Cairncross whos the ceo and president of the millennium challenge corporation. After a long wait, we have a fully installed that something of applause. Why do we give our friend a round of applause. [applause] congratulations. I think you get the prize for sort of saintly patience and diplomacy, and i think really, really glad you were in this job. I think its really important that Government Agencies have Senate Confirmed leaders so its really important you have, youve you been entrusted with this role. So i wanted to give you a chance to share some of your reviews with our friends here about how you see the future of the mcc. But before we do that, maybe not to just give this group, i think everyone probably in this audience if theyre here in mid august knows all about the mcc, but maybe just so were all on the same page if you might just do sort of the mcc 101 from your perspective. What is the mcc . How does it work . Then i have a couple of softball question for you we can take from their expert i am pro softball questions. Before that, thank you, dan, thank you to csis for hosting the event. We appreciate it. To be able to get out and talk about it. And i also want to say, its an honor to be nominated to do a job like this and i couldnt be prouder to represent an agency with such a tremendous staff. Ive only been in the couple of weeks. I can tell you already the best job ive ever had and im looking forward to moving forward. I also say thank thank you, i e faces around the room, and people of been very supportive and helpful to me during this whole process, so thank you all. Okay, mcc. Well, mcc, we are an independent u. S. Gittleman agency and we do development by design differently. So we work on a need and meritbased model, and we identify countries on a scorecard basis. So we look to consolidate gains in Good Governance, economic reform, and investment in a government people. Once her Eligibility Criteria are met, we work with those governments if our board determines that we should proceed to identify constraints on their economic growth. This is a process that we undertake in conjunction with the host country, our partner countries, and its country led. So the idea is they come to us and they say this is what we need, and we wanted partnership with you. And then we go through a rigorous, open process to determine what the work causes of economic constraints are and identify sustainable, measurable, achievable projects that will address those constraints and have the highest impact on the lives of our partner countries people. During that process we demand accountability from our partner countries. We have conditions precedent that we meet, that we demand are met over the course of this project. And if theyre not we have the ability to withdraw funds or to narrow the scope of the project or even to cancel a project. And so we regard i think the agency as a excellent track record as being great stewards of the american taxpayer dollars. Because after all, these are grants that we are engaged in. This is in a load were giving. This isnt something that saddles the coach with that. This is this is a project we inw and say this is our grant working with you to achieve a concrete result. Its going to be accountable, measured and then analyzed for years and years afterwards. Either way, this is all available online. Its very transparent. Every contract were in, all the rates of return on our projects, and our staff has recently come up with evaluation brief which were very proud of which makes it is more accessible for the American Public to get a grip on what were doing and put ice on it. The way, i dont mean to be too glib about this, but ive always thought that the mcc was sort of like the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes of Global Development, and ed mcmahon knocked on the door and said, remember this tv ad . Im dating myself, but sort of ed mcmahon would come and say youve met a series we have done serious, rigorous using opensource data across several pockets of data. I think theres a variety, i dont know, 16 or 17 indicators, or 20 indicators within the buckets. Youve met the requirements, and so now weve got a significant amount of money that we are prepared to provide to you if youre willing to work with us. And then theres the conversation and negotiation about what that looks like. I think what also is really great about what you guys, soi think the transparency, the flexibility you all have, i think the analysis that you do both in terms of leveraging sort of open source analysis. You are using global different data sources, the world bank for the index of Economic Freedom or other sources. And then i think it with the constraints to growth analysis is a very important innovation for Global Development as well. Theres an mcc model. Youve talked a little bit about it. Theres also the mcc effect. Can you talk a little bit about the mcc affect . I think that is really, really interesting. The model and effect are related. The model is what has made mcc such a success. We are in our 15th year. Our existence came out of the bush administration. It was started in 2004. And what is kept our track record so good and what leads to the mcc affect is the subjective view of whos eligible. And then the datadriven approach to developing these projects. The eligibility side of it, how we select partner countries to work with, its based on these independent scorecards that are drawn from the heritage foundation, world bank, objective criteria that break down into Good Governance indicators, Economic Freedom indicators, and a Government Investment in the people indicators. And if they passed though scorecards relative to the rest of the country in the world, which we can work with either low Income Countries or