Lesotho: Five Countries Complete Anti-Poverty Compacts With U.S. Agency
Washington — The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is successfully completing compacts with Lesotho, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique and Tanzania in September. The five compacts represent the largest set of countries to close in a single fiscal year at MCC, as well as MCC's largest investments in health, infrastructure, water and sanitation projects.
"This is a landmark in MCC's history," MCC chief executive Daniel W. Yohannes said. "I am proud to celebrate the enormous efforts and dedicated professionalism of five MCC partner countries, whose combined efforts reveal our largest set of outcomes to date and highlight our shared commitment to deliver sustainable results that are making a measurable difference in the lives of the poor."
The five compacts were designed to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth through targeted investments that will affect more than 12 million people over the next 20 years. Through the agency's investments in these five countries, MCC is promoting growth across a wide range of sectors:
- Health: MCC invested $160 million to help Basotho and Mongolian families raise healthier, more productive families. In Mongolia, MCC supported an innovative, holistic approach to reduce the incidence of noncommunicable diseases and injuries. In Lesotho, MCC funded the construction or rehabilitation of the majority of the country's health centers and the equipment and helped build the human capital needed to transform the country's health care system.
- Water and sanitation: In Mozambique, Lesotho and Tanzania, MCC's investments are expanding access to water, improving distribution networks and transforming treatment methods. MCC projects improved water access for more than 600 communities in Mozambique, improved water and sanitation services for more than 250 communities in Lesotho and increased the volume and quality of water available in two of Tanzania's largest cities.
- Food security: MCC invested more than $1.1 billion toward promoting food security, transforming the small-scale fisheries sector and fruit tree industry in Morocco, controlling the spread of coconut lethal yellowing disease in Mozambique and leasing pastureland to groups of herders areas and providing key infrastructure and training to improve livestock in Mongolia.
- Education: MCC is promoting a more skilled, productive workforce that meets the demands of the private sector through $80 million of investments in literacy training in Morocco and technical and vocational education training in Mongolia.
- Land and property rights: In Lesotho, Mongolia and Mozambique, MCC is helping citizens secure clear, defined property rights, empowering them to invest in a more productive future. In Lesotho and Mozambique, more than 122,000 households have received formalized land rights. In Mongolia, community members are benefiting from a more reliable, efficient property registry system.
- Transportation: In Tanzania, Mozambique and Mongolia, MCC projects rehabilitated and constructed 900 kilometers of roads to link millions of people with improved access to markets and services like schools and hospitals, as well as reduce travel times and save fuel costs.
- Energy: MCC invested in power systems to increase access to reliable and sustainable electricity through infrastructure, policy and regulatory reforms and institutional capacity building. In Tanzania, MCC projects constructed more than 2,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines and installed a 24-kilometer submarine cable between mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. In Mongolia, MCC provided subsidies for families to purchase more than 100,000 solid-fuel stoves and other energy-efficient products.
MCC also supported policy and institutional reforms that help maximize the impact and sustainability of the five compacts. In Lesotho, MCC supported the passage of landmark legislation that empowered Basotho women by removing the minority status of married women and granting spouses equal rights. In Morocco, MCC supported a new law that made wholesale fish markets more open and competitive. Tanzania passed a new law that opened the energy sector to increased private sector participation, helping to ensure the sector is more efficient and sustainable.
In December 2012, Morocco and Tanzania were selected as eligible to develop subsequent compacts with MCC. To learn more about these countries and other MCC compacts, please visit the MCC website.
"This is a landmark in MCC's history," MCC chief executive Daniel W. Yohannes said. "I am proud to celebrate the enormous efforts and dedicated professionalism of five MCC partner countries, whose combined efforts reveal our largest set of outcomes to date and highlight our shared commitment to deliver sustainable results that are making a measurable difference in the lives of the poor."
The five compacts were designed to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth through targeted investments that will affect more than 12 million people over the next 20 years. Through the agency's investments in these five countries, MCC is promoting growth across a wide range of sectors:
- Health: MCC invested $160 million to help Basotho and Mongolian families raise healthier, more productive families. In Mongolia, MCC supported an innovative, holistic approach to reduce the incidence of noncommunicable diseases and injuries. In Lesotho, MCC funded the construction or rehabilitation of the majority of the country's health centers and the equipment and helped build the human capital needed to transform the country's health care system.
- Water and sanitation: In Mozambique, Lesotho and Tanzania, MCC's investments are expanding access to water, improving distribution networks and transforming treatment methods. MCC projects improved water access for more than 600 communities in Mozambique, improved water and sanitation services for more than 250 communities in Lesotho and increased the volume and quality of water available in two of Tanzania's largest cities.
- Food security: MCC invested more than $1.1 billion toward promoting food security, transforming the small-scale fisheries sector and fruit tree industry in Morocco, controlling the spread of coconut lethal yellowing disease in Mozambique and leasing pastureland to groups of herders areas and providing key infrastructure and training to improve livestock in Mongolia.
- Education: MCC is promoting a more skilled, productive workforce that meets the demands of the private sector through $80 million of investments in literacy training in Morocco and technical and vocational education training in Mongolia.
- Land and property rights: In Lesotho, Mongolia and Mozambique, MCC is helping citizens secure clear, defined property rights, empowering them to invest in a more productive future. In Lesotho and Mozambique, more than 122,000 households have received formalized land rights. In Mongolia, community members are benefiting from a more reliable, efficient property registry system.
- Transportation: In Tanzania, Mozambique and Mongolia, MCC projects rehabilitated and constructed 900 kilometers of roads to link millions of people with improved access to markets and services like schools and hospitals, as well as reduce travel times and save fuel costs.
- Energy: MCC invested in power systems to increase access to reliable and sustainable electricity through infrastructure, policy and regulatory reforms and institutional capacity building. In Tanzania, MCC projects constructed more than 2,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines and installed a 24-kilometer submarine cable between mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. In Mongolia, MCC provided subsidies for families to purchase more than 100,000 solid-fuel stoves and other energy-efficient products.
MCC also supported policy and institutional reforms that help maximize the impact and sustainability of the five compacts. In Lesotho, MCC supported the passage of landmark legislation that empowered Basotho women by removing the minority status of married women and granting spouses equal rights. In Morocco, MCC supported a new law that made wholesale fish markets more open and competitive. Tanzania passed a new law that opened the energy sector to increased private sector participation, helping to ensure the sector is more efficient and sustainable.
In December 2012, Morocco and Tanzania were selected as eligible to develop subsequent compacts with MCC. To learn more about these countries and other MCC compacts, please visit the MCC website.
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