Gambia eligible for MCA ASSISTANCE   Written by Alieu Badara Ceesay    Thursday, 10 November 2005 The board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) under the auspices of US government has selected The Gambia with 22 other countries for eligibility to apply for the Millemmium Challenge Account (MCA) assistance for the fiscal year 2006.

Speaking to reporters after presenting the letter to President Yahya Jammeh, the American ambassador to The Gambia, Joseph D Stafford said: “I have the honour and pleasure of delivering to the president, the letter from the head of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, a US government agency informing the president of the decision by the MCC to grant eligibility to The Gambia for the programme, which is an important initiative by the US government to provide development resource to qualifying countries that have shown progress in key areas of good governance, investing in people, providing for the social well-being of the population and improving economic development, particularly promoting economic freedom.”


He said there were many candidate countries for the MCC and the fact that The Gambia was among the selected few for the programme is a show of congratulation by the US government to President Jammeh, the government and people of The Gambia on this important achievement which is an important step forward in the bilateral relation of the two countries.


“Now much hardwork lies ahead of us. We need to work together on the specific projects. It’s an important begining and again my congratulations to President Jammeh and the people of The Gambia for this important achievement,” he said.


The selected countries from the “low income” category for the fiscal year 2006 are: Armenia, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, East Timor, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco, Mazambique, Nicaragua, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Vanuatu.


Of these 20 eligible low income countries, 16 have been selected as MCA-eligible in prior years. Burkina Faso, East Timor, The Gambia and Tanzania are MCA-eligible for the first time.


In making its selection, the board considered the policy performance of candidate countries in three areas - ruling justly, investing in people and encouraging economic freedom. In addition to evaluating whether countries perform above the median in relation to their peers on at least half of the indicators in each of these three policy categories and on the corruption indicator, the board may exercise discretion in considering additional information and adjusting for gaps, lags, or other weaknesses in the data. The board also considers factors, such as the opportunity to reduce poverty and generate economic growth and to have a transformational impact on the economy.
The MCC board also selected three countries form the “lower middle income” category - a new category in Fiscal Year 2006 that includes countries with a per capita income between US$1,576 and US$3,255.


The selected “lower middle income” countries for Fiscal Year 2006 includes two new countries, El Salvador and Namibia. The third country, Cape Verde, was previously selected as MCA eligible in the “low income” category and it is currently implementing a compact with MCC.


“Congratulations to the countries that have been selected this year,” Ambassador John Danilovich, MCC CEO said, adding “you are among an elite group of countries who have demonstrated a commitment to good governance, economic freedom and improving the lives of your people.”


Ambassador John Danilovich pointed out that, while selection is an essential first step towards achieving compact assistance from the MCC, it does not guarantee funding. “Newly eligible countries will now begin a broad-based consultative process to develop proposals that address the country’s barriers to poverty reduction and economic growth. MCC will collaborate with all of the MCA-eligible countries as they chart their own course to help lift their citizens out of poverty,” he said.


Since its establishment last year, MCC has signed compacts totaling more than US$900M with five nations - Madagascar, Honduras, Cape Verde, Nicaragua and Georgia. MCC is also actively engaging with other MCA-eligible countries in compact negotiations and currently expects to sign three more within the next few months.






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