lower, middle Income Countries. So thats the needbased component. The meritbased component is the scorecard. Then we engage in a conversation with our board of directors, which is made up of state, ustr, aig, for private sector and treasury Board Members to engage with them. Thats a process that would making a policy decision based on some of the strategic concerns are woke up in the morning and said i really like malawi today. Right. Its designed to keep the process objective its designed to help the agency state laser focus on it Single Mission of reducing poverty through economic growth. And i think its led to an enormous amount of bipartisan support on the hill. I think it has great cachet in the countries where we work and a respect for the Development Model is very strong. As ceo coming in, that model is very important to me and im sure well talk about it, the current compaqs coming up, but to preserve and protect that model and grow the support that model is a big goal of mine. So then we get to the mcc affect and that really is aligning incentives. Humans are not incentivebased creatures, so, so countries want us to engage with them. This this is a grant for major Infrastructure Project typically, leads to it opens the door to a lot of private sector capital coming in because its creating an enabling environment thats very positive. Its the u. S. Governments stamp of approval that this this is a government that is doing good things. And on the front end of that, countries try to put themselves in good position to work with us. A great example of this is elected in 2010 following the civil war. Their country met four the 20 indicators at the time, and within five years they have met 14, 14 of 20 indicators and we engaged in a compact with them. Thats because the president came in and said, im establishing a unit within my new administration specifically to meet mccs criteria. We want to work with the americans. We want them here everyone they cachet it comes with that. So were just, i was just in cote divoire last week for the local conference but also because our compact entered into force which mean the fiveyear clock, all our projects, we are five years on time and budget, pencils down, thats the time we have. By design. That started just last week. It was online but the president had brought in a countdown clock which is this big digital clock and a big elephant was rolled on top of it, and they started it right there in a room at its county down and sits in the nca, which is the in country entity that manages the projects. Which is another very important piece of what we do. The infrastructure and project piece is what we deal. The Knowledge Transfer of how we do it, i regard as equally important. Because its such a contrast to other Development Models. Its a temperature. Its transparency. Its debt analysis and understanding how to bid projects out correctly. All that great and the private that is very positive for these countries. Just one example of that. We had just a week or so ago, we had Human Resource managers from in country nca, which is staffed by individuals from our partner countries all into mcc for a workshop, collaborative workshop on how we run Human Resources management at mcc. So would talk about things like gender equality in the workforce, nonharassment, meritbased hiring decisions. All of this Knowledge Transfer is being shared and its growing within our partner countries because of what mcc is doing. I think thats a huge component of what we do and hopefully a legacy that we are leaving behind. I think this would cachet is very important. I think like you said there are incentives for countries. Its been proven, there have been a series of studies done that demonstrates there is an mcc affect and the country want to be labeled as an mcc partner country. Its changing behaviors and changing policy. Something thats been a very important contribution to Global Development. You now have been in business for 15 years. Historically, the model has been five years. Youve worked in a specific country. Theres been some adjustments just recently. Talk a little bit about that. Theres been some changes i think in the last, in the most recent past that use some new authority, to talk a little about that. Yeah, sure. And, of course, the whole design of the agency is to learn. Every contact we enter into, every new equipment where constantly self evaluating and trying to do it better. The new authority that dan is talking about was last year in the african growth and opportunity and millennium challenge of modernization act. We were given the authority to work on concurrent cop expert praises a week enter into a project which we call a compact with a single country. And now we have the ability to do a concurrent compact with an existing partner, so long as its promoting regional investment or regional trade. So just for these a conversation i refer to them as compacts. Thats technically not exactly right, but the idea is to grow, help grow a regional, sustainable economy and link crosscountry. Crosscountry, crossborder. With the new authority, its new ground. We are working through how to do this. In december of last year our board selected five west african countries as eligible for a regional compact. And we are in the process of working to what those projects would look like, you know, what exact sectors that would be in and who would participate in them among those five countries. But whats important to me and whats important to the staff at mcc is that as we engage in this, the same rigor, the same accountability, the same transparency and evaluation, the same model applies to this regional authority. So we are looking to make sure that the first footballs out of the gate are for successful. Just as an