Millennium Challenge Corporation

Organizational profile: The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign assistance agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty. MCC provides time-limited grants promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions. MCC grants are designed to complement other U.S. and international development programs, as well as create an enabling environment for private sector investment. There are three primary types of MCC grants:
- Compacts—large, five-year grants for selected countries that meet MCC’s eligibility criteria
- Concurrent Compacts for Regional Investments—grants that promote cross-border economic integration, and increase regional trade and collaboration
- Threshold Programs—smaller grants focused on policy and institutional reform in selected countries that come close to passing MCC’s eligibility criteria and show a firm commitment to improving their policy performance

MCC supports partner country investments that help secure and protect land and property rights, enable both rural and urban land to be more productive and better managed, and make land markets and other land-dependent markets function better. Within the Land and Property Rights sector, MCC projects include community and forest land and landscape management.

Financing Instrument: Grants

Project scale: MCC’s Land Projects have ranged from US$0.9 million to $170.5 million.

Recipient countries regions/country groups: Global

Recipient categories: Governments

Eligibility Criteria: To be a candidate for MCC assistance, countries must be classified as either low income or lower middle income by the World Bank and not be prohibited from receiving assistance by federal law.

Application guidelines: Each year, the MCC Board of Directors selects countries as eligible for MCC assistance. In determining country eligibility, the Board considers a country’s performance on the scorecard indicators; the opportunity to reduce poverty and generate economic growth within a country; and the availability of funds. The selected countries, if they agree to participate, then develop a Compact Proposal with MCC.