MCC Should Hold Countries to Higher Standards of Democratic Governance
Support A1+!The American government should withhold foreign assistance under the Millennium Challenge Account from countries which fail to meet reasonable standards of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House said today.
On November 8, the MCC Board of Directors will select governments eligible to apply for assistance in fiscal year 2007. Freedom House urges the MCC to bypass those countries with low scores on political rights and civil liberties that otherwise meet the eligibility criteria - namely Armenia, Bhutan, Egypt, Jordan, Maldives, Tunisia and Vietnam - during this year's selection process.
Additionally, Freedom House urges the MCC to rigorously follow up with those countries, like Armenia, that have been awarded compacts but have not met promised benchmarks in the area of democratic governance. Armenia is an important test case of MCC policy, as it signed a compact with the MCC earlier this year but has been backsliding on promised reforms since the agreement was signed.
"Freedom House strongly supports the MCC's efforts to reduce poverty by rewarding sound policies," said Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House. "However, because democratic governance plays such a key role in enabling broader social and economic development, it is vital--if the fund is to be truly effective--that only those governments that have demonstrated commitment to democracy and human rights be eligible to receive MCC funds," she added.
Currently, countries qualify for MCC funding based on their performance on three baskets of indicators that measure "ruling justly," "investing in people," and "economic freedom." At a minimum, a country needs to perform above average in half of the indicators in each of these three categories to qualify for the funds. However, because the agency views corruption as such a serious obstacle to development, a score below average in corruption automatically eliminates a country from consideration for the pool of eligible countries.
Freedom House encourages the MCC to consider officially amending the eligibility process to automatically disqualify any country that falls below the equivalent of a 4 (out of a worst possible 7) on Freedom House's index of civil liberties and political rights, which is used by the MCC to determine a country's level of democratic governance.
"Democratic governance is fundamental to development and can have an enormous effect on a country's future growth. Like anti-corruption efforts, therefore, it should be treated as a priority among priorities by the MCC," said Christopher Walker, Director of Studies at Freedom House. "On occasion, the MCC Board has exercised discretion to eliminate from consideration some of the worst democratic underachievers, and Freedom House would like to see this prioritization formalized as an official standard," he added.
Based on the published MCC scorecards for 2007, Armenia, Bhutan, Egypt, Jordan, Maldives, Tunisia and Vietnam officially pass the MCC criteria even though they fall below the equivalent of a 4 on Freedom House's index of political rights and civil liberties.
Armenia
Armenia has failed in its pledge made to the MCC to improve its institutional commitment to democracy and tolerance of opposition. Allegations of fraud in the November 2005 constitutional referendum have not been investigated, as called for by Ambassador Danilovich, Chief Executive Officer of the MCC. Implementation of the referendum's tepid reforms stalled in 2006, and the opposition expects upcoming parliamentary elections to once again be marred by fraud. Multiple anti-democratic methods are used to maintain a hold on power, including the following: •
- Election fraud characterized both the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2003 and the constitutional referendum of 2005. Harassment of opposition supporters, ballot box stuffing, and inflated turnout figures were among the methods used, and the elections were denounced by European observers. •
- The judicial branch remains subject to political pressure from the executive branch and suffers from considerable corruption, while proposed reforms have not been implemented. •
- While new legislation to improve media independence was passed, the Armenian media climate has not improved and violent attacks on journalists continue.