example, lets say you had an agricultural corridor that crossed a political border. So to make countries in west africa. It would make a lot of sense to have regional compact. Theres a good reason that Something Like this. There are transportation corridors, our transmissions, agriculture. It makes a great deal of sense. And some of what were doing right now has a a great deal of regional impact. So in malawi we did a power sector compact, and malawi now has a duly to hook in to discuss african power pool. There engaged in an agreement with mozambique right now. Thats coming online and thats because of the mcc compact from the first time around. In cote divoire, the Port Infrastructure and the roundabout, i dont know if anyone here has been there, but the traffic is, its not even really traffic. Its just sort of concrete no movement. Right. For example, we had i think two miles between the hotel and airport, and there were times when you have to build in three hours to get to the airport. Get my steps and. Right, get your steps in. So eating the congestion in that port which is a major component of our compact with cote divoire is going to have a regional effect because its a major source of transport and trade. This race something we did a paper couple years ago about the mcc. One of the things we found was about more than 50 of the work that was done that mcc projects had done or had an infrastructure component. In some way you could argue that mcc, and a very much in favor of this, theres been a finger on the scale as part of the constraint, you kind of run the constraint of a a country throh sort of the excel spreadsheet and a smart people of the insincere helping you and supporting this or partner with the government. What comes out a sort of the end when the smoke clears is we need a port of any power, we need roads. Theres a lot of, think its great. I think we should be doing more infrastructure. Do you have any comment on that . Is as if the mcc is in some way the back door for the u. S. Government. I think what i would say to constraints analyses and the final projects are determined by whatever the facts lead, is where we went up. It may be the case, and it certainly is the case, that most of our portfolio is either transportation or energy infrastructure. In many of our partner countries, that is were the analysis leads. The other thing i would say, i want to make sure to mention is, mcc is unique as well because we are not only working on the heart of infrastructure but were doing is additional and policy reform as sort of an anticorruption with a heavy focus on anticorruption in order to great sort of enabling environment that will lead to a sustainable economy. In many of these places we are engaged in that reform as well, and we have a whole other section of projects that we can engage in for countries that dont quite need a compact criteria called Threshold Programs that are smaller projects like mcc finishing school. Thats right. Trying to help it is smaller projects focused on a specific thing, right . A country is on the right track, trying to do the right thing and were trying to help get into a good place in terms of our criteria and consolidate some gains that the making, but you really go in and leverage some institutional reform. We have these transcripts that metrics all over the world. Its not our metrics, and youve got a gap here and here, and want to use the Threshold Program to close the gap in these areas, right . Thats right. Its very important. I do think this issue of anticorruption is particularly important, and in no, it is built into the work you all do. We as a country dont fully appreciate this issue of weve been the leader historical over the last 40 or some time to dump on the issue of anticorruption. I think its a movie issue all over the world. To the extent we can be at the front of the parade on anticorruption, the better. I saw the World Economic forum had a study that the issue of corruption is either number one, number two or number three and Something Like 80 countries. The risk skyrockets more for third parties, for private Sector Investments. And until you can get a handle on that, you are not going of much of a sustainable economy. You know, in cote divoire, for example, one of the ministers was talking to me about the need for more private Sector Investment, the desire to American Companies come in and work on these projects one of the things he said is we didnt really know how to bid these projects out until mcc showed up. We didnt understand what was needed and we were talking different languages to potential partners. That in and of itself, that transparency, that open procurement, that bidding process in itself is way to fight corruption. We have a good track record. When you talk about power and roads and ports, ever were to associate with those words i think about china. How does china come across the mccs radar screen . China as are going to is very active on Infrastructure Projects, particularly in africa. Mcc serves as a great example of an alternative system. It is country led. So this is something that the host country is coming to us and asking for. We demand, as part of the process, stakeholder buyin. Thats public, either sector, Civil Society. There has to be buyin. Youre not going have a sustainable project if its not something that folks in our partner countries want. We demand openness. We demand accountability. Value for money on our contractors and are projects, and would look to identify those projects that will have the greatest amount of measurable impact on the lives of our partner countries citizens, and look for that sustainability. For their entire economy and that sort of selfdetermination and accountability and Knowledge Transfer to continue on working on their