TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, August 29, 2019 – Today Thomas Kelly, acting vice president for the department of policy and evaluation, joined John Wingle, Honduras country director to represent the Millennium Challenge Corporation at a Program Closing Ceremony in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The ceremony recognizes the successful closeout of the $15.6 million Honduras Threshold Program, which focused on improving public financial management and creating more effective and transparent public-private partnerships in the Central American nation.
The program funded technical assistance, a new e-procurement system, and civil society audits to support the Government of Honduras’ efforts to improve delivery of public services and reduce opportunities for corruption.
MCC programs are designed to alleviate one or more binding constraints to economic growth to reduce poverty in select countries. MCC works with its partner governments to address the root causes that constrain growth, which often means supporting partners’ efforts to undertake policy and institutional reforms. The Honduras Threshold Program was the first MCC program to focus exclusively on policy reform, working to help ensure that the Government of Honduras better uses its own budgetary resources.
The Honduras Threshold Program consisted of two projects:
- The Public Financial Management Project, which sought to increase the efficiency and transparency of public financial management by supporting activities designed to improve budget formulation and execution, planning, payments, procurements, auditing, and civil society oversight.
- The Public-Private Partnerships Project, which worked to improve the efficiency and transparency of public-private partnership by supporting activities designed to increase the government’s capacity to identify, develop, tender, implement, and oversee partnerships with the private sector.