THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009
Aid for the Poor, Not for Politics!
News Flash!
On March 11 the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, headed by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, decided to continue the current suspension of aid to Nicaragua under the MCC and reevaluate again in June. Acting MCC Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bent said, "The government of Nicaragua has failed to reaffirm its commitment to democratic principles and practices since [the aid] suspension in December.” The MCC called on the government of Nicaragua to address what officials alleged were "credible allegations of fraud during the November 2008 municipal elections." The MCC left suspended assistance for all new activities not yet under contract while continuing assistance for a rural business development project benefiting small and medium agriculture-related enterprises, including some 30,000 people in rural areas. Government economic advisor Bayardo Arce, in commenting on the decision, considered it "positive."
Restore Millennium Challenge Funding to Nicaragua!
On Dec. 11, 2008 the Millennium Challenge Corporation suspended aid to Nicaragua for 90 days because of alleged irregularities in Nicaragua's Nov. 9 municipal elections. The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a US development fund set up to “reduce poverty through economic growth.” In 2005, Washington and Managua signed a five-year, $175 million agreement designating MCA funds for projects focused on improving Nicaragua's infrastructure, formalizing land titles, and facilitating market access for Nicaragua's rural producers in the departments of Leon and Chinandega.
Write your Senators and U.S. Representative asking them to tell the Millennium Challenge Corporation not to cancel the aid to Nicaragua!
MCA has a mission to fund sustainable projects that are crucial to enhancing Nicaragua's infrastructure and support for small-scale rural producers that have struggled under neoliberal policies. Over 3,000 rural Nicaraguan families have benefited from MCA funded projects, especially in the agricultural and dairy sectors. Freezing MCA funds has put these people's livelihoods at risk.
The Nicaragua Network has launched a campaign to convince the MCA to continue its Nicaragua program, not to cancel it.
The MCC Board of Directors is composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Treasury, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Administrator of USAID, the CEO of the MCC and four public members appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Secretary of State is the Chair of the Board and the Secretary of Treasury is the Vice Chair. In other words, appointees of President Obama will make the final decision about whether to continue the MCA grants.
In December, Witness for Peace and Nicaragua Network flooded the MCA with emails urging them to reverse their decision on the basis that poverty reduction aid should not held up for political reasons. An MCA official told Nicaragua Network National Co-Coordinator Katherine Hoyt that we actually overwhelmed their email system.
We are calling on all Nicaragua solidarity activists to take action now to urge the new MCA board to restore the Nicaragua funding which has only harmed poor families in Nicaragua.
Even the president of the Nicaragua-American Chamber of Commerce, Cesar Zamora, has urged that the US “unfreeze (the funds) as quickly as possible because it affects the poorest people, and the entire world is in agreement that, in the end, it is the people of fewest resources that are affected by the cutting of aid.”
Please write your Senators and Member of Congress to ask them to urge the Millennium Challenge Corporation to quickly restore development aid to Nicaragua. You can write to your Senators and mail the letters to [Senator's Name], US Senate, Washington, DC 20510 and your Representative at [Rep's Name], US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515. You can get their emails on the web.
If your elected representatives aren't responsive to you, you can email the Millennium Challenge Corporation directly by going here, or by writing them at: 875 Fifteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-2221.
The European Union and several European countries also have suspended aid to Nicaragua. The Nicaragua Network wrote to their US ambassadors making the argument that suspending aid amounts to “collective punishment” that only hurts the poor. The letter was sent on Dec. 31 to the ambassadors to the US from the European Union, The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. EU Ambassador to the United States, John Bruton, responded personally with a letter in which he states, “The European Commission sincerely hopes that the situation will evolve in a positive and constructive way, so that the decision to suspend budget support can be reconsidered as soon as possible.”
For more information, contact the Nicaragua Network at nicanet@AFGJ.org.
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