According to murmurings around town and a smattering of news coverage, Morocco is putting together a whopper of a proposal to submit to the MCC for Compact funding: upwards of $750 million to finance a range of projects, the bulk of which are reportedly aimed at improving agricultural productivity in rural parts of the country. The proposal is rumored to include over $200 million, devoted to implementing the Moroccan National Initiative for Human Development (INDH).This could be a welcome move. The INDH represents the sort of broad-based approach that the MCC should be supporting, and involves a comprehensive national development plan that sets out to explicitly target poverty reduction and social cohesion. Until the proposal is made public, however, it won't be clear how the MCC funds will be allocated, much less how Morocco intents to convert the funds into results. Of course, these details may come out in the application process, and it would be great to hear from anyone knowledgeable about the MCC proposal that is due to be submitted by the end of the month (especially since some may be predisposed to the view that Morocco's strategic importance to the United States --rather than the merits of its proposal--account for the size of the program and any subsequent funding).Another issue worth raising is whether Morocco's proposal, even given its rumored size and comprehensiveness, has the potential to be truly transformative. Since this is the largest price tag we've encountered thus far--with the potential to more than triple forecasted FY06 US development assistance aid to Morocco--it represents a major test for an organization whose sizeable aspirations have been juxtaposed against somewhat modest disbursements to date. But to really assess the transformative potential of the proposal, it will be important to consider (in addition to content) the financial nitty-gritty, including the program's size relative to other donors, as well as on a per capita basis. After all, it appears that even if the full program were approved, MCC aid could play second fiddle to French development assistance, which has come in at over $300 million a year, and double the potential yearly $150 million for MCC funds. And in a country of 30 million, even a program of this size would amount to about $5 a person a year.This all brings us back to the philosophical underpinning of the MCC, which is that aid programs can have big effects if they are leveraged by smart programs and a genuine commitment to key principles, like good governance and the coordination of aid. If the rumors are to believed, this idea may be put to the test in Morocco.
