MCC Hammered

On June 23, The Economist took a closer look at the MCC. MCC Hammered: In Praise of a bold but unloved aid agency highlights the merits of George Bush's flagship development program and the challenges at hand. The article reads:

GEORGE BUSH's flagship foreign-aid programme is under fire. Since 2002, when the president promised to set it up, the Millennium Challenge Corporation has found only four relatively small poor countries to give money to. Last week, the MCC's chief executive, Paul Applegarth, said he was quitting to "reintroduce" himself to his wife and daughters.

The MCC is unloved by both left and right. A Republican-led House of Representatives sub-committee has just recommended nearly halving its budget, to $1.75 billion next year. American liberals suspect it is part of Mr Bush's conspiracy to conservatise the world. And Europeans mock the MCC as slower, meaner and more ideological than their own aid programmes. Some of this criticism is fair, but much is not.

The "slow" charge is accurate, though that is not the fault of the MCC's overworked staff. Congress did not pass enabling legislation until last year, and the Bush administration, distracted by Iraq, was ill-prepared even then to get the agency up and running.

At first glance, the "mean" charge seems apt, too. Mr Bush initially promised $5 billion a year to fund the MCC, but it has so far disbursed only $400,000. The agency's defence is that it is trying something new and unusual. Other donors tend to focus on tear-jerking issues such as AIDS, or on boosting the budgets of the better-run poor-country governments so they can provide better public services. The MCC seeks to promote economic growth in those countries-which is more complicated and takes more time.