President Obama Requests $898 Million to Fund MCC’s Innovative Approach to Fighting Global Poverty

Washington, D.C.—U.S. President Barack Obama today delivered his Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal to Congress, including $898.2 million for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to continue its mission to reduce poverty through economic growth. This figure represents level-funding for MCC from the amount provided by Congress in Fiscal Year 2012.

Since its founding in 2004, MCC has signed compacts, or large-scale grant agreements, with 24 countries, totaling approximately $8.9 billion. The agency has concluded seven of these compacts, each of which has finished on time, on budget, and has met -- and often exceeded -- the majority of its final targets.

The budget request for Fiscal Year 2013 is expected to support funding for new compacts with Ghana, Benin and El Salvador and new Threshold Programs, smaller, policy reform-focused agreements that help countries become compact eligible, with Nepal and Honduras. MCC is helping to unlock the potential in developing markets, serving as a gateway to opportunity for local and American companies, and incentivizing policy reforms that create an environment where trade and investment can flourish. MCC’s goal is to put developing countries on a path to self-sufficiency and promote sustainable, private sector-led growth.

“Our prosperity and economic strength here at home are linked to the prosperity and economic strength of countries around the world,” stated MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes. “The President’s budget request for FY 2013 will allow MCC to offer more smart solutions to improve the lives of the world’s poor and create opportunities for American businesses to tap into next-generation emerging markets to expand, grow, and create American jobs.”

MCC’s mission is to reduce poverty through economic growth. The MCC model is designed to produce a “continuum of results” from compact development to project completion and beyond with a focus on policy reform, transparency, and accountability.

MCC’s Fiscal Year 2013 Congressional Budget Justification can be found at http://www.mcc.gov/documents/reports/mcc-fy2013-cbj.pdf

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The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an innovative and independent U.S. Government foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth. MCC is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom and investments in people. To learn more about MCC please visit www.mcc.gov

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.