A Bush administration idea that doesn't seem to work

"U.S. Agency’s Slow Pace Endangers Foreign Aid"
by CELIA W. DUGGER, The New York Times, December 7, 2007.

"The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a federal agency set up almost four years ago to reinvent foreign aid, has taken far longer to help poor, well-governed countries than its supporters expected or its critics say is reasonable.

"The agency, a rare Bush administration proposal to be enacted with bipartisan support, has spent only $155 million of the $4.8 billion it has approved for ambitious projects in 15 countries in Africa, Central America and other regions.

"And the agency’s slow pace is making it politically vulnerable at budget crunch time. Both the House and the Senate have slashed the Bush administration’s 2008 budget request for the agency, but the Senate has gone a step further, pushing for a change that African leaders say threatens the essence of the agency’s novel approach.

"Eyeing the unspent billions, the Senate has proposed that Congress provide no more than half the money up front for future five-year projects, which typically come with a price tag of $250 million to $700 million. Such projects are now fully financed at the start to make sure countries have the wherewithal to finish what they start."

Comment: Apparently, donor assistance to Africa has gone down in per capita terms, even as most African governments have put in place reforms to improve development administration, and as many African nations have shown good economic growth for a decade. Yet the region is still the poorest in the world, with huge economic and social problems, many the legacy of centuries of exploitation by rich nations.

Those facts make it especially sad that the Millennium Challenge Corporation has been so slow in developing the assistance programs that the people and Congress of the United States have authorized. JAD