MCC, AfDB partner on growth

BUSINESS

The US Government’ s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Chief Executive Officer Daniel W. Yohannes and African Development Bank (AfDB) Group President Donald Kaberuka have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together in promoting sustainable economic growth as the catalyst for poverty reduction.

MCC has approved over USD7.4 billion in compact and threshold programs worldwide that support country-determined projects sectors including modernising infrastructure, improving agriculture and irrigation, transportation, water supply and sanitation and finance and enterprise development. Over 70% of this funding has gone to Africa.

“ MCC is committed to facilitating partnerships that maximize our impact in the fight against global poverty.  This partnership between MCC and the African Development