Background and Consultative Process. The Philippines was declared eligible for MCC assistance in March 2008. With a population of approximately 90 million inhabitants, the 7,107 islands of the Philippines cover a combined area of 115,830 square miles. Despite unprecedented growth gains over the past decade, accompanied by moderate inflation, the Philippines continues to face severe constraints to reducing poverty. In an effort to prioritize its development spending, the Government elaborated a national medium-term development plan and several sector strategies, and undertook an analysis of constraints to economic growth. Priorities were identified for increased social sector spending, improvements to basic infrastructure, and improvements to governance, and were confirmed through a number of national, regional, and local consultations from early 2007 through early 2009. The Program has been designed by the Government, building upon initiatives from numerous donors, non-governmental organizations, and the domestic private sector to spur growth in economically depressed or vulnerable regions and to provide a platform for continued poverty reduction efforts. The Program will enable the Government to increase resources available for high-priority expenditures and target Government initiatives toward some of the poorest regions and municipalities in the archipelago.
Background and Consultative Process. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa’s Sahel region, bordering Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo and with a population of approximately 15.26 million people. Burkina Faso is predominantly a rural country, with 95 percent of the poor residing in rural areas. It also is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 176 out of 177 countries surveyed by the United Nations Development Program’s 2007 Human Development Index. In an effort to address constraints to investment, Burkina Faso has undertaken several broad macroeconomic reforms since the mid-1990s, including market-oriented reforms, decentralization of power from the central government to local governments, adoption of a new labor code and business climate improvements. Despite these reforms and moderate economic growth, Burkina Faso continues to face severe constraints to reducing poverty. In connection with the proposal submitted to MCC, the Government conducted a robust consultative process in May and June of 2006, building on the success and lessons learned from the process used to prepare its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The Government also engaged the media to inform the public about the proposal for Millennium Challenge Account assistance with a series of press releases, television interviews and press conferences. Consultations took place in all thirteen regions of the country and included representatives of civil society, the private sector, traditional authorities, farmers’ and women’s groups and local government officials. Of the 3,115 participants, 87 percent came from civil society, and 18 percent were women. Overwhelmingly, input focused on improving the rural economy including ways to secure land tenure, intensify and modernize agricultural production, and improve the road network. The Program is designed specifically to address these constraints.
Background and Consultative Process. Jordan is a highly urbanized Middle Eastern country with a population of approximately six million people. With limited access to surface water or naturally recharged aquifers, Jordan ranks among the world’s five most water poor countries. Jordan was deemed eligible for MCC Compact assistance in 2006. Late in 2007, the Government established the Millennium Challenge Unit (the “MCU”) to work directly with MCC to manage the process of developing a proposed Compact program. Following a detailed constraints analysis and sector analysis, the MCU conducted a broad consultative process that garnered feedback from private sector representatives, civil society organizations, donors, and ordinary citizens through large, town-hall style meetings in each of Jordan’s twelve governorates. Throughout this process, the challenge of addressing Jordan’s severe water shortages emerged as a key priority. The MCU invited key stakeholders in the water, sewer and sanitation sector to participate in a project design workshop that focused on the objective of making more water available to households and commercial users. Stakeholders emphasized the need to (a) improve water delivery systems to reduce water losses and (b) expand capacities for collecting and treating wastewater and reusing it in agriculture, wherever appropriate. The Government has identified specific projects related to the rehabilitation of the water distribution system and expansion of the capacity for collecting and treating wastewater in Zarqa Governorate, among the poorest and most urban areas in the country, and the expansion of the capacity of an existing wastewater treatment plant that treats the majority of wastewater from Amman and Zarqa Governorates.
Background and Consultative Process. With a population of approximately 3.8 million inhabitants, Moldova was originally declared eligible for MCC Compact assistance in 2006. The Government mobilized a team of consultants to conduct an empirical analysis of the key constraints to growth. This constraints analysis served as the basis for two rounds of national consultations through regional town-hall meetings, as well as numerous meetings with smaller groups of stakeholders. Following these consultations, the Government submitted a Compact proposal in February 2008. In addition to the national consultations, project-specific consultations were conducted as part of the environmental and social impact assessment, both by the Government and by MCC-contracted entities. These public fora involved consultations with key stakeholders including: local government officials, regional and national staff from government agencies, civil society representatives, environmental and social non-governmental organizations, and interested local people to evaluate the proposed projects, to raise concerns, and to make recommendations on the design requirements to enhance benefits and reduce negative impacts from project implementation. These recommendations are to be incorporated into the detailed design to better address community needs. In addition, the Government and MCC worked with a consultative group of public and private sector representatives in the agricultural sector. Agriculture has been the backbone of the Moldovan economy, with Moldova formerly serving as an important exporter of high value agriculture to the rest of the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova lost its position as a key exporter of fresh produce, and its extensive irrigation systems and post-harvest cold chain fell into disrepair. Reforms necessary to attract private and donor investment in agriculture have been slow. As a result, Moldovan agriculture suffers from low productivity, contributing to high rates of rural poverty. However, with its fertile soils, relatively long growing season, and proximity to both European Union and former Soviet markets, Moldova has many of the necessary conditions to regain competitiveness in high value agriculture. The key constraints facing Moldovan producers are: lack of reliable water, lack of financing, lack of access to markets and technologies and lack of know-how. The Transition to High Value Agriculture Project will address these constraints. The quality of the road net...
