Initial Reactions to the Announcement on the MCA

On November 25, the Bush administration announced new details for implementing the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Overall, the announced steps are very positive. They underscore the administration’s commitment to making this new initiative work effectively, both in terms of full funding and in reorganizing the way that aid is delivered. In this MCA Monitor Analysis, Steve Radelet reviews the MCA’s foundational tenets of country selection, ownership and organization and offers some initial reactions. He also identifies some concerns, in particular around the proposal to include lower-middle income countries at a later date, around the statistical difficulties associated with requiring countries to pass a survey-based corruption indicator, and regarding the potential coordination problems that may arise with two separate U.S. foreign assistance agencies.