The Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (Mcc) has selected Gambia, Togo, Mauritania and Senegal to develop new grant programs. For the country of Teranga, this will be a third program financed by this American program launched by President George W. Bush.
The US government announces new partnerships with four countries for development projects. The Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (Mcc) has selected Gambia, Togo, Mauritania and Senegal to develop new grant programs. The announcement was made on the occasion of the kick-off of the United States-Africa summit opened on December 13, 2022, in Washington. “The announcement is symbolic of both the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa and MCC’s dedication to creating a stronger, more resilient global community,” said MCC’s Chief Executive Officer in a press release of the USAID. Alice Albright added selection of these countries affirms each country’s aspiration or commitment to democratic principles as well as their intentions to make the investments and institutional changes necessary to build a more prosperous future for their communities. The MCC Board’s decision comes at a critical time, and we look forward to working together with each country to develop a program that will address the most pressing challenges facing their economies.”
On the choice of these countries, the document notes that “The Board which is chaired by the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — selected The Gambia and Togo as eligible to develop compacts, MCC’s five-year grant program that focuses on large-scale infrastructure investments and address policy and institutional reforms. The Board also chose Senegal as eligible to develop a concurrent regional compact as well as Mauritania for a threshold program. Threshold programs are MCC’s smaller grant program that is designed to support policy and institutional reforms that address the factors constraining a country’s economic growth in countries that may not yet be meeting MCC’s strict compact eligibility criteria.”
It should be noted that Senegal already has a Compact in progress, signed in 2018 with the American authorities that comes to an end in 2025. This second Mca Senegal program, amounting to more than 300 billion Francs Cfa (600 million dollars), is intended to facilitate access to electricity at an affordable cost for the populations. The Senegalese authorities and their American partners wanted to make it an integral element of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE).
The selection of Senegal for a third funding from the Mca, beyond confidence in the country’s ability to carry out its projects with seriousness and determination, in compliance with the criteria of good governance, is above all an indicator of the quality of the relations which unite the two countries. The countries that benefit from a second Mca compact are not numerous. And it is hard to find a country that has not yet completed its second compact being offered a third funding.Even without officially declaring it, one cannot help thinking that the current international context, and the firm positions taken by Senegal, must not have been foreign to this assiduous courting of the Biden Administration towards Macky Sall and his government.
For a better coating, the Administrator of the Mcc, Mrs. Albright declared: “MCC has been a steadfast partner with governments across the African continent since the agency was founded in 2004, investing $9.5 billion in 24 African countries. With these new selections, MCC has expanded its active programs to 14 countries in Africa with compact and threshold programs worth $3 billion as well as another $2.5 billion in the pipeline.
Among the selection criteria, the press release notes that “Mcc regularly reviews the policy performance of its partner countries throughout the development and implementation of a compact or threshold program.” Faced with these considerations, one cannot help but be surprised with the presence of Togo among the newly selected countries, if one knows that the ‘Homme Faure’ (strongman) of this country has a rather personal conception of democracy and human rights.
By Dialigué FAYE / dialigue@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH