Opening the gateway to opportunity

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Daniel Yohannes , Chief Executive Officer

Today’s release of MCC’s 2011 Annual Report, appropriately titled Gateway to Opportunity, captures the milestones of the past year and articulates clear priorities moving forward. In the report, you can read about the significant strides we have made in delivering results, forging partnerships with countries and civil society, and championing policy reforms to create opportunities for sustainable economic growth in some of the world’s poorest countries. This foundation allows us now to expand our work not just to help poor countries rise out of poverty and break the cycle of aid dependency but also to create stable trading and investment partners for the United States, which means more jobs here at home.

By incentivizing the right policy conditions and generating an enabling environment for growth, MCC builds a Gateway to Opportunity for American businesses interested in exporting to or doing business in these next generation emerging markets as they climb out of poverty. Because of this, MCC’s mission is key to Secretary of State Clinton’s 21st century economic statecraft and President Obama’s efforts to put in place an American economy that is “built to last.” MCC is pushing the envelope on development effectiveness and sustainability through our commitment to transparency, accountability, results, policy reform, and country-driven solutions.

MCC’s approach has not gone unnoticed. A November 2011 Fortune Magazine article concludes that MCC “certainly gives the taxpayer real bang for the buck.” A recent MarketWatch commentary by Thomas Kostigen arguing for a robust MCC budget sums up the impact best: “MCC deserves its fair share so the U.S. can gain its fair share in the emerging markets. The global impact of these investments comes back to us all in the form of food, jobs, more open markets for trade, and doing good and right by others. It’s a boomerang effect.”

We agree, and we’re committed to showcasing even more investment and procurement opportunities for U.S. businesses in the months ahead to ensure the full “boomerang effect” of positive impact for the world’s poor as well as American businesses and workers.

A resource for Armenia’s future

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Jonathan Brooks, Managing Director for Europe, Asia, Pacific, and Latin America

Although MCC's compact with Armenia closed at the end of September, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan is ensuring the lessons we learned during our five-year partnership can improve the country’s future development projects.

The embassy’s new MCC Resource Center makes information regarding MCC’s $177 million investment available as a reference for future U.S. Government development projects, Armenians from the diaspora interested in building upon compact projects and others. The center includes an array of documents like farmer-training maps, public outreach documents, quarterly bulletins, and training materials.

The MCC Resource Center also provides embassy staff and visitors with information on MCA-Armenia’s successor, the Foreign Financed Projects Management Center (FFPMC). An FFPMC team led the compact development process, and we are pleased that they are involved again by helping monitor MCC’s investments over the next few years.

In Zambia, MCC’s newest compact brings clean water and improved sanitation and drainage services to more than one million residents

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Raja Kaul, MCC Resident Country Director, Zambia

Last Thursday, the MCC Board of Directors approved a $355 million compact with Zambia that focuses on the water sector in Lusaka. MCC investments are expected to have a significant impact on the lives of more than one million Lusaka residents by improving their health and economic productivity and helping the country reduce poverty on a sustainable basis. Fittingly, the Board’s decision fell on the annual UN-designated World Water Day.

This single-sector compact aims to address one of the Zambia’s most binding constraints to economic growth through infrastructure investment in the rapidly urbanizing capital city of Lusaka. It is designed to reduce the incidence and prevalence of water-related disease, decrease the number of productive days lost due to disease and time to collect water, lower costs of water and new sanitation, and reduce flood losses for businesses and residential homes.

In addition to investments in water supply, sanitation and drainage infrastructure, MCC’s integrated investment will also support the government’s ongoing water sector reform efforts by strengthening responsible institutions. The investment is expected to significantly benefit Lusaka’s poor, as 73 percent of the more than one million Zambian beneficiaries currently have incomes below $2 per day. 

The Zambia compact will promote key MCC corporate priorities, including gender and social integration, environmental and social impact assessments, and private sector development. In the Zambia compact, social and gender integration is prioritized, and activities are designed to extend project benefits to women and vulnerable groups. 

