Anyone have any comments on the Bush "Millenium Challenge Account?"

Foreign aid goes only to countries who leaders govern as we like.
All I want to know is does this means that countries who have leaders that we like but whose people hate the leaders still get our foreign aid? Think about Iraq under Saddam during the Reagan years. This policy means that Iraq would be eligible for foreign aid but the Sandinistas would not. It also means that the Saudis would get it while the Palestinians would not. Israel would get more while Venezuela would not get any. Almost no sub-Saharan country would get aid...the people who need it the most. Looks to me like apartheid foreign aid is on its way.

And Bush doesn't even give you a free toaster with your new MCA.

I intern for a lobbying group that coordinates the efforts of the private and the nonprofit sectors to ask for greater levels of foreign aid. I attended the State Dept's briefing on the MCA with representatives from other NGO's. While the proposed legislation is not perfect, I believe it is a great step forward. It is not about helping governments we like but it is about ensuring foreign aid goes to nations that are not ruled by corrupt dictators and that the money given is used to accomplish specific goals, determined by the aided country - not the U. S. I am one of Bush's biggest critics, but I am very much in favor of the MCA. I think it's a good idea.

It kind of depends on what you think of America. I mean I don't like President Bush's potential use of said powers (particularly if Family Planning gets into the mix, as it often seems to when he starts one of these programs), but in general I'm ok with us rewarding governments who afford their citizens the same kinds of liberties we enjoy.

Is helping prop up a corrupt and injust system really helping the poeple of that country?

Of course there are those who would argue that America's corruption makes it inelegible to decide who should recieve said money.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

you should read the actual documents. Although the goals sound good in principle, this particular proposal is VERY problematic (as should be expected with anything coming out of the Bush white house).

MCA aid will go only to governments that buy into the whole neoliberal agenda -- "economic freedom" in the words of the administration. They MUST accept what the US sees as the proper economic policies, which in fact have proved disastrous in country after country.

Here's a good critique of the entire proposal:

http://www.coc.org/pdfs/coc/cf/2003/cf160_603_poverty.pdf

The Millennium Challenge Account:
Unlearning How to Make Aid Work?
Reprinted from the Center of Concern’s
quarterly newsletter, CENTER FOCUS,
Issue # 160, June 2003

<snip>
The approach to the selectivity on which the MCA so heavily
relies is very troubling. Such selectivity implies that aid is
more effective in producing results when directed to countries
that have in place “good policies” which is, of course, true.
The question, however, gets tricky as soon as one begins try-ing
to determine what those “good” policies are and who has
the right and the knowledge to decide what is “good.”

For example, there is widespread agreement today that there is no
such thing as a universal model of development. Different
countries have developed using different policies. Hence, there
is need to allow countries the policy space to discern their
own mix of policies, tailored to their respective endowments
and their social and political circumstances. But the MCA
assumes that there is a one-size-fits-all set of policies that is
“good” for all countries everywhere and acts as a precondition
for growth.

It is also widely accepted that policies can only be successful
when they are owned by the government and the society in a
country. However, it is clear that under the MCA proposal, a
country whose government and society have achieved a democratic
consensus on a set of policies that they find suitable
might not be eligible for aid unless the policies they “own”
reflect the U.S. government’s model policies.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT