New Hampshire native, Jim Bednar, the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s resident Ghana director, has a great op-ed in today’s New Hampshire Union Leader – the only state wide newspaper in New Hampshire.

In addition to the progress that is being made in Ghana, Jim notes former NH Senator Sununu’s recent trip to Ghana with ONE. Mr. Bednar speaks of his interest in international development as the same “pragmatism [that] defines why Americans should remain engaged in making the world better.” As you know, President Obama will be visiting Ghana later this week. Check back on the ONE Blog for further coverage of the trip.

Excerpts below, full op-ed here

The interconnected global community means that the prosperity of others is closely tied to our own. The severe economic crisis and the recent threat of a health pandemic are stark reminders that borders cannot insulate us. That’s why smart U.S. engagement in the fight against global poverty and disease matters as much to the poor in Ghana as it does to Americans in New Hampshire and the other 49 states.

Ghanaians strive for a better tomorrow. Here in West Africa, their commitment to stability and growth means greater development and trade. The country’s poverty rate dropped from 52 percent in 1992 to 28.5 percent in 2006. Yet there’s still more to do. Ghana’s poor live a reality of poverty few Americans can fully fathom. In a country where agriculture is the economy’s backbone, employing 60 to 70 percent of workers, a typical farmer knows the burden of extreme poverty.

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I think many Granite Staters would agree with MCC’s approach: We expect partner countries to lead their development through homegrown ideas and local implementation. This creates sustainable solutions of their own making. We demand practical results that deliver change in the lives of the poor. Such transparency and results-driven accountability ensure the responsible stewardship of U.S. tax dollars.

I can see how the Ghana-MCC partnership is beginning to make a difference for the poor. Road repairs will help farmers reach markets. The first of 60,000 farmers to be trained through MCC programs have learned to think more as business men and women, and banks are giving them credit. Seventy-five schools have been renovated, with hundreds more to be built.

-Matthew Bartlett