Georgia Still Waiting for Millennium Challenge Funds

From the look of Millennium Challenge's modern offices in Tbilisi, it might seem that the US government-funded program to reduce poverty in Georgia through economic growth is running full speed ahead. But, four months after the signature of the US's Millennium Challenge agreement with Georgia, the money – over $300 million -- has yet to arrive.

In 2004, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, was launched as a U.S. government agency to reduce poverty by forming a "compact" with well-governed developing countries. The program's goal, as outlined by US President George W. Bush in March 2002, was to build a "new compact for global development" by linking "[g]reater contributions from developed nations" with "greater responsibility from developing nations."

Nearly four years later, expectations for the program are running high in both Washington and Tbilisi.

In Washington, MCC's Managing Director for Eastern Europe Stephen Groff told EurasiaNet that the main difference between MCC and traditional development agencies, like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is that MCC is "financing Georgian ideas." Groff stressed that as "partners in a process," the MCC and Georgia "reach agreement" on proposed projects and the money required.

Transparency International Georgia's Board of Directors Chairman Mark Mullen, called the idea behind Millennium Challenge "fantastic."

"Millennium Challenge wants to act like a company—it's the Millennium Challenge Corporation," Mullen said in a recent interview. "They want to be lean and corporate, and they don't want to get mired in bureaucracy the way many perceive USAID or other organizations like the European Commission or the United Nations."

"The Georgians