Since its inception in 1993, World Water Day has served to spotlight the global challenge to provide safe water and sanitation services to those living in poverty. So far, MCC has invested $793 million in WASH-related projects in nine partner countries, and MCC’s compacts with Cape Verde, Jordan, and Mozambique, like Zambia, focus primarily on water sector development. Our growing WASH portfolio reflects our partner countries’ recognition of the important role of access to clean, affordable, and reliable water in promoting economic growth.

For more information on MCC’s water and sanitation projects, visit www.mcc.gov/water.

Springs of Prosperity

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Steve Marma, Resident Country Director

Mozambique suffers from one of the world’s lowest levels of per-capita water consumption. Mozambican girls and women spend much of their day fetching water instead of attending school or engaging in income-generating activities. But recently I was able to witness two important milestones in MCC’s effort to provide access to some of the country’s poorest people.

During a ceremony filled with optimism for the future of northern Mozambique, Prime Minister Aires Bonifacio Baptista Ali visited Nacala on Feb. 18 to lay the first brick for the area’s new water supply system. Surrounded by dignitaries, MCA-Mozambique employees, and beneficiaries, Prime Minister Ali placed the concrete block into a hole in the red earth.  Other dignitaries were on hand to witness this important event, including the governor of Nampula province, the vice minister of public works and habitation and local chiefs. There were speeches, handshakes, dancing, countless smiles, blessings by Christian and Muslim leaders, and a makeya (a traditional ceremony to mark important occasions).

More than 120,000 people in Nacala and the surrounding region will soon have access to improved sources of water because of the project, which includes a treatment plant, transmission mains, a reservoir, and distribution centers. It’s part of the compact’s $207 million Water Supply and Sanitation Project, which is expected to benefit more than 750,000 Mozambicans. Just days after that ceremony, we hit another landmark—albeit with far less fanfare. The first group of people displaced by the project’s activities in the Quelimane area received compensation payments. Almost 140 of the 423 people affected by the project received payments; 26 of them opted to receive new houses, the contracts for which have already been signed. They will likely have greater access to social services as part of a planned community.

The Quelimane activity is designed to improve drainage and reduce flooding, which should lower the rate of diseases like cholera and malaria, as well as allow for the expansion of the road system into the area.

Prime Minister Ali’s brick was the first of many to be laid, and hundreds of others affected by the Quelimane project will soon receive their checks—but this month’s events were huge steps on the path of helping northern Mozambicans escape poverty.

MCC Celebrates International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2012 by MCC, Washington, DC

At MCC, we believe empowering men, women, boys, and girls is critical to sustainable poverty reduction.

MCC is committed to ensuring that gender is considered in all stages of its work with partner countries, from country selection and policy reform to project development and implementation.

Today, we published an updated fact sheet, "MCC's Commitment to Gender Equality."

Andria Hayes-Birchler in MCC's Department of Policy and Evaluation posted a blog entry about MCC's new "Gender in the Economy" indicator, which builds on MCC’s groundbreaking Gender Policy by recognizing the relationship between growth, poverty reduction and gender equality..

We also published a story about Emilia Kambonde, a rural farmer in Namibia who is taking advantage of an MCC compact program to export her community's indigenous natural products to global markets.

In the slideshow above, real people—MCC beneficiaries, employees, and MCA staff—share their views on gender equality. We want to hear from you, too: Leave your comments below.

Defining Data

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Andria Hayes-Birchler, Development Policy Officer

In the fall of 2011, MCC updated its selection system in part to incorporate new (and exciting!) data developed since MCC was established. Several new indicators were added to take advantage of data innovation in fields such as Internet freedom, credit markets and gender equity. One of these is called “gender in the economy,” which uses data from IFC’s “Women, Business and the Law” report to assess whether women and men have equal legal rights to participate in 10 economic activities, such as signing a contract, registering a business and choosing where to live.

By encouraging countries to adopt laws that allow both men and women to participate fully in the economy, this indicator helps ensure that everyone can benefit from MCC projects and economic growth. The gender in the economy indicator serves as an excellent proxy for issues covered by MCC’s own Gender Policy and has been received with great support from many MCC stakeholders. 

