Term of the Month: Threshold Program
The Threshold Program is designed to help countries nearing eligibility – essentially at the “threshold” – but needing to address specific policy weaknesses illustrated by their scores on one or more of the sixteen MCC policy indicators. The Board of Directors chooses countries for the Threshold Program based on a country’s demonstrated commitment to improving their low indicator scores while maintaining or improving their existing scores on the other indicators.
Read more about the Threshold Program.
Ask the Expert: Malik Chaka
Ask Malik Chaka, Director of Threshold Countries, a question about the Threshold Program. Should your question be chosen, it will appear with an answer in next month’s Millennium Challenge Monthly. Ask Malik a question.
Bio of Malik Chaka
Director of Threshold Countries
Malik M. Chaka, Director, Threshold Countries for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), is responsible for the African countries selected for participation in MCC Threshold Program. He works with the governments of these countries and USAID, the MCC’s primary implementing partner for the Threshold Program, to develop a Threshold Program.
Mr. Chaka has been involved in African affairs for more than three decades. He has worked in more than 40 countries on the continent. Prior to joining MCC, he worked for seven years as a Professional Staff Member with the House International Relations Committee (HIRC) Africa Subcommittee. He prepared Congressional hearings, worked on legislation including the historic Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and did research for the Committee’s oversight of the Administration’s Africa policy.
Mr. Chaka graduated from Rutgers with a degree in Sociology. He pursued additional studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Antioch.
Notable Quotable
“Finally, the bill provides further support, as I mentioned, to the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which I see as our best hope for weaning countries from foreign assistance. The MCC provides another set of incentives to countries to make the correct policy decisions, policies which improve rule of law and economic policies, investments in the health and education of people.”
Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ)
Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs
Comments when introducing the Foreign Operations Act of 2007
on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, June 8, 2006
Quarterly Report
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