own is may be as a contrast to other models. It is stark contrast to other models and i think its a contrast that is, i think its very desirable. I would assume, i suspect when you go into many of the countries, im sure you are very welcome at the ivory coast, for example,. We are very welcome. It was phenomenal to see, and its an honor to be representing mcc, but we are there as the United States of america. The u. S. Government is involved in these countries. With multiple Partner Agencies in our countrys, and they are very, very welcoming, and like you say, has a lot of cachet to the agency. These countries want the United States there. Ive got too much of the questions for you. One is on the role of the private sector. I i know insincere spent a lot f time and effort, i meet a lot of the projects that you do either catalyze private Sector Investment or offer the opportunity to bring in the private sector as for these projects. Can you talk a little about that . That. Was sure. I should say thank you. Dan is on our private sector Advisory Board as well as good timing. But that is a huge part of building a sustainable economy. If you dont have private capital flow and an environment that is attracting that, i dont know how you defined as sustainable. Mcc has leveraged i think 5. 6 billion in private sector dollars into our projects over the course of her history, and weve been in 37 countries with 29 compaqs for about 14 billion worth of Development Assistance come bitty thing about 200 million beneficiaries benefiting about other sectors huge piece. For example, in malawi, state digitally just entered a 20 year power purchasing agreement with j. C. And capital to develop a commercial scale solar power plant, which is a great thing because 95 of their power as is hydro, and that has its own issues. You could have a drought. And then in cote divoire we signed an agreement with back tell and the government for back tell to do a National Master infrastructure plan. So youre going to have a plan that prioritizes cold war Infrastructure Project, have a stamp of approval, and that hopefully will be shopped around to private sector partners and we can get some investment. They want to come to the United States. They want to do a road show and pitched the potential opportunities in cote divoire here one of the things that is very important to me is to elevate the knowledge level, particularly domestically, of what those opportunities are and what mcc does. Because when American Companies bid on mcc projects, they tend to windows bids but id like to see more of it. More American Companies. I would like to see more American Companies competing. Good. Ill come back to that, good. But one other question for you, which is the administration has made womens Economic Empowerment an important part of its international work. Read that and never things here to try to help the administration on that. I think theres a global understanding, this is an important issue. I think the 2x initiative that opec opec has been an enormous success. I think the roll out of dubya gdp has been very important. How does mcc fit into this . Womens global develop devet and prosperity, initiative was launched i president trump. Its the whole of government approach to empowering women, unlocking womens role in an economy and it spearheaded at the white house by advisor to the present ivanka trump who has been herself a real catalyst for change in this area and brought a a great deal of focus and attention on her efforts. We are proud to be a part of it at mcc, this is something that mcc has been focused on for a long time. We have a gender in the economy indicator as part of her scorecard. We have a gender and social inclusion unit within our Compact Development operation. Because when you start to look at womens role in an economy a start to press on the issue, its everywhere across the spectrum and its a giant opportunity to make a sustainable economy. Youre not going to have a sustainable economy if 50 of your population to stop her to spend in it, is the bottom line. In all of our projects we had that lens, and a great example is cote divoire is a a great example. We are entering into a part of the compact is a secondary Education Program and a Training Camp technical and Vocational Training program that is inside to empower women to participate in the economy. In malawi, we had a program to bring female employment into the energy sector, which didnt exist before. So the state utility set up a gender inclusion unit within the entity to make that happen. As part of that they sponsored educational scholarships for young women. I was talking to a couple of the young female engineers at one of the sites we visited, and they said they were so appreciative of ncc. They said, we wouldnt have our engineering degrees without the assistance that you all are providing. I said what are you going to do with it . What you want to do . They said we want to come back to malala and work on make the second comeback successful. To me thats self reinforcing circle and exactly the sort of thing were trying to accomplish. And by bringing attention to that issue and focusing on womens empowerment. So the white house and the Trump Administration has done a great job of bringing attention to this. We are proud to be a part of it. Its something that mcc has as a priority and its a personal priority of mine. Okay. You all have been very patient. I want to call on a couple of people first. Sorry, you guys will forgive me for cold calling on you but i do center rose is i think one of the smartest people in town. I read your stuff on the mcc and i think youve done some great work so want to give sarah a chance ask a question. I also want to give tim was been very involved with the mcc and the right of life and you can introduce yourself. Id like to get both of you to ask the first couple of questions. Can you my friend here, can you give my friend sarah a chance ask the first question . I think she do some of the best work in town on mcc. Thank you very much. Its a pleasure to meet you, a pleasure to hear from you. I can speak for a number of people in washington more broadly were all very glad you joined as a new ceo. So its great news all around. And, thanks so much for hosting. One of the things i know mcc thinks about every fall is the selections a new partner countries. Something they have been thinking about for quite some time is how do you deal with the question, so the exits question of whether not mcc is going to be able to and under what circumstances mcc my people interestrate the contract with the country . So far there hasnt been a third contract, probably not candidate country that is, up that is viable. Theres been some resistance among some stakeholders to even second compact. In a lot of ways i think third compaqs of the future mcc and a lot of weight in addition to sort of this regional and concurrent focus that intimacy has been granted. I guess i would be interested in hearing your take on what will be necessary, will be important for mcc to be able to make that leap into hopefully a third compaqs . For the agile let me give tim a chance to ask a question of degree chance to put your thoughts together. Tim, share with our Television Audience who you are and youre very statute one with the mcc. Oh, gee, im about for a buddy with that. Im managing director for the risky investment network, formerly with mcc and sitting on the Steering Committee for the private sector engagement with mcc. So thanks honor to talk today and dan, thank you for holding this event. I thought you did a very good job of covering the sort of waterfront of all the things especially for the private sector aspect. We are very much interested in hearing more about. One of the things you didnt talk about is u. S. Dfc. If wed been here a year ago we talk about the bill back. You spent some time over at opec on this year and just carries on any ideas, innovations that you think might be appropriate for mcc today, given the increased budget and authorities that they have. Ill take her first. Thats a great question on third compaqs. That is, there is conversation around that. To me that falls into, is that something mcc could do . Yes. Is that something we should do, and i think thats a broader question. I think the mission of mcc isnt necessarily always to be in a country . We are supposed to be helping a country on a journey to selfreliance and hopefully moving hopefully our engagement with our partner countries moussa need in that direction. And so as you know, a second compact there are bright the things. There needs to be greater buyin, more money put in our partner countries and a series of criteria that has to be met more stringent on this scorecard, et cetera. And so that is, i think thats a fundamental question that Needs Analysis and its going to need, before we would consider even doing that, would take a lot of conversation with our stakeholders on the hill and the administration among thirdparty groups, and thats not, the short witness it is a third compaqs isnt something that am looking to engage in any sort of immediate capacity at all. Kim, yes, so part of what i would love to see happen is like a second when were in a country, we are as mcc but we really there as the United States of america pick and other agencies are there as well. So how can we maximize and leverage a unified effort between all agencies, and really opic and what will be the dmc and mcc fall sort of next which of in that development arc. The way i think of it is mcc comes in and creates a great enabling environment and hopefully that will increase the attractiveness for the private sector deals. So whats important initially is we have a good view into opic deal pipeline in countries where, eligible countries such as threshold or compaqs, they are aware of what were doing in this countries are timelines and our goals and i would try to align those priorities. So as we move forward and as the dsc comes online and develops, i would suspect, which is come with good communication now but i would expect that would integrate even further and institutionalize in some ways so its a collaborative, a very collaborative effort. Let me make two comments about that one, about that question. Thank you sarah and thank you, tim. Theres sort of this magic moment of dramatic agnosticism of sort of six to nine months before he signed the peace of paper with the government where either the private sector partners or the dfc, that sort of where the magic, the highest opportunity is there right before he signed a contract because once you sign a compact, your, its almost put in submit. The leverage decreases. Your leverage decreases and we are in year four and weve got 20 seconds, the clock is ticking. That time you describe in all these countries, whether its real or not is there. I think theres a moment there, so some of it is about timing. I think about how the dfc and its easy talk to each other and when in your cycle, i think is very important. The other thing to think about is, i think there could be some value in having i think the age world and the Development Finance will have slightly different language. So a. I. D. , and on the is a case in mcc, but maybe, in the grant world a lot of people come to think equity something that has to do with social justice, with Development Finance people think equity has shareholder ownership. Slightly different culture. Theres some value in having, i know maybe a little prosaic, but i think this issue of having, just giving the