Millennium Challenge Corp. CEO Dana Hyde has made no secret about the fact that she wants the agency to pursue regional compacts, in addition to the single-country compacts it currently undertakes. In Central America, conditions might be right to get that regional ball rolling, Hyde told Devex in an exclusive interview.
U.S. aid agencies and advocates are beginning to pay more attention to Central America. The U.S. Congress continues to deliberate over a $1 billion aid plan to the region, and MCC’s work in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — the so-called Northern Triangle — will look to tackle many of the same issues put forward in the administration’s U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America.
Currently, the MCC is allowed only one compact per country at a time, which it says hampers regional collaboration across programs. Most countries that would be eligible to participate in a regional compact either already have a compact underway, or neighbor a country that does. That makes it difficult for MCC to find two or more countries that could both begin a regional compact at the same time, so the agency is asking Congress for the authority to implement concurrent compacts.
About the author
Claire Luke
Claire is a journalist passionate about all things development, with a particular interest in labor, having worked previously for the Indonesia-based International Labor Organization. She has experience reporting in Cambodia, Nicaragua and Burma, and is happy to be immersed in the action of D.C. Claire is a master's candidate in development economics at the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs and received her bachelor's degree in political philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross.
