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Readout

Readout of CEO’s Trip to Johannesburg, Namibia and Cabo Verde

For Immediate Release

June 30, 2014

Washington, D.C.—Starting on June 24, 2014, Dana J. Hyde made her first trip abroad as Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The CEO stopped in Johannesburg, Namibia and Cabo Verde to visit MCC-funded projects and staff, discuss potential partnerships with business leaders and meet the president and prime minister of Cabo Verde.

On June 25, Hyde was in Johannesburg where she met companies focusing on investments in energy, infrastructure and technology to discuss public-private partnership opportunities in MCC countries. Hyde met with Harith General Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in infrastructure development across Africa. She also discussed power in emerging markets with McKinsey & Company and power and telecommunications infrastructure with SEACOM and Black Rhino. Hyde’s visit to Johannesburg ended with meetings at Standard Bank, one of South Africa's largest financial services groups.

From June 25 to June 27, Hyde visited Namibia, where she joined Minister of Education, Dr. David Namwandi, at an official ceremony inaugurating five schools built and renovated by the MCC Compact in the country’s east and west Kavango regions.

Hyde met with Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Hausiku to discuss MCC’s five-year compact with Namibia, which invests $304.5 million in agriculture, tourism and education. The compact is scheduled to be completed in September 2014.

Hyde met with regional representatives from Microsoft and the staff of MCC-funded MyDigitalBridge Foundation, an organization that seeks to bridge the digital divide by providing marginalized communities with access to broadband internet services using WiFi technology. She also met with members of the governing board of Millennium Challenge Account-Namibia and other key government and nongovernmental partners.

At the Kavango schools ceremony, Hyde toured the newly renovated schools, which now have computer equipment, science laboratories, libraries; and math, science and English textbooks for students in grades 5 to 12.

Hyde traveled to the  Community Based Rangeland and Livestock Management project in nearby Nsindi where she met with farmers to discuss how better practices in rangeland management are leading to the improved quality and greater commercialization of livestock. Hyde visited the Zambezi region where she met with members of three conservancies who were participating in a biannual meeting of Zambezi region conservancies. Hyde also met with stakeholders from the Community Based Natural Resource Management project to discuss sustaining investments in the communal conservancies.

From June 29 to July 1, Hyde visited Cabo Verde. She met with mayors from the island of Santiago before embarking on a brief driving tour of an MCC-funded highway, which was completed in 2009.

Hyde toured the MCC-funded Port of Praia. She explored port operations and customs management, highlighting the impacts of the first compact on expanding trade and economic growth. She then met with the Millennium Challenge Account-Cabo Verde Board of Directors—the local entity charged with implementation—to discuss the status of MCC’s investments in the country.

Hyde visited the Citizen Registry Office, which demonstrated how the first compact improved the services provided to citizens and businesses. Her visit to the Land Registry Office explored the impact of the Land Management Information and Transaction System planned under the second compact, which will result in a transition from a traditional paper-based registry system to a new modernized record-keeping system.

Hyde met with key private sector representatives from the Millennium Challenge Account-Cabo Verde Board of Directors, the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Tourism, and various industries who will directly benefit from MCC’s investments. Hyde visited a community which will soon benefit from household water and sanitation connections under the $41 million MCC investment in that sector. Hyde concluded her visit to Cabo Verde with a meeting and press conference alongside Prime Minister José Maria Neves and a courtesy call on President Jorge Carlos Fonseca.

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MCC is an innovative and independent U.S. agency that is working to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004, with strong bipartisan support, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that demonstrate a commitment to good governance, investments in people and economic freedom.