Selection Indicators

The MCC scorecards measure policy performance on the eligibility criteria established in MCC’s authorizing legislation. MCC’s country selection process uses independent third-party sources to ensure an objective comparison of all candidate countries.

MCC favors indicators that:

• Are developed by an independent third party,
• Have an analytically rigorous methodology and utilize objective, high-quality data,
• Are publicly available,
• Have broad country coverage,
• Are comparable across countries,
• Are policy-linked, measuring factors that governments can influence,
• Have a clear theoretical or empirical link to economic growth and poverty reduction,
• Are appropriately consistent in results from year to year

More information about the indicators used to determine country eligibility for MCC program assistance is available in the table below and in MCC’s Guide to the Indicators.

Indicator Performance

The MCC Board of Directors (Board) uses the policy indicators to assess country performance on MCC’s eligibility criteria. A country is considered to “pass” a given indicator if it performs better than the median score in its income group or the absolute threshold (for certain indicators – see below). A country is considered to “pass” the scorecard if it: (i) “passes” at least 10 of the 20 indicators; (ii) “passes” the Control of Corruption indicator; and, (iii) “passes” either the Civil Liberties or Political Rights indicator. For technical specifics regarding how these medians and income groups are calculated refer to the Guide to the Indicators. Indicators with absolute thresholds in lieu of a median include:

1. Inflation, on which a country’s inflation rate must be under a fixed ceiling of 15 percent;
2. Immunization Rates, on which a country must have immunization coverage above 90% or the median, whichever is lower;
3. Political Rights, on which countries must score above 17; and
4. Civil Liberties, on which countries must score above 25.

The Board also takes into consideration whether a country performs substantially worse in any category (Ruling Justly, Investing in People, or Economic Freedom) than it does on the overall scorecard. While the indicator methodology is the predominant basis for determining which countries will be eligible for MCA assistance, the Board also considers supplemental information and takes into account factors such as time lags and gaps in the data used to determine indicator scores.

The Guide to the Indicators outlines MCC’s methodology for constructing all indicators. MCC’s Open Data website contains the raw data for all indicators.