Overview

Education is a key component to combat global poverty through the U.S. Government’s partnership with countries via the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Experts agree that lack of access to education can be a major constraint to economic growth. The selection process governing who receives MCC funding, the steps for developing many of MCC’s five-year grants, and the implementation of these unique programs around the world include education as an important consideration. A majority of MCC’s partner countries have identified education as an area where this unique form of U.S. foreign assistance can have the greatest impact.

In order to qualify for MCC funding, countries must pass third party indicators in the areas of ruling justly, investing in people, and promoting economic freedom. Two out of three policy indicators under the investing in people category relate to education. MCC investments are intended to strengthen partner countries’ education efforts, including the capacity of Ministries of Education to better manage the education system, so that they can sustain such efforts themselves in the future.

Compact Proposals

A number of MCC partner countries have submitted proposals which include educational projects and training components that contribute to human development in activities related to:

• Educational policy reform, including legal, regulatory, and financing frameworks
• Augmenting or upgrading a country’s existing educational institutions, including assessments of facilities, teaching, learning, and outreach
• Technical and vocational education and training (formal, non-formal education, and lifelong learning), often through public-private partnerships
• Improving access to education (basic, secondary, tertiary, vocational/technical, adult, non-formal, and other forms of education and training), including through distance learning and often targeting specific popultions (e.g., women)

Education Projects In Implementation

Burkina Faso

Five-year compact total : $28.83 million

Objective:

• Improve girls’ primary education completion rates.
• Extend Burkina Faso’s successful threshold program. Formerly under MCC’s threshold program, Burkina Faso’s BRIGHT school project was transferred to the compact program in 2008.

Activities funded:

• Construction of an additional 132 classrooms each for grades 4 through 6
• Construction of 122 kindergartens, including playgrounds and equipment
• Provision of daily meals during the school year for an estimated 13,000 children
• Funding of a social mobilization campaign and an adult literacy and management of micro-projects activity.
• Construction of up to fifty additional boreholes

El Salvador

Five-year compact total: $27.71 million

Objective:

• Increase education and skill levels of the Northern Zone’s poor by expanding the quality of, and access to, vocational and technical education and training

Activities funded:

• Improvements to strengthen the capacity of institutions and organizations involved in the policy, planning, and administration of education and training programs
• Support for non-credit, short-term, and pre-employment training

Ghana

Five-year compact total: $75.00 million

Objective:

• Support rural community services

Activities funded:

• Support for rural community services, including education infrastructure (e.g., classrooms)
• The decision on how to exactly allocate the $75 million will be made at the district level

Mongolia

Five-year compact total: $25.50 million

Objective:

• Improve access and quality in the vocational and technical education system.

Activities funded:

• Reform technical and vocational education policy and operational framework
• Professional development programs for vocational and technical education instructors
• Development of a competency-based skills training curriculum
• Support a labor market information system and career guidance system

Morocco

Five-year compact total: $33.30 million

Objective:

• Expand vocational training and pre-vocational education, including for artisans, and eliminate access barriers
• Improve skills and prospects for entrepreneurs

Activities funded:

• Expand the capacity of the national training system, targeting the 100 poorest performing institutes, and provide new capacity to 200 other institutes.
• Conduct impact assessments on three pilot business training programs and ramp up the most successful.
• Improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged segments of the population through literacy training for adults and non-formal education for youth.

Namibia

Five-year compact total: $144.98 million

Objective:

• Improve efficiency and effectiveness of primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational, and non-formal education and training.

Activities funded:

• Construction, equipping, and/or expansion of general schools (primary and secondary level), vocational training centers, regional resource centers, and teacher training facilities
• Provision of textbooks in math, science, and English for grades 5 to 12
• Expanding access to tertiary education financing through improved loan programs
• Competitive grants for high-priority vocational and training programs, including tourism training

Niger

Two-year threshold program total: $23.00 million

Objective:

• Increase girls’ primary school enrollment.

Activities Funded:

• Construction of up to 200 “girl-friendly” classrooms Provide gender-sensitive training and student tutoring
• Motivate school-age girls to improve school performance, including provision of school supplies, organized camps, and student competitions
• Support for Associations of Mothers in Education to design and implement income-generating activities for a school’s financial sustainability
• Incentive packages to female teachers to accept jobs in rural areas

Investments in human capital through education and training are widely recognized as critical for improving productivity and economic growth and reducing unemployment and poverty. Not only is education vital to the development of individuals, it is essential for the development of nations. MCC is committed to reducing poverty and helping partner countries increase the knowledge and skills of their citizens.