On June 28, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health held a hearing on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Africa. Established in 2004, the MCC awards development grants based on criteria, such as sound policy performance, education spending, and civil liberties.
Chair Donald Payne (D-NJ) stated that, of the forty countries eligible for assistance worldwide, nineteen are in Africa. He added, “The compacts African countries have signed are worth over $2 billion more than sixty percent of the $3 billion allocated towards compacts worldwide.” He voiced concern, however, about the slow pace of the agreement process and said that “signing an agreement does not result in the immediate payout of funds…only 23 percent of the disbursements the MCC planned to make in Africa by now have actually been made.”
Applauding the MCC program as “an incredible new approach to U.S. foreign assistance,” Ranking Member Chris Smith (R-NJ) said, “It is based on the principle that assistance is most effective when it promotes good governance, investments in people, and economic freedom. Its goal is to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth.” Rep. Smith acknowledged the challenge of “providing disbursements in a timely manner while ensuring accountability and sustainability,” but stressed the need to search for solutions rather than reduce MCC programming.
Millennium Challenge Corporation Deputy Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bent outlined current and future MCC initiatives in Africa, including programs to assist women and girls. Describing a $12.9 million MCC threshold program in Burkina Faso to improve girls’ rates of primary school completion, he said, “Specific interventions include: the construction of ‘girl-friendly’ schools, teacher training, providing take-home dry rations to girls who maintain a 90 percent school attendance rate, and providing literacy training for mothers. The importance of girls’ education should not be underestimated. In Africa, fewer than 60 percent of girls complete primary school. In most other regions of the world Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, etc. between 90 percent and 95 percent of girls complete primary school. Research shows that investments in female education yield extremely high returns. Even one extra year of girls’ education can increase wages by as much as 20 percent, reduce infant mortality by as much as 10 percent, reduce fertility by as much as 10 percent, and increase the likelihood that one’s children will attend school by as much as 6 percent. And we’re seeing good results so far, with girls’ enrollment in MCC-funded schools during year two of the program at nearly double the program’s projection.” Another success story is in Madagascar, he said, where an MCC program is assisting rural subsistence farmers to secure property rights. “Land titles are being awarded, particularly to women,” he said.
Mr. Bent detailed future MCC compacts that will have a direct impact on women and girls: “The compact with Lesotho includes a major investment in that country’s health care sector. Such an investment will extend productive life-years and mitigate the negative economic impacts of HIV/AIDS, poor maternal health, tuberculosis, and other diseases by rehabilitating health centers and antiretroviral therapy clinics, constructing a central laboratory and blood transfusion center, and expanding health training and medical waste management. MCC’s coordination with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Lesotho will amplify the impact of anticipated health interventions. The Mozambique compact focuses on water and sanitation. Without this critical infrastructure, Mozambique suffers from one of the world’s lowest levels of per capita water consumption. Mozambican girls and women spend the bulk of their days fetching available water, rather than attending school or engaging in income-generating activities. This program will increase water supply and sanitation services, which will expand productivity and reduce water-borne diseases that are a leading cause of death in children under the age of five.” He added that the Morocco compact “will improve artisan production through increased skills training, technical assistance, continuing education, and apprenticeship programs, particularly for girls and undereducated youth. Another component funds a series of pilot programs to support revenue generation programs for small-scale-fishing dependent women.”
MCC investments encourage reform even before funds are distributed, Mr. Bent said. He cited several examples, including a law enacted by the parliament of Lesotho “to confer equal legal status on married women so as to engage them fully in the economic life of the country. In keeping with our gender policy, MCC welcomes this groundbreaking policy reform as critical to the success of Lesotho’s compact. A bipartisan resolution in the U.S. Senate recognized this tremendous achievement, applauding Lesotho as well as MCC’s role in leveraging policy change for women’s equality.”
Also testifying were U.S. Government Accountability Office International Affairs and Trade Director David Gootnick, Center for Global Development Senior Fellow Steven Radelet, and Manchester Trade Ltd. Vice President Anthony Carroll.
