RP not qualified for Millennium aid

For all its lip service to the United States-led war on terror, the Philippines may be left out of a billion-dollar Millennium aid package the world’s last super power is set to give a few good countries that clean up their economic and political acts.

The Bush administration, which will implement the program called Millennium Challenge Account beginning 2004, has set criteria that could give an edge to the best performers, rather than the neediest, among the world’s 79 poorest nations.

That means only 10 to 20 countries stand to benefit, and only if the US Congress allocates the $1.5 billion President George W. Bush is seeking in 2004.

In crafting criteria for eligibility, the Bush administration settled on factors such as inflation, overall government efficiency, the amounts spent on health and education, how much it cost to start a new business, immunization rates, trade policy and safeguards on civil liberties.

Top consideration would be given to the fight against corruption. A stellar performance in other categories would not matter if a country fell down in that area, administration officials said.

The Philippines, which expressed high hopes of qualifying in September, is a question mark. Its eligibility hinges on where the Bush administration sets the income level, said Steve Radelet, an economic growth expert at the nonpartisan Center for Global Development.

"They will almost certainly score better on these indicators, thereby they can replace some of the lesser performers," Radelet said. "The more likely you allow countries like the Philippines or Thailand, the more likely they are going to bump out countries like Mozambique or Tanzania."

The Center for Global Development, which researches the impact of wealthy nations’ policies on poorer ones, applied criteria similar to the Bush administration’s to economic data from 2000, and estimated about 20 countries might meet Millennium Challenge standards.

Of those 20, nine are in sub-Saharan Africa, seven in Asia and four in Latin America.

In March, Bush proposed increasing the amount of core foreign aid by $5 billion over the current amount during the next three years. He said the assistance would go to those countries that are fighting corruption, heeding the rule of law, and trying hard to build up their economies.

The extra $5 billion is far less than developing nations need, but it could spur countries that don’t receive it to improve at a much faster rate, said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the UN Development Program.

"Everybody runs harder if there are prizes at the end of the race," Brown said. "And so, not only the prize winners get the benefits."

Leaving anti-terror cooperation out of the equation is the best approach, Brown said, because the United States "got into terrible trouble" in the past letting geopolitical concerns get in the way.

"There are other kinds of US assistance to address that –military support, location of bases, political support," Brown said. "(Millennium) criteria may or may not coincide with a country’s fight against terror. It’s going to be very important for the credibility of it that these criteria be honored and respected."

But Susan Rice, a scholar at the Washington think-tank Brookings Institute and an undersecretary of state in President Bill Cinton’s administration, said Bush should be subjective in deciding who gets the money.