It took five African presidents to get President Bush to finally face up to the dismal performance of his flagship program to promote development in poor countries, writes the New York Times in its Sunday editorial according to the World Bank press review.
Within days, the White House reported the resignation of Paul Applegarth, the Chief Executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, who, with an entire world of poverty, disease and wretchedness to consider, managed to find only two countries worthy of aid.
His office says his departure had ”absolutely” nothing to do with the complaints lodged last week by the presidents of Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Niger and Namibia, who told Bush that the bureaucracy and fine print of the program made it nearly impossible for them to get aid.
To see just how badly the Millennium Challenge program has performed, compare it to the Fast Track Initiative for financing education, which is run out of the World Bank, writes the US daily.
Both programs came partly as a result of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. Both programs use the same basic model: rewarding poor countries that demonstrate a willingness to reform with big increases in aid. Both programs were announced in 2002.
Since then, the Millennium Challenge program has signed contracts to give money to only two countries: 108 million dollar to Madagascar and 215 million to Honduras. The programs board recently approved two more, Nicaragua and Cape Verde.
Through the Fast Track program, rich countries have actually given money to 12 countries. During the first three years, donors shifted about 905 million dollar in foreign aid to the qualifying countries for primary education; this year the 12 countries will get an additional 350 million.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
