Curt Tarnoff
Specialist in Foreign Affairs
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) provides economic assistance through a competitive selection process to developing nations that demonstrate positive performance in three areas: ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering economic freedom.
Established in 2004, the MCC differs in several respects from past and current U.S. aid practices:
•
• the competitive process that rewards countries for past actions measured by objective performance indicators;
• the competitive process that rewards countries for past actions measured by objective performance indicators;
•
the pledge
to segregate the funds from U.S. strategic foreign policy objectives that often
strongly influence where U.S. aid is spent;
•
its mandate
to seek poverty reduction through economic growth, not encumbered with
multiple sector objectives;
•
the
requirement to solicit program proposals developed solely by qualifying countries
with broad-based civil society involvement;
•
the responsibility
of recipient countries to implement their own MCC-funded programs, known
as compacts;
•
a compact
duration limited to five years, with funding committed up front;
•
the
expectation that compact projects will have measurable impact; and
•
an emphasis
on public transparency in every aspect of agency operations.
On February 13, 2012, the Administration issued its FY2013 State, Foreign Operations budget, requesting $898.2 million for the MCC, the same amount it received in FY2012 and FY2011. On December 23, 2011, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 112-74, H.R. 2055) was signed into law, providing $898.2 million for the MCC in FY2012.
Congress authorized the MCC in P.L. 108-199 (January 23, 2004). Since that time, the MCC’s Board of Directors has approved 26 grant agreements, known as compacts: with Madagascar (calendar year 2005), Honduras (2005), Cape Verde (2005), Nicaragua (2005), Georgia (2005), Benin (2006), Vanuatu (2006), Armenia (2006), Ghana (2006), Mali (2006), El Salvador (2006), Mozambique (2007), Lesotho (2007), Morocco (2007), Mongolia (2007), Tanzania (2007), Burkina Faso (2008), Namibia (2008), Senegal (2009), Moldova (2009), Philippines (2010), Jordan (2010), Malawi (2011), Indonesia (2011), Cape Verde II (2011), and Zambia (2012).
MCC issues include the level of funding to support MCC programs, the impact of budget reductions on MCC programs, the rate of program implementation, the results of MCC compacts, and procurement and corruption concerns.
Date of Report: April 12, 2012
Number of Pages: 47
Order Number: RL32427
Price: $29.95
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