Americans have always been defined by their values—their pursuit of freedom, justice and equality, their love of democracy, their strength through diversity, their compassion and optimism, their ingenuity and grit to create new opportunities for themselves and generations to come.
These same values also guide how the U.S. Government delivers development assistance through the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Created in 2004 to reduce global poverty through economic growth, MCC furthers U.S. interests around the world by embracing the most universal of values.
By insisting on mutual responsibility, MCC is empowering some of the world’s poorest countries to help themselves break through their barriers to growth and move toward self-sufficiency. This forges genuine partnerships of trust and shared values that hold us equally accountable for the cost-effective delivery of assistance. Just as important, this builds partnerships that power more trade, business and investment. Purposeful collaboration like this drives the commercial activity necessary for jobs and economic development in the United States and in our partner countries.
By supporting good governance, democratic principles and the rule of law, MCC is fostering stable and peaceful societies where families can pursue their basic needs for education, health and livelihoods in dignity and plan their futures with hope. MCC helps countries adopt international standards for financial management, procurement and social and environmental safeguards to ensure that our engagements leave behind the necessary good governance tools. This contributes to a more secure world.
By unlocking the full economic and productive capacity of women through compacts, MCC is prioritizing gender equality as an indispensable component of growth. This recognizes women as income-generating actors and as co-creators of economic wealth who can improve the quality of life for themselves and their families, communities
and countries.
With a constant focus on results, accountability and transparency, we are challenging ourselves and others to learn, adapt, evolve, and change approaches to development. The results of our operational programs identify the development interventions that work to raise the incomes of the poor and spur sustainable growth, and they also highlight the approaches that fail to deliver on the ground. We believe MCC and others have much to learn from failure, with a duty to use evidence to stop what does not produce results.
In the increasing interdependence of our global community, the inextricable link between what we value and what interests we pursue, ultimately, advances a shared prosperity. In this report, read how MCC leads with its values to promote interests of mutual benefit.
"I’ve always thought that American foreign policy—indeed, America—is at its best in the world when our interests and our values come together. And I can think of no better example of our interests and our values coming together than MCC.â€
Former Secretary of State and former Chair of MCC’s Board of Directors
Dr. Condoleezza Rice
MCC’s 2013 Forum on Global Development
April 29, 2013