to finance.
We’ve also approved 609(g) funding for Ghana and Lesotho.
While any estimate for the balance of the year is necessarily speculative,
it looks as though we will currently exhaust our currently appropriated
funds early in the new year. For those of you who followed my congressional
testimony, proposals from eligible countries are expected to exceed
resources currently available by a billion dollars. This $1 billion
shortfall, combined with the need to fund new lower-income FY 2006 eligible
countries that will be selected in November, plus new threshold program
countries, plus compact amendments, and for the first time lower middle
income countries, shows how important it is that the full — that we are
appropriated the full $3 billion that President Bush has requested for FY
2006.
Remember, these are not just numbers. This is an opportunity to improve the
lives of many poor people in our partner countries and they depend on it.
On another front, the search for an indicator that measures governments’
management of natural resources is also steadily advancing. MCC staff has
been actively working with experts from key institutions and MCC Board
member Christine Todd-Whitman is, as you know, leading this effort. The
Brookings Institution is hosting a conference for us on June 24th, drawing
experts from around the country and the developing world to contribute to
our thinking on an indicator.
Also, our draft environmental guidelines for programs are posted on our
website for public comment until the end of the month. You can find them at
in the guidance section of our website.
Our next Board meeting has not been scheduled yet but we expect to have
another two compacts shortly and much other business to cover.
Thank you for joining us today and I hope to see you next week at the public
outreach meeting.
SECRETARY RICE: Thanks very much, Paul. And I will ask other members of
the Board — I think there is no further business before the Board for this
session so I recommend that we adjourn this opening session of the Board
meeting. May I have a motion?
BOARD MEMBER: So moved.
SECRETARY RICE: Second?
BOARD MEMBER: Second.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Anyone opposed?
(No response.)
SECRETARY RICE: All right. Being no objections noted, this ends this
section of the meeting. Thank you very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: )
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress