Helping world’s poor aids all of us

Jose Ordonez, a Honduran farmer, struggled to support his family. The maize he planted and sold hardly generated enough income to provide for his three children. That all changed when Jose enrolled in training funded through the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corp., or MCC, which taught him how to grow higher-value crops. He switched from maize to papaya. He then used newly-repaired roads, also funded through MCC, to deliver his papayas to market at the peak of freshness to command the best price. The end result: Jose now has the skills and dependable roads — thanks to American generosity — to sustainably increase his income, earning enough to care for his household on his own.

When I met Jose in Honduras during my visit there to mark the end of its five-year MCC program, I tasted his papayas myself. I witnessed firsthand through the experience of this farmer, and others like him, that smart investments to fight poverty can make a difference. As Americans prepare for this year’s giving season, they should know that their government — like them — is focused not just on the dollars and cents of investing in development, but on the lasting and meaningful changes that result from those investments.

This requires new thinking. First, we need to work with developing countries that are willing to help themselves, that seek to practice sound policies, stand up to corruption and are held accountable to deliver results from each and every investment in their development. Second, we need to focus on creating lasting, sustainable impact that empowers a culture of self-sufficiency to break the cycle of aid dependency. Third, in these fiscally austere times, as we are asked to do more with less, we need to leverage resources from traditional and nontraditional partners to generate sustained economic growth that will make our development dollars no longer necessary.

MCC has been putting these principles, which are now central to President Barack Obama’s recently unveiled U.S. Global Development Policy, into practice since our creation in 2004. Ending extreme poverty requires investing in economic growth and promoting country-led development that engages ordinary citizens in designing and implementing the projects they need. It demands responsibility and accountability and focuses on transparency and results. The president’s new strategy seeks to help countries that are willing to help themselves develop their own abilities so ultimately, assistance is no longer needed. Toward this end, MCC supports poverty reduction through economic growth in countries committed to making the most effective use of development investments, knowing that growth creates jobs and incomes that pull families out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency.

I saw this with Jose in Honduras. I saw this in the eyes of the children I met in El Salvador attending classes in schools refurbished through MCC’s investment. Their education is equipping them with the skills they’ll need to compete. I saw this on the farms of pineapple growers in Ghana, who are using MCC-funded training and equipment to garner the attention of international agribusinesses that want to buy their crops to supply markets in Europe.

Americans recognize that investing in effective development around the world is more than the right thing to do. It is also in our security and economic interests. Creating stable, nonfailing states — where citizens have a path to hope and opportunity — bolsters security and peace for us all.

That’s why improving the lives of the world’s poor matters for their sake and for our own sake.