[PCA] Fw: Millennium Challenge Corporation Seeks Ideas for Natural Resources Management Indicator

Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Wed Jun 29 13:22:24 CDT 2005


Any ideas?  See directions for submitting them at the bottom of this
e-mail!


                     Millennium Challenge Corporation
For Immediate Release                                              Contact:
Davy Kong/(202) 521-3864
June 27, 2005
kongd at mcc.gov

                               Press Release

    Millennium Challenge Corporation Seeks Ideas for Natural Resources
                           Management Indicator

Washington, D.C.—The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) works with the
world’s poorest countries and selects countries as eligible to apply for
funding from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) based on a country’s
performance against its peers on policies in three categories: ruling
justly, investing in people, and economic freedom.  In its authorizing
legislation, MCC is asked to use objective and quantifiable indicators to
evaluate a country's demonstrated commitment to, among other things,
economic policies that promote the sustainable management of natural
resources.  Thus far, MCC has been unable to identify an existing measure
that meets our criteria for an indicator.  To address this need, MCC has
launched a public process to seek broad input from the academic community,
public and private sector practitioners, and researchers at think tanks and
non-governmental organizations.

On February 28, 2005, MCC announced plans to establish a working group to
look into this question and a process to seek public input on an indicator.
MCC has worked with a broad range of experts to conduct extensive research
about existing and potential indicators and indices and criteria for an
indicator.  At a meeting of natural resources experts on June 24, 2005,
hosted by The Brookings Institution, MCC announced the  invitation for
ideas from the public for an index or indicator.  MCC has enlisted the help
of experts with backgrounds in natural and environmental sciences,
economics, and public policy to individually rate proposals and submit
independent evaluations to MCC.  These evaluations will enable MCC to make
a recommendation to MCC’s Board of Directors on a potential measure.
Following the Board’s determination, MCC will announce publicly the
selected indicator or index.

MCC will not provide compensation for any ideas submitted pursuant to this
request.  MCC is willing to enter into a mutually acceptable royalty-free
license agreement with the submitter so that the individual or institution
retains its proprietary and intellectual property interest, if any, in the
indicator or index.  MCC does not intend to fund in any way the development
of the indicator or index, nor collection of data or any other related
activities; however, this does not preclude institutions from seeking
funding from other U.S. Government agencies.


Proposal Requirements


Proposals for a natural resource indicator or index must contain:

   1)      A description of the index or indicator including the
   methodology and the data to be used; if using existing measure or
   existing data, the source and the number of countries for which data is
   available; if measure is new, how it would be compiled; if data is not
   currently available, how data would be collected, what institution(s)
   would do data collection, the approximate cost of the data collection,
   and how long it would take to collect data.

   2)      A description of how the index or indicator meets the
   legislative requirement to “…use objective and quantifiable indicators
   of a country’s demonstrated commitment to … economic policies that
   promote … the sustainable management of natural resources.”

   3)      A description of how the index or indicator meets the following
   MCC criteria for an indicator or index, consistent with MCC’s FY05
   Methodology and Criteria for Selection:

         a.       Has been or will be developed by a third party,
         independent of MCC
         b.       Utilizes objective and high quality data
         c.       Is analytically rigorous
         d.       Will be publicly available
         e.       Has had or will have broad country coverage (across MCA
         candidate countries defined as low income or lower middle income
         countries)
         f.        Is or can be comparable across countries (including
         those with a variety of physical endowments)
         g.       Demonstrates a clear theoretical or empirical link to
         economic growth and poverty reduction (providing a causal
         explanation)
         h.       Are policy-linked, i.e., measure factors that governments
         can influence within a two to three year horizon; and
         i.         Has or will have broad consistency in results from year
         to year (describe the frequency of the measure)

   4)      A real or theoretical example of what kind of information the
   indicator or index would provide for five MCA candidate countries with a
   variety of physical endowments.

   5)      Technical feasibility including cost and time for
   implementation, institutional capacity to develop the indicator or index
   and collect data and any other related activities, and adequate
   institutional financing, or capacity to obtain adequate financing for
   development of the indicator or index, collection of data, and any other
   related activities.

   6)      An index or indicator proposed by an organization need not be
   based solely on data collected or published by that organization, so
   long as the data sources meet the criteria listed above and if the data
   is not collected or published by that organization, the organization
   should indicate if there are any restrictions in the use of the data.



Proposal Evaluation

The Proposals will be evaluated based on the extent to which the proposal
for an index or indicator addresses:

   1)      Each of the six elements listed above, including element three
   regarding MCC criteria and

2)  Technical feasibility (time, cost and other factors), institutional
capacity and financing capacity.

The deadline for ideas is August 8, 2005.  To submit a proposal, please
email MCC’s office of Development Policy at:  MCCDevelopmentPolicy at mcc.gov.
MCC will notify the submitter upon receipt of proposal.  To ask questions
about this Request for Ideas or how to contribute to the work of the
Natural Resources Working Group, please contact MCC’s office of Development
Policy at: MCCDevelopmentPolicy at mcc.gov.

                                    ###



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