Rwanda: U.S. Funding Criteria Under Scrutiny, Country Expresses Dissatisfaction
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
31 July 2008
Posted to the web 31 July 2008
Kigali
President Paul Kagame on Thursday questioned the criteria used by the U.S. government when allocating funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation - MCC, RNA reports.
"Four countries that have been rated as doing well in Africa for the last like three years by different institutions including even ones in the same donor country (U.S.) - are Rwanda, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania", Mr. Kagame told a press conference.
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"But after this rating by different agencies, the MCC turns back to approve funding for only three - leaving out Rwanda."
"I have not bothered. I have not cared", Mr. Kagame emphasized.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a U.S. government initiative bankrolling poor countries whose governments 'rule justly, invest in people, and foster development through enterprise and entrepreneurship'.
Rwanda now part of the forty countries that are to get their portions of different amounts from the Account in 2008. These are countries that have showed progress in reform assessed on 17 policy indicators.
A high-level delegation from the Corporation was in Kigali last week making arrangements for the signing of an agreement for the $24million that Rwanda is scheduled to get next month.
However, Rwanda will tap from the Million Threshold Program - meaning it has not yet qualified for the final stage, but is said to have 'demonstrated a significant commitment to improve its performance' - a step worthy recognition.
But President Kagame does not seem to be amused with the way things stand.
"Interestingly they decided to select other countries that do not meet any of the criterion used. Which means what they call criterion is not the basis but other considerations as I had always suspected", he told his audience in a mixture of Kinyarwanda and English.
"It is just that they have another way of deciding that I don't know. Why should I care when I have no influence on the Process".
The President repeated that he was 'not bothered' as to whether the Corporation will recognize Rwanda or not because 'what I am sure is that Rwanda has passed the threshold'.
"I have previously told the U.S. Ambassador here and other officials that I have nothing to do with all that because I do not work for the MCC but the interests of Rwandan", he said.
In the assessment that makes Rwanda qualify for the Threshold Program but not the Compact shows that the country is scoring high corruption controls, very high immunization rates and sound fiscal discipline.
However, as far as political rights are concerned, government scored significantly low. Civil liberties is another element on which Rwanda did not make convincing progress.
Although school enrollment in Rwanda is ranging high, the rising number of girls dropping out remains of concern - it scored just 15%, according to the Millennium Challenge Corporation assessment.
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The U.S. does not also seem to be convinced that the authorities in Kigali are doing enough to curb raging inflation. The Economist Intelligence Unit has actually raised its inflation forecast for this year and the next - blaming it partly on shaky fiscal policy.
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