The New York Times quotes CGD Senior Policy Analyst, Sheila Herrling, on the four-year-old Millennium Challenge Corporation.
From the article:
"Sheila Herrling, who follows the agency at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research group in Washington, says there are understandable reasons projects take time and suggests that the agency's current five-year timeline for each one may be too short. Poor countries, even relatively well-run ones, are not used to planning such complex developments and have needed more time than expected to get them off the ground, she said.
Also, the infrastructure projects poor countries need are prone to corruption, and putting stringent accountability systems in place has consumed more time than expected.
Development analysts have praised the agency for giving poor countries an incentive to make significant reforms to qualify for its big contracts, including improving education for girls, making it easier for individuals to operate on-the-books businesses.
But the agency itself must also shoulder some of the blame for the slow progress, Ms. Herrling said. Its decision-making has been too focused on putting together the projects, rather than on carrying them out. 'It shouldn’t have taken so long,' she said. 'The agency needs to figure it out this year. They are part of the problem.'"