President Barack Obama will appoint a former Wisconsin congressman and University of Wisconsin alum to the board of directors for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the White House announced Thursday.
Mark Green was the representative for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District and also ran as the Republican candidate for governor in 2006 against current Gov. Jim Doyle.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation was formed by Congress in January 2004 to act as an independent agency to aid underdeveloped nations to increase development and economic growth.
Obama chose Green based on his work on the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003, which was the legislation that created the MCC, as well as his work on other public health legislation and his time spent as an Ambassador to Tanzania, according to a White House statement.
Green is also a graduate of the UW Law school and attended UW-Eau Claire as an undergrad.
Andrew Welhouse, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Republican Party, said Green’s years of public service and experience as director of the Malaria No More Policy Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping malarial deaths around the world, make him an ideal candidate to hold a position on the MCC Board of Directors.
“[Mark Green] is uniquely qualified to hold this position,” Welhouse said. “He has experience as a congressperson, and has dedicated a large chunk of his life to helping those in need.”
The corporation also forms partnerships with developing countries all over the world, but only those that are committed to “good governance, economic freedom and investments in their citizens,” according to the corporation.
If countries meet the criteria, aid is dispensed in the form of short and long-term grants to finance public works projects to improve the quality of life for the country’s citizens.
The MCC was originally formed in response to the Untied Nations Millennium Development Goals: Eight goals that all member states of the UN have agreed to reach by 2015.
The goals include ending poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combating HIV and AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership, according to the UN.
President Obama spoke last week during the Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York to outline progress in the U.S. toward achieving the Millennium Goals and also unveiled a new approach to ensure continued improvement.
“[The new approach is] development rooted in shared responsibility, mutual accountability and, most of all, concrete results that pull communities and countries from poverty to prosperity,” Obama said.
Despite America’s change in global development policy, the MCC will have a continued role in making sure America reaches their targets, according to an MCC statement.
As a member of the board of directors, Green will be part of a corporation that has become a critical part of the Obama administration’s development strategy, MCC executive officer Danial Yohannes said in a statement.
“MCC will continue putting its principles into practice, sharing what it has learned and staying on the cutting edge of effective and accountable development assistance,” Yohannes said.
Green could not be reached for comment.