Government Agencies to at some crossfertilization of people. If you have inductions of new employees to the extent that you rotations, and rotation of the dfc or the extent the dfc is bring in new hires, they had to be doing a stint at a. I. D. , a stint at mcc. Im a big believer in facetoface interaction, people knowing each other. I did spend time at opic. That was very valuable to me. They have a ton of innovative programs there working on, credit financing creation. They have a platform with Liberty Insurance to derisk personal loss insurance for investors, and all these things. Mccs teams have met with opic teens and theres a lot of crosstalk communication. Integrating further, making sure that we, like i say, institutionalize it on some level at our people are constantly talking i what weve got to do. So lets take some other questions. Id love to see my friend from various lives and id love to hear from this woman here and id love to hear from lori. Thank you. Welcome. Weve been waiting a long time. In addition to the various hats you wear. I was on the National Advisory council with tim when i was president for initiative for global default. I rolled back on the business side and developing projects in africa the to continue the on e Advisory Council. I would like to come back to the private sector leverage and peace in africa. I think its interesting and maybe the time with classic case, for example, u. S. Solar power company, the mcc program is there. What we drink is a classic continuation of that sort. But the thing come in terms of letting u. S. Business the letter he received ayes sicko the Advisory Council for mcc, they dont mess around. I get in and there was a letter on my desk [talking over each other] we are afraid of 1. It would become at magna charta. But any case, i think the key point of the recommendations getting out to American Business community, and its also recognizing its not Just Marketing mcc in washington, but its really marketing in ca in the countries in the Government Agencies were dealing with. Thats part of message thats got to get out there. The other part, moore is a question ive been thinking connection with mcc is only a granting mechanism. Europeans have gone forward with a plan, you know, what the call something sustainable the Government Fund that blends the grant with a commercial financing to lower the cost of finance. Its something out of note if youre thinking about but there been some discussions. I love your thoughts on that because that would be the big sort of requirement. So how do you use mcc money to blend with right. So how are you getting out to the American Business and how do we blend . Great. And my friend bob over here. My colleague will get you a microphone. I was wrong with state and eight and worked very closely with mcc in many projects, including the power africa. In that context, i think the broader question i think is, is the whole of government approach, especially in todays world where we face challenges from china, et cetera, and Economic Development growth. My question really gets to this, how do you see that all whole of government . Clearly, it had a big impact in terms of relationship to the president ial initiative on power africa and it really, mcc put a lot of money into it. And then, how is that translating out into indopacific and asia and 70 initiatives, are you having that kind of interaction with the agencies as you put together that whole of government. All right, this woman here. Thank you. We know china has been actively using the belt and Road Initiative to project its power and influence, so maybe, can you get some comments about the situation in those countries . August over interested in engaging with United States and mcc, and how about [inaudible] thank you. Thank you, dan. I want to echo the welcome from the community. Weve been waiting for leadership, confirmed leadership at the mcc, for a very long time so we are very enthused that some in place and we are thrilled its you. I want to ask you about your vision of your role in government outside of your agency in an agency. Because as we in the Development Community continue to watch this administrations budget requests come in with 30 cuts and then read after congress has with the power of the purse enacted final spending for state and a. I. D. , opportunities that the administration is seeking to rescind Significant Development dollars. It to me bags the question, it serves the mcc because in the long run you may be forced to have on a third complex with a small handful of countries if the development is not occurring to bring into the process where they can become threshold and scorecard countries. So what is your view about what you would like to do at the table with the interagency, with regard to the whole of government budget in this process . Thank you. You have a number of questions. Let me see if i can do it. Let me see if i can do it. Okay, ill fail immediately. On u. S. On private security to deliver i cant agree more. Weve got to get outside d. C. , outside of washington. In malawi that were a Baltimore Company provided dredges, caterpillar equipment works all over the place. Harvesters were from wisconsin. Ge helped design the power center and doing training. But thats all, i would be more than happy to engage with players around the country and working with manufacturers and working with the business roundtable, or whatever the correct group of people are to get out and make the case. In terms of blending with the dfc, i think there are opportunities there. Again, whats important to me is that the model that mcc and the focus that mcc has had since the conception does not change. And that we stay laser focused on Poverty Reduction through economic growth, and that we stay the