BURKINA FASO GRANT APPROVED

Burkina Faso's compact with the United States is MCC's 17th agreement and follows a successful MCC threshold program that, in partnership with USAID, helped improve girls' education in the country over the past two years. The new compact will build upon this success and fund the construction of classrooms in 132 "girl friendly" schools for grades 4 through 6. The compact will also improve land and rural productivity through investments in irrigation and water management, technical assistance to farmers, access to rural credit and improved rural and primary roads.

NIGER

On March 17, 2008 MCC Niger launched a three year program which focuses on bolstering girl's education, reducing public corruption, streamlining business creation procedures and improving rights and access to land. The Minister of Finance, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine and USAID West Africa's Mission Director Henderson Patrick signed the agreement.

Minister of Finance, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine and USAID West Africa's Mission Director Henderson Patrick at the signing ceremony.

As part of MCC's overall mandate to reduce poverty through economic growth, MCC threshold programs are designed to assist countries that are on the "threshold" of eligibility for large-scale Millennium Challenge Account grants, or Compacts. This is the 2nd Threshold Program, with a 3rd under review.

Threshold program assistance is used to help countries address the specific policy areas for improvement indicated by their scores on 17 policy indicators in three categories: Ruling Justly, Investing in People, and Encouraging Economic Freedom. These policy indicators are central to the criteria and methodology for compact eligibility and are products of respected international institutions and national data. Each indicator was selected based on its relationship to growth and poverty reduction, the number of countries it covers, its transparency and availability, its analytical rigor, and its objectivity.