Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog

A long, hard-fought battle by the House International Relations Committee to pass a compromise bill to reauthorize the Millennium Challenge Account came to an abrupt halt on Friday when it could not garner the required support of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A mixed message on why, but here's some of the buzz I heard:

On November 9, the MCC Board added 3 new countries -- Jordan, Ukraine and Moldova -- to the existing group of 22 countries eligible to apply for funding in FY2007. Our predictions weren't too far off and, where our predictions did not come true (like Indonesia ), we were pleased.

Freedom House says MCA funding should not go to countries which fail to meet reasonable standards of political rights and civil liberties. To make this happen, they propose introducing a second hard hurdle into the current MCA eligibility indicators test -- to disqualify any country that falls below the equivalent of a 4 (out of a worst possible 7) on the civil liberties and political rights measure.

Last Friday, the MCC Board approved a $461 million compact to Mali, half of which funds an irrigation project in the Alatona region. The remaining funds go toward rehabilitating the aiport, with an asociated industrial park.
With the approval of Mali, the Board has now approved ten compacts totaling over $2.5 billion. El Salvador's estimatd $460 million compact is expected to be approved at the November 8th Board meeting.