leading innovators and executors of our largescale, hard Infrastructure Projects. Thats what has made a successful. Thats what will continue to make mcc successful and, frankly, thats what draws the abundant talent that is at mcc. I mean, these are committed, highly educated, highly motivated, Mission Driven people working on that staff. Its because of that focus. There are great opportunities we are going to work with dfc and folks over there to see where we are. I want to keep that, keep, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and thats what you want to do. Okay, power africa and our interagency. Look, all of these environments are complex, very dynamic and very challenging. And so where mcc, where we go is not determined by necessarily by strategic needs, but where we are we ought to be engaged in a process of working to advance those interests. Among the interagency, thats communication, thats making sure, like in cote divoire and the master infrastructure plan is coming together, thats an important thing for mcc and its an important thing for usg generally to know and have access to, what are the needs . What are we trying to accomplish . How does this benefit what were trying to achieve in west africa, generally . So thats, you know, the white house is a great donating, at the National Security council does enormous and great work in convening that sort of collaboration. Its just got to continue. And in terms of around the world, we are, we are in sri lanka. We are in nepal. In mongolia. Were in the Solomon Islands now with the Threshold Program. All those are strategically important places. We are in Central America strategically an important place. And so we have the ability to help advance u. S. Interests generally wherever we are, and its just a process of Relationship Building and making sure we are all working and communicating clearly and working on the same page. Belt and road. Belt and road. As i was talking to dan about earlier, mcc is a great, a a gt alternative and a great model that stands in contrast to belt and road. Which is primarily drives that. It does not engage the Civil Society component of a country. It isnt an open bidding process. They are typically stateowned enterprises, and its really the antithesis of the sort of knowledge process and result that mcc and the United States is trying to model. Some would say it may be, the belt and road may be a neocolonial model, if i look at say, what happened in sri lanka. I think ever yes, senator knows about the port. When there was a 99 year lease, which is similar to the hong kong thing, it struck me that, so i think to the extent that the mcc is working to help change the dynamic of a country, i think, i do think it stands in contrast. Like i say, its a model of accountability and selfdetermination, and we are there in partnership. My impression from dealing with at least the governments of malala and cote divoire recently, thats very clear. They understand it. They appreciate it and they want that. Thats mccs role and it may be a small agency but it is a great face and example of what that model stands for and what it cant accomplish. Where we stand speeders everyone has been reading the newspaper. I think that we are in, this is obviously a broader conversation. Were in a resource constrained environment, and so i think a wider discussion on u. S. Deponent is a responsible conversation. I think where mcc fits in that is we are a great way to make the case for continued u. S. Engagement abroad in development, and development activity. The reason for that is, and works on multiple levels. We are great stewards of the american taxpayer dollars. We are achieving a concrete measurable result for the u. S. Taxpayer. We budget what were going to do. Do. We stick to that budget and we achieve results. We hold countries accountable where conditions are not met with a backup off the scorecard, we withdraw funds or we narrow the scope of the project. Thats not an idle threat. I mean, accountability is baked into the model. I think 25 of the countries that we worked for over the compact of the project has had some project there in some respect. So without that accountability, frankly our leverage and our credibility goes down. Thats very important to me and i know its very important to the agency to continue that. Its transparent and open in terms of the evaluation thats done on the effects of the project, and its a 20 year cycle. The look back on, that evaluation on our projects had, will go longer than the agency has even been insistent to date. So youll be able to look and gather information as an american taxpayer or Anyone Around the world can look and see what weve done, and its country led. So youre really putting the onus on a partner country. Its a partnership. I kept saying a few times trebly, people said this is such a great gift. This is not a gift. This is a partnership. You hold up your end of the bargain and will hold up our end of the bargain. You will take a message back up is a concern in the community about these decisions . I understand very clearly what the concern is, and like i say, from where i sit at mcc i want to use our model and our example as way to make the case for continued u. S. Engagement. Okay. I think thats all weve got. Can you join in thanking sean cairncross, please. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] a look at our live coverage for wednesday on cspan. Watch booktv for live coverage of the National Book festival saturday starting at 1. Our coverage includes author interviews with Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg on her book, my own words. Wi uc Berkeley John yoo and political commentator steve hayward. I wanted to set the scene for our event today. Theyre going to be talking to