WASHINGTON (July 13, 2022) — The Publish What You Fund (PWYF) organization released its 2022 Aid Transparency Index today, ranking the U.S. government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) as the world's most transparent bilateral donor, and fifth in the world among major development agencies, for its commitment to transparent operations, public accountability, and using data for effective and inclusive decision-making.
PWYF also ranked MCC as the most transparent U.S. development agency, which is the seventh consecutive time MCC has ranked first among U.S. agencies since the index was first piloted in 2011.
“This is a meaningful honor for our agency because it represents both MCC’s ethos and our commitment to transparency in all MCC’s high-impact grant programs,” said Alicia Philips Mandaville, MCC’s Vice President for Policy and Evaluation. “Transparency has been part of our DNA since the agency was first created in 2004 — from our joint economic analysis and program development to project monitoring and post-project evaluation. As we approach MCC@20 and look for innovative ways to address global challenges in a changing development landscape, MCC will continue to make our development data and evidence available. This is a key piece of ensuring MCC’s accountability to our partners and to the American people.”
In the spirit of transparency and accountability, MCC recently launched its new evidence platform, which provides an accessible repository of MCC’s results, evidence, and learning. Created in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, the MCC Evidence Platform encourages the use of MCC's data, documentation, and analysis as global public goods to support mutual accountability for the agency and its country partners, and to encourage learning from measured results.
“The new MCC Evidence Platform represents a strategic decision by the agency to focus on evidence usability, not just availability," added Phillips Mandaville. "This tool, which is accessible by any organization or individual researcher, means MCC can have a greater development impact in the future by encouraging a better understanding of results and learning from programs in the past."
PWYF is an independent, non-government organization. The Aid Transparency Index is the only independent measure of aid transparency among the world’s major development agencies. The Index tracks and measures donors’ progress towards transparency and incentivizes these organizations to progressively increase and improve the aid and development information made available.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is an independent U.S. government agency working to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Created in 2004, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.