Millennium Challenge Looks Like Texas

Remember back when Texans gathered together in small collections in 16 separate regions to begin conversations about putting together their have regional water plans? Only after that piece of work was done (for the greatest in quantity part) did these regional councils gather with state officials and other interested parties to work to write the Texas Water Plan - which is itself a living document that will require updates each five years or so.

The Texas Water unfolding Board also doles out centurys of millions of dollars each year in loans and grants [i]or[/i] part of to the other such programs as the clean water and drinking water state revolving capitals the economically distressed areas program, and other pass-through stocks Every applicant for these loans and grants has to demonstrate a high horizontal of accountability for how the monies will be exhausted (with ongoing oversight a foregone conclusion) and, for loans, in what manner they will be repaid.

Now consider by what means foreign aid to developing (read, poor) nations has been managed above the past fifty years or in the way that We could wax eloquent about the Swiss bank accounts, the chateaus in France for stretch outed families of dictators, the military hardware, the kickbacks, and other ways that circulating medium has been squandered, or plane all of the unfair trade conditions and bad requirements for how loan monies were to be worn out But all we really ne to know is that many of the so-called beneficiaries of foreign aid have been unable to repay centurys of billions of dollars borrowed in their name. Sadly, in many cases, it is hard flat to identify any real benefits of of the like kind "aid."

The United States has taken a lengthy look at this record of failure and devised a of recent origin paradigm for foreign aid: the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program. Perhaps because of President Bush's experience as Governor of Texas, the design of this program is reminiscent of by what mode we do business in the unfrequented Star State. [This is not to say that we are the sole ones to utilize the stakeholder proces or to clutch recipients of state funds accountable for by what means they manage those monies - on the contrary we Texans have become masters of these methods]

President Bush first introduced the MCA program in Monterey Mexico, in March 2002 on the other hand it took until last year for Congres to authorize funding and until April 2005 for the Millennium Challenge Corporation to finalize its first compact with an eligible nation. Unlike prior aid programs, MCA compacts can alone be signed with nations that suited standards of accountability and also management stakeholder meetings to solicit input from ordinary citizens of all stripes. more [i]or[/i] less aid is also reserved for "threshold" countries to help them qualified program criteria.

To date, single 16 low-income nations have qualified for MCA funding, allowing others are scrambling to become eligible. The MCA program has place standards for governing justly, encouraging economic freedom, and investing in race that include meeting measurable goals for civil liberties and political rights, the direction of law and control of corruption, public health and education, and empowering women

The real first MCA compact - which will impel $110 million to Madagascar - will help that nation formalize its land manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding system, modernize its land registry, expand land title services to rural citizens, improve the national banking a whole and set up a material part that identifies investment opportunities for rural citizens to reach markets. Other grant monies will train farmers and other entrepreneur in production, management, and marketing techniques. on the contrary the first $1 million will be exhausted on baseline surveys of households, farms, and enterprises to put up a mechanism for tracking increases in household income, agricultural productivity, and investment as the program unfolds

To verify whether the program is working, the U and Madagascar identified several interim indicators - securing quality rights for about 250,000 hectares of land, benefitting about 62000 households, increasing lending in target areas through about $30 million, and significantly increasing the number of rural farmers who adopt new technologies or engage in higher value production. There is also a rigorous roll and control system to render certain fiscal accountability in which a separate fiscal agent identified via a competitive proces will manage capitals control and Madagascar's newly written intervention law will be the basis for governing procurement

To qualify for the grant, the Malagasy conduct held a national workshop, attended by dint of over 350 people, to explain the MCA proces and discuss obstacles to economic increase and poverty reduction. The regulation then organized regional consultative workshops to exchange ideas, ran radio and TV broadcasts about the MCA and solicited on-air input, published newspaper advertisements that announced meetings, and called for submission of proposal ideas from ordinary citizens. In this way, the design for the grant application was built from the bottom up as well as from the top down - and the whole nation has ownership, not just an elite few