Reuters AlertNet - U.S. foreign aid agency pressed to disburse faster
Get a password
Username:
Forgot your password?
Password:
Alerting humanitarians to emergencies
Reuters websites
Login
Sign me in automatically
About AlertNet | Why join AlertNet? | Help
Search
You are here: Homepage > Newsdesk > U.S. foreign aid agency pressed to disburse faster
U.S. foreign aid agency pressed to disburse faster
HOME
Countries
05 May 2005 19:49:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
Newsdesk
NGO Latest
By Laura MacInnis
EMERGENCIES
Africa
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's flagship foreign aid program, under pressure after
having issued just one grant in more than a year of operations, plans to commit funds to four countries this summer,
agency officials said.
Americas
Asia
Europe
Middle East
COUNTRY PROFILES
The Millennium Challenge Account, a development program unveiled by the White House in March 2002 and formally
set up in January 2004, is designed to give poor countries cash incentives for undertaking political and economic
reforms.
Select a country
TOPICS
Reset
Full-size map
Cape Verde profile
· View map
It received about $2.5 billion from Congress over the last two fiscal years and just made its first pledge in March -- a
$110 million, four-year grant to Madagascar.
Select a topic
IMAGES
Reuters Pictures
Georgia profile
· View map
Nicaragua profile
Paul Applegarth, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corp., which administers the fund, defended the pace and
said the agency had several commitments in the works.
NGO Photos
Satellite Images
· View map
MORE
Interactive Map
RESOURCES
NGO Directory
"Madagascar is not a stand-alone event," he told activists, academics and aid experts who met this week at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Our pipeline is robust."
Latest news
Suppliers
GUINEA-BISSAU: Supreme Court delays approval of presidential
Jobs
Applegarth said the Millennium Challenge Corp. board would consider giving nearly $208 million to Honduras on May
20. Deals with Cape Verde, Georgia and Nicaragua are to be finalized by the end of the summer, he added.
Training
NGO SERVICES
Alerting
candidates
Source: IRIN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Source: IRIN
U.S. foreign aid agency pressed to disburse faster
Why join AlertNet?
President George W. Bush first sought $5 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account in fiscal year 2006 but cut his
request to $3 billion amid lawmaker resistance to giving more money to a program that has spent so little of its funds.
Source: Reuters
UPDATE1-Bush to push democracy agenda in ex-Soviet Georgia
Source: Reuters
Bush to push democracy agenda in ex-Soviet Georgia
Source: Reuters
AlertNet Challenge
MORE
A senior aide on the Senate Foreign Relations committee said the program was vulnerable to being scaled back further.
Latest quiz...
"It's a new program. It's not an emergency, it's long-term. It's not the tsunami. It's not Afghanistan. It's not Iraq," Mary
Locke, who works for the committee's chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, told a Center for Global Development
panel discussion.
NGO latest
Early Warning Resources on Crisis Group's website
Crisis Group - Belgium
CrisisWatch N°21, 1 May 2005
Unlike the U.S. Agency for International Development, the program does not focus on post-conflict reconstruction or
give emergency aid but offers aid to poor countries based on criteria like trade openness, inflation, immunization rates
and public health and education spending.
Go
Crisis Group - Belgium
Swedish Healthcare excludes undocumented migrant children
MSF International
Forgotten People: Internally Displaced from Abkhazia
Refugees International - USA
But Applegarth stressed the Millennium Challenge Account should not be evaluated only on how quickly it can spend
money. He said agency staff spends much time working with countries on meeting those criteria.
LOW GRAPHICS
GET WEEKLY EMAIL
ALERTING
Weekly appeal
"We want to empower countries to address their underlying problems, and not make a quick change," he said. "I am
determined to change the way development assistance is given."
New Pontiff faces grave challenges from the HIV epidemic
Christian Aid - UK
MORE
Counting every breath: Children International helps
AlertNet news is provided by
Filipinos faced with tuberculosis breathe easier
Printable view | Email this article | Send comments
Disclaimers | Copyright | Privacy | Contact us | Feedback | About us
Tue May 10 03:55:29 2005
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05536156.htm5/10/2005 7:29:29 AM