At the time it was adopted, IFC expressed its intention to expand the dataset over the coming years to cover all low-income and lower-middle income countries; at the time, it covered only about two-thirds of low and lower-middle income countries. Sierra Leone became the first country to benefit from this expansion. After seeing an “n/a” on this indicator, the Government of Sierra Leone worked with MCC and the IFC to request inclusion in the dataset. The IFC was responsive, and within months had analyzed Sierra Leone’s legal framework.

Sierra Leone’s efforts resulted in a dataset that shows no inequalities in the law on the 10 activities measured by this indicator—and as a result, Sierra Leone passes the gender in the economy indicator.

The Government of Sierra Leone’s efforts didn’t stop there.

Sierra Leone passed seven indicators on its most recent scorecard, and the government has vowed to perform better in the future. They established a desk in Freetown dedicated to coordinating communication between government officials and MCC, as well as maintaining contact with the third-party institutions from which we draw our indicator data. The desk is also tracking progress on indicators like control of corruption, which Sierra Leone passed for the first time this year after a dramatic two-year improvement. Sierra Leone’s efforts in fighting corruption have been recognized in many venues—including the MCC scorecard.

MCC hosts returned Peace Corps volunteers

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Peace Corps Working Group, MCC

On March 1, 2012, MCC hosted 16 returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) for “Take an RPCV to Work Day,” a Peace Corps pilot program designed to allow RPCVs the chance to visit corporations, federal agencies, and nonprofits to learn more about professional opportunities and build networking contacts.

At MCC, Patrick Fine, Vice President of Compact Operations at MCC, and Stacy Rhodes, Chief of Staff at Peace Corps (and former MCC Managing Director), kicked off the day’s activities. RPCVs shadowed MCC staff, participated in expert panel discussions, and held one-on-one conversations with staff about working in the field of international development. The event served to further strengthen ties between MCC and Peace Corps.

MCC and Peace Corps signed a Memorandum of Agreement on September 9, 2010, setting forth a framework for collaboration on complementary program areas.

Look back: Read one Peace Corps volunteer's blog post about her experience working with MCC in Armenia.

Building Community through Development

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Cassandra Q. Butts, Senior Advisor

Grade school students and teachers of the Bacjao Elementary School in Balangiga, Samar welcome MCC and MCA-Philippines teams on February 28, 2012. The public school is a recipient of two classrooms from the KALAHI-CIDSS project implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

I was in the province of Leyte in the Philippines on Tuesday to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the municipality of Alang-Alang to begin participating in an innovative approach to development called Kalahi-CIDSS, which is included in the country’s MCC compact. Kalahi-CIDSS is a community-based approach to development that makes beneficiaries active participants in the selection, design and implementation of development projects that they believe are best for their communities.

While Kalahi-CIDSS isn't original to MCC—the program originally was funded in the Philippines by the World Bank—MCC's investment of $120 million will double the size and scale of the program and make it available to communities like Alang-Alang for the first time. MCC is also adding innovations in areas such as gender integration and environmental assessment, impact evaluation and engineering standards that will enhance the value of the program to beneficiaries as well as improve the sustainability of outcomes.

The hope is that Alang-Alang will find the same success with the program as the municipality of Balangiga experienced when it used Kalahi-CIDSS to build schools, a retaining wall to protect against typhoon flooding, a community road, and a bridge. Viscuso de Lira, the mayor of Balangiga, describes the Kalahi-CIDSS program as galvanizing community engagement in a way that had not been achieved before and building community support for sustaining projects that are the product of their own initiative and sweat equity.

MCC and the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines are further using Kalahi-CIDSS to empower communities in a coordinated campaign against trafficking in persons, seeking to educate Kalahi-CIDSS communities as well as other communities impacted by our road project in the Samar region on preventing this global crime.

Kalahi-CIDSS is not only building and empowering communities but also promoting the principles of transparency and accountability in how development resources are used. This approach can be critical in improving local government at all levels of engagement.