By Kevin McCauley
GoodWorks International, the firm of former congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, has a $350K, one-year contract to assist Cameroon in its bid to qualify for a Millennium Challenge Grant.
Founded in '04, the Millennium Challenge Corp. is a U.S. government entity formed to funnel aid to poor nations that exhibit good governance, economic freedom and investment in their peoples.
The MCC has provided $7B to 19 "compact countries" such as Honduras, Madagascar, El Salvador, Armenia, Ghana, Georgia and Senegal.
Another $470M has been given to "threshold countries" that fall a bit short of MCC standards, but are heading in the right direction. That group includes Indonesia, Jordan, Peru, Moldova, Kenya Kyrgyz Republic, Rwanda, Ukraine, Philippines, Albania and Burkina Faso.
Liberia and Timor-Leste are in the midst of hammering out threshold standing.
Cameroon, on its last MCC "report card," failed in the civil liberties, control of corruption, trade policy, business development and education/health spending categories.
GoodWorks aims to inform U.S. decision-makers about Cameroon's accomplishments and generate a better understanding of its policies.
The MCC, House Foreign Affairs/Senate Foreign Relations, State/Treasury Dept., and U.S. Trade Representative Office staffers are on GoodWorks’ outreach list.
The goal of GoodWorks is to place Cameroon on the threshold list within a year, and among the compact countries within two years -- assuming the Atlanta-based operation gets its contract renewed.
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