MCA Monitor Blog
January 01, 2008
International Housing Coalition Argues for New MCC ERR Analysis
Posted by Sheila Herrling at 03:48 PM
The International Housing Coalition published a new report that assesses how the Millennium Challenge Corporation uses rates of return analyses to assess project funding proposals from qualifying countries, evaluates the usefulness of this approach in estimating economic growth and poverty alleviation potential, and offers recommendations to improve the approach to better capture the returns from investments in urban infrastructure. It's an interesting piece and one which gets at the broader issue of whether the MCC's economic rate of return analysis captures well the distributional effects of growth and reminds me of issues others have raised regarding whether it allows for investments in social sector projects that can have longer term return horizons. While the paper makes a compelling link between investments in urban infrastructure and economic growth, I can't help but be reminded of how often sectoral interest groups push for changes in foreign aid to better accomodate their particular agenda. I wonder whether there is an unmet demand from the MCC compact countries themselves (since they drive the proposal process) that is in fact being rejected because it cannot meet the ERR requirements. Any thoughts?
May 21, 2007
No Easy Task: The MCC Tackles Corruption
Posted by Sarah Rose at 04:40 PM
On May 9, CSIS hosted a panel discussion to launch the Millennium Challenge Corporation's new paper on its role in the fight against corruption. CSIS President John Hamre gave a terrific introduction to the event reminding folks that there are measures other than getting the money out the door that are important for measuring the MCC's success--notably, the expectation of a sustained fight against corruption by MCA countries.
The panel discussion was supportive of the MCC's approach, if somewhat cautionary. Some highlights:
- Frank Vogl of Transparency International: The donor community knows very little about curbing corruption in a game where there are very entrenched interests and clever individuals who are adept at gaming the system. Announcements of anticorruption reforms--and even initial actions on proposed reforms--are often part of a cycle that continues with actual steps toward reform turning to mere rhetoric, which is followed by the eventual exposure of corruption. The cycle begins anew when these allegations trigger new calls for anticorruption reform.
- Calisto Madavo of Georgetown University: The MCC's innovation is to apply best practices in combating corruption. However, improved governance and anticorruption reform--while they can be aided by donor support--ultimately must be internally driven. (Vogl touched on this point as well saying that the common donor practice of dealing exclusively with leaders is insufficient for bolstering a sustainable fight against corruption.)
- Vogl also cautioned that results in anticorruption reform come very slowly and are very difficult to measure. Indicators provide only an approximate measure, and short term results may not always translate into lasting successes.
The discussion got me thinking about what this means for the MCC:
In terms of fostering an internal drive for reform, the MCC Effect component of the MCC's fight against corruption is about the incentives the MCC offers for an internal drive to improve--as measured by countries’ progress on the corruption indicator--with no (or minimal) input from the MCC. Threshold programs also try to tap into an internal drive against corruption by requiring countries to identify their main causes of corruption and design their program around this diagnostic. The MCC expects civil society engagement in the design process, and several of its Threshold programs include training in anticorruption monitoring for civil society organizations and journalists.
But how can MCC encourage the sustainability of the anticorruption reforms it encourages? Two years (the duration of Threshold programs--the programmatic approach to MCC’s fight against corruption) are unlikely to be sufficient to record a visible and lasting impact on corruption. Probably one of the best chances the MCC has to continue monitoring the longer term impact of Threshold programs’ anticorruption reforms (beyond just tracking corruption scores) comes in those Threshold countries that go on to sign compacts and have to work within the MCC’s stringent fiscal and procurement transparency requirements. We'll be looking at Tanzania--likely to be the first country with an anticorruption Threshold program that goes on to sign a compact--to see how this plays out.
January 16, 2007
MCC Bares Its Teeth On New Gender Policy; Can It Bite?
Posted by Sheila Herrling at 10:20 AM
On January 11, the Millennium Challenge Corporation announced the adoption of a gender policy to integrate into every aspect of MCC operations an analysis of the social roles and responsibilities assigned to women and men in any society and their ability to access and control resources. And it received high praise from Ritu Sharma Fox, President of Women's Edge Coalition, a leading women's rights NGO:
“The MCC has shown tremendous global leadership by incorporating gender analysis that starts with project conception, consultation and program design, and follows through to all the steps of implementation and evaluation. This is the most comprehensive and practical U.S. policy on gender that I have seen.”
Wow! That's high marks from someone who would know. I'm typically not one to get all excited about "cutting edge" policies because policies mean squat if they're not implemented; if they don't have teeth. The reason the MCC deserves praise in this case is because the good policy formalizes what has already been great practice within MCC operations.
Gender is already captured in the MCA country selection process through several indicators and is also a key component of many of its approved programs. But the most interesting testament to the seriousness with which the MCC is taking gender is the case of Lesotho where Parliament just enacted a law ending the minority status of married women, a condition set by the MCC to proceed with compact development. So, before even a dime of MCA funds are spent, major policy change has occurred.
The MCC should be congratulated on a good policy, with teeth, and the baring of these teeth to date. There will likely be challenges to the premium MCC places on upholding the policy in light of other priorities during compact implementation. The real test may be faced down the road -- if a country backtracks on its gender commitments, will the MCC bite and suspend or cut them off?