Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Foreign aid with accountability
Luanne Traud
Recent columns
- Keep your butts to yourself
- Expect the best at WBHS
- Lessons from the home front
- From imperialism to a nation of law
From the RoundTable blog
The United States will spend $25 billion this year on foreign aid. Americans think of their tax dollars as helping refugees in Darfur, funding AIDS and malaria programs or even building schools in Afghanistan and training troops in Iraq.
What they are unlikely to think about -- or even know of for that matter -- is the work funded through the Millennium Challenge Account. This program isn't about keeping people alive for a day, a month or a year. It's about rewarding poor countries that do right by their people with aid that will make both their nation and their people healthier and wealthier.
It's foreign aid with accountability, explained John Danilovich, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corp. to members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers gathered last week in Washington, D.C., during the group's annual State Department briefings.
I've been fortunate to have attended these briefings for several years, as the secretary of state and her top deputies brief the nation's editorial writers on diplomatic efforts. The background is helpful in understanding where the administration stands and believes it is headed. Naturally, Iraq, Iran and North Korea consume much of the agenda.
In 2004, we were first briefed about the goals of President Bush's newly formed Millennium Challenge Account. The Millennium Challenge Corp., which oversees the account, ranks the world's poorest countries according to their progress in running transparent governments, educating their people and treating them justly. It then encourages the more enlightened countries to develop proposals that, with U.S. aid, would help strengthen their governments and economies.
It is democracy building using the carrot approach and recognizes that good governments come from people and not from bombs and force. It understands that the U.S. can't give a country democracy, but it can reward good government and nudge others toward that goal.
I thought then, and still do, that had Bush allowed the principles of the Millennium Challenge Account to guide his foreign affairs, history would one day recognize him as perceptive and brilliant. This is the one piece of diplomacy that he got right, although it remains obscured by all his colossal blunders. Still, Americans ought to know more about what they are doing right.
The Millennium Challenge measures poor countries against their peers and ranks them according to compliance with indicators that measure economic freedom, investment in people and transparency in government. (Two more regarding the environment will be added.)
Countries that exceed half the goals can develop proposals, and if accepted, enter into compacts. The Millennium Challenge Corp. remains vigilant for backsliding and for adherence to the compact's terms, releasing funds in quarterly or monthly installments to ensure compliance.
Each compact is for five years. Two things are expected to occur. First, the practice of good government becomes a habit. Second, as the country achieves its objectives, private enterprise will take over, lessening the dependence on U.S. aid.
So far, it appears to be working.
"We want to see tangible results of our money," Danilovich said, noting that "we haven't yet encountered malfeasance or corruption."
Yes, but what of so-called democratic countries known for corrupt ways? They don't qualify. If they are serious about doing away with corruption, they can -- as Uganda and Kenya have -- become threshold countries and sign pacts to combat corruption. The same goes for countries that treat their citizens poorly or their women as chattel. Those issues must be addressed before gaining compact-eligible status.
To date, the U.S. has entered into compacts worth $3 billion with 11 countries, and has committed $300 million to 13 threshold programs. The program has become so successful, he said, that there is increasing competition among countries to become millennium challenge countries whether or not there is U.S. money to fund their compacts.
"It's being looked on almost as a bond rating," he said. "There is huge competition to become eligible and get in the front of the line." The seal certifies that a government is stable and just, making it attractive to foreign investors.
To learn more, visit www.mcc.gov. Read about what countries are doing, especially those that are for the first time granting land to people.
"We're handing out land titles with GPS diagrams," Danilovich said. "People are not wearing shoes, but they have a satellite image of their land." Their land, their stake in investing in their country.
Traud is a member of The Roanoke Times editorial board.
