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First U.S. Millennium Challenge Account Funds To Support Madagascar's Rural Growth and Ecosystem Preservation
(Washington DC, March 17, 2005) The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) first agreement to provide aid to a country in exchange for measurable results is aimed at stimulating agricultural productivity in Madagascar while protecting the country's unique ecosystem, said Paul Applegarth, MCC chief executive officer.
[The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a major new foreign aid initiative of the Bush administration, designed to support developing countries whose governments adopt positive economic policies, in the judgment of the U.S. government.]
Madagascar submitted its funding proposal to MCC in October 2004 and worked with the agency to refine the proposal and set measurable objectives, Applegarth said March 14 at a State Department press briefing. The proposal to improve the standard of living for Madagascar's rural poor and protect its ecosystem was prepared with full participation by the Malagasy people, Applegarth said. The final agreement -- or compact -- will be signed in early April, he said.
MCC is already working with Madagascar's Bureau of National Statistics to help it build the capacity to measure results of the four-year, $100 million project. Applegarth praised Madagascar's government for taking a pro-reform, pro-market and "people friendly" approach to reducing poverty and stimulating the economy, and for working with MCC to develop a compact that concentrates on "proper management of rural areas." The compact is rurally oriented, Applegarth said, because the vast majority of people living in poverty in the country are in rural areas.
The funding in the compact will support securing property rights to land and making land registration services more efficient, will make banking and financial services more available to rural areas, and will provide training to farmers and rural entrepreneurs in production, management and marketing techniques. The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is the Bush administration's supplemental foreign aid program that rewards countries that demonstrate a commitment to govern well, promote economic growth and invest in improving the lives of their people.
(For more information see http://lists.state.gov/SCRIPTS/WA-USIAINFO.EXE?A2=ind0503c&L=WF-EASIA&P=R3125 )