Country Misses Out Again On Crucial American Aid

from All Africa

Financial Gazette (Harare)

NEWS

By Kumbirai Mafunda
New York

Zimbabwe's poor human rights record, made worse by a marked decline in economic freedom, has once again shut out the troubled country from accessing development aid from the United States under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).

The MCA, which is administered by the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US government agency collaborating with some of the poorest countries in the world, aims to reduce global poverty through sustainable economic growth.

Established in 2004, the MCC is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom and investment in people. Out of 40 countries that the MCC is working with, 19 are based in Africa and these include Mozambique, Lesotho, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana.

The value of the grants signed by the African countries total over US$3 billion.

But Zimbabwe, which is grappling with its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1980, has been excluded from accessing the grants after scoring poor marks on independent and transparency policy indicators such as ruling justly, investing in people and economic freedom.

In its recent assessment of Zimbabwe, the MCC ruled that the country had done little to improve the rule of law and to control corruption. The MCC also ruled that the government had limited citizens' freedoms by intensifying its clampdown on civil liberty.

Zimbabwe's world beating inflation of over 7 600 percent also ruled it out of accessing grants under the MCA, as did its skewed fiscal and trade policies.

Besides failing to access aid under the MCA, Zimbabwe has over the past eight years been excluded from receiving aid from the International Monetary Fund and other developmental organisations, which ditched the country over President Robert Mugabe's controversial farm seizures as well as his government's human rights record.

The country is currently battling acute foreign currency shortages, which have spawned shortages of critical medicinal drugs and food and resulted in serious power outages.