MCC has broadened and deepened its partnerships with partner country governments, public donors, the private sector, and other U.S. government agencies to further its impact and the sustainability of its investments.
MCC’s Partnership Annual Program Statement
MCC utilizes its Partnership Annual Program Statement (APS) to facilitate open, fair and transparent competition of partnering opportunities and to foster proactive collaboration and partnership co-creation among MCC and potential partners. The APS enables MCC and prospective partners to co-create partnerships that make best use of each organization’s distinct knowledge, networks, innovations, investments, personnel, and resources. In fiscal year 2019, MCC showcased six distinct partnership opportunities in the APS, received 57 partnership concept papers from prospective partners, and launched 10 new partnerships, with several others still in formation. Partnerships borne via the APS in fiscal year 2019 include seven new partnerships in support of women’s economic empowerment with the following organizations:- The Brookings Institution to improve and integrate a strong gender framework into MCC’s economic analysis in order to expand women’s economic empowerment opportunities;
- Innovations for Poverty Action to explore women’s financial inclusion;
- The International Center for Research on Women to explore whether and how Gap Inc.’s Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement model might apply to productive sectors in Lesotho;
- Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship to promote women’s entrepreneurship in Kosovo and Tunisia;
- Caritas Lesotho to map opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprise business growth in Lesotho;
- Creative Learning to mobilize private investment and formalize women’s entrepreneurship in the creative sector in Lesotho; and
- WEConnect International to enhance gender inclusivity in MCC Program Procurement Guidelines and related bidding documents and procedures.
Partnership with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
MCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) in April 2017, identifying potential areas for strategic collaboration. Since its birth in 1960, the OECD has become a valuable source of policy analysis and international comparable statistical, economic, and social data. Given the importance of evidence-based approaches to MCC’s model, partnering with the OECD allows MCC to leverage OECD’s existing data and infrastructure for analysis to inform MCC’s work.MCC’s ties with the OECD grew in fiscal year 2019, building on the successes of our past collaborations in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. Through this agreement, OECD brought its unique methodology and expert resources to produce a Competition Assessment of two sectors in Tunisia, which was launched in September 2019. The OECD’s Competition Assessment toolkit helps governments eliminate regulatory barriers to competition. As a result of using the OECD’s approach, the MCC Tunisia Country Team will gain a framework and policy recommendations to shape the proposed compact’s business climate project.
Partnership with Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation
MCC and Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation launched a partnership in 2018 through the APS focused on developing a deeper understanding of the value, approach, and relevance of infrastructure master planning to MCC’s operating model and partner countries. Infrastructure master planning is critical for identifying opportunities for coordinated and complementary investments among public sector, private sector, and civil society partners; and the rise of blended finance in emerging markets further underscores the value of comprehensive planning from project conception to closure.In August 2019, MCC CEO Sean Cairncross joined Bechtel’s Regional President of Africa, Sir James Dutton, and Secretary General to the President of Côte d’Ivoire Minister Patrick Achi in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding memorializing the partnership and to announce the commencement of work in the capital city Abidjan to develop a highly-effective infrastructure masterplan.
MCC intends to use insights from this collaboration to deepen MCC and country counterpart understanding of infrastructure master planning approaches; to evaluate how infrastructure master planning can inform and be informed by the design, development, implementation, and assessment of MCC compact and threshold program sector-specific infrastructure programs; and to better assess how infrastructure master planning can catalyze private sector investment in MCC partner countries.
MCC Brings Women in Science (WiSci) partnership to MCC Partner Countries
MCC is helping to empower the next generation of female leaders by bringing the Women in Science (WiSci) program to MCC partner countries. WiSci is a public-private partnership designed to motivate young women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) career fields. Through experiential learning, cross-cultural peer interaction, industry connections, and learning from accomplished scientists and technologists, WiSci seeks to empower young women with knowledge and leadership and technical skills needed during times of rapid technological development. Through a partnership with the U.S. Department of State and close collaboration with the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up program, Intel, Google, Bechtel, NASA, and local partners in Kosovo, MCC and the accountable entity, Millennium Foundation Kosovo, helped to bring a WiSci camp to Pristina, Kosovo, in August 2019. The WiSci Kosovo camp demonstrated the relevance of the WiSci partnership and program model to MCC threshold programs and compacts, and MCC is working with WiSci partners to launch additional WiSci camps in other MCC partner countries.Powering Africa
To fulfill the agency’s goal of removing constraints to economic growth, MCC is undertaking major programs in sub-Saharan Africa to increase access to affordable electricity. The agency has completed power projects in Malawi and, together with our partner countries, is implementing approximately $1.5 billion worth of power projects that will improve the quality and reliability of electricity in Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, while also developing power projects in Burkina Faso. These projects focus not only on building physical infrastructure but also on improving the enabling environment to attract private sector investment. Examples include financing a photovoltaic solar power project in Benin with independent power producers and project finance lenders and improving the financial position and operations of the utility in Liberia.Data for Development Capacity Building
The Data Collaboratives for Local Impact (DCLI) program, under a $21.8 million interagency agreement funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and implemented by MCC, empowers individuals and communities to use data to improve lives through better investments, resource allocation, and transparency. DCLI engages locally and inclusively, promotes policies and practices that enable data availability and use, establishes centers to enhance data analysis and collaboration, and leverages resources, innovation, and partnerships to develop stronger capabilities and outcomes for partner countries. The program works across a broad sectoral space to improve health and to control the HIV epidemic, to empower women and youth, and to contribute to sustainable economic growth.In 2018, the DCLI-funded Tanzania Data Lab and the University of Dar es Salaam launched a Masters’ degree in Data Science, the first such program in East Africa. Five DCLI-funded PEPFAR Scholars, including two women, were part of this inaugural class of Tanzanian data scientists, and in 2019 they were joined by five additional PEPFAR scholars. They worked with PEPFAR implementation partners including Management and Development for Health, Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics, and the Mkapa Foundation to solve important development problems.
In mid-2018, DCLI expanded to Côte d’Ivoire, where MCC and the Government of Côte d’Ivoire have signed a $525 million compact and PEPFAR expends on the order of $100 million per year. One of the DCLI implementation partners in Côte d’Ivoire has helped the Ministry of Education to use data to propose locations for the 75-85 MCC-funded secondary schools. Optimal location of these schools will help keep more adolescent girls in school, empowering them economically, and contributing to the PEPFAR goal of reducing their risk of contracting HIV. To date, 265 organizations have been involved and 89 Ivoirian fellows have completed data science training and have been placed within ministries and organizations at the national and regional levels to augment their use of data – the start of a deeper ecosystem approach to better development outcomes.
Through concerted efforts of all partners involved, the DCLI program managed to achieve gender parity in program participation (49 percent and 45 percent in Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire, respectively). A collaboration with the Stanford Women in Data Science initiative led to highly attended events in Abidjan and Dar es Salaam, with 100 percent women on the podium. Overall, the program has helped to highlight the opportunity to empower women economically by providing them the data skills needed to access the growing global digital economy and changing global workforce.