Background and Consultative Process. Over the past three decades the Moroccan economy has grown slowly: from 1980 to 2006, per capita incomes grew 1.5 percent annually. While the macroeconomic environment in Morocco has improved in recent years, unemployment remains consistently high and extreme poverty remains near 11 percent. The Program is based on development priorities determined in national consultations that began in 2003 and included 56 provincial, 16 regional, one national and one international workshop. The Government integrated this input with the opportunities identified through the Plan Emergence – a national growth strategy launched in 2005 to “modernize and strengthen existing industrial sectors, and target investments in sectors such as textiles, agribusiness, fishing and the crafts industries, where the country has domestic and international competitive advantages.” Priorities were determined through an inter-ministerial committee presided by the Prime Minister in consultation with stakeholders at both the national and local levels. Based on this consultative process, the Government submitted its initial proposal to MCC in August 2005. At MCC’s request, sector level and national consultations refined the focus of the Program and identified additional components. Sector level consultations in fishing, agriculture, and the artisan sector followed in six key regions of the country. The Government also consulted with the country’s microcredit associations, followed by conferences on employment and training, both of which featured ministerial and local government consultations with key actors.
Background and Consultative Process. With a population of approximately 12 million inhabitants, the west African nation of Senegal was originally declared eligible for MCC assistance in 2004. Senegal shares borders in the north with Mauritania, in the east with Mali and in the south with Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, and the Gambia runs through its center, spatially separating its Casamance region (the “Casamance”) from the rest of Senegal’s territory. Based on national poverty reduction and food security priorities contained in the Government’s 1998 Master Plan for agricultural development in the Senegal River Valley (the “Valley”) and the Government’s Road Sector Master Plan, and confirmed in broad-based Government consultations that occurred from February through July 2008, the Program focuses on poverty reduction in the Valley in northern Senegal, and the Casamance in southern Senegal. The Valley has been targeted by the Government, numerous donors, and nongovernmental organizations (“NGOs”) for investment, both to encourage economic growth in this region and to increase Senegal’s food security in years to come. The Valley, like the Casamance, is rich in agricultural production, especially for rice, the principal staple of the Senegalese diet. The Valley benefits from a very favorable environment for intensive irrigation; however, low agricultural yields have been a persistent problem due to the poor quality of the existing irrigation and drainage infrastructure; insufficient delivery of available water to agricultural areas; and lack of an appropriate drainage system. The Irrigation and Water Resources Management Project will address these constraints. The Casamance is the poorest region of Senegal, but also has the highest potential for economic development after the Valley. The Casamance is rich in natural resources and has the potential for enormous agricultural productivity, which could contribute significantly both to national growth and food security in the entire country. The Government identified the Casamance’s poor road transport network, which leaves few means for goods and services currently produced in the region to be exported nationally or regionally, as a major constraint to economic development in the region. The Roads Rehabilitation Project will address this constraint.
Background and Consultative Process. The MCC Board of Directors originally selected Zambia as eligible for MCC assistance in December 2008, and has re-selected Zambia as eligible for MCC assistance in each subsequent year. In October 2009, the Government initiated a constraints analysis that identified three main binding constraints to Zambia’s economic growth: low quality of human capital; poor infrastructure services; and coordination failures. To elicit feedback on these constraints, the Government undertook a targeted consultative process in accordance with all applicable MCC policies and guidelines, which included over 500 representatives from the government, private sector and civil society, as well as the donor community. Feedback from these consultations resulted in a list of prioritized sectors deemed to be key to Zambia’s economic development, including ecotourism, hydropower, roads, vocational and secondary education and water and sanitation, from which the Government developed and submitted six concept papers for MCC consideration. After a thorough examination of the economic and operational feasibility of the Government’s concept papers, MCC and the Government elected to focus solely on improvements to the water supply, sanitation and drainage sectors in the capital city of Lusaka, a key constraint to economic growth for the country. This examination included further consultations with national and local government representatives, technical specialists, non-governmental organizations and the donor community, including gender-responsive and socially inclusive consultations with community members in each of the 33 wards directly impacted by the Program. As with the initial consultative process, this effort also was conducted in accordance with all applicable MCC policies and guidelines. The city of Lusaka currently has a population of over 1.8 million people, representing over 10 percent of Zambia’s total population, and is projected to have nearly five million residents by 2035. This rapidly increasing population is served by a water supply, sanitation and drainage system that was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s to serve a much smaller population, and which has not benefited from major capital investment or proper maintenance in the intervening years. As a result, the system’s core infrastructure assets are outdated, dilapidated and unable to meet current or future demand. Currently, only approximately 70 percent of Lusaka residents have access to treated water supply, and onl...
Background and Consultative Process. (a) Background. Sierra Leone concluded its MCC-funded Threshold Program Grant Agreement on March 30, 2021 (the “Threshold Program”). One focus of the Threshold Program was to deliver water and electricity services more effectively, with a focus on the greater Freetown area. Another focus area was to support policy reforms increasing transparency and accountability in the delivery of these services to limit opportunities for corruption. MCC’s Board of Directors selected Sierra Leone as eligible to develop a compact in December 2020. Sierra Leone established the SLCDU, headed by the former Threshold Program Chief Executive Officer, to work with MCC on compact development. In 2021, MCC and Sierra Leone conducted a Constraints to Growth Analysis that identified four binding constraints to growth: power, food insecurity and supply, health, and water. Following discussions with MCC, Sierra Leone selected power as the focus for the compact. During the compact development process, Sierra Leone agreed to contribute Fourteen Million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$14.2 million) as the Country Contribution to the compact, and the parties reached a shared understanding to pursue projects in the electricity sector addressing transmission, distribution, access, and sector reform.
Background and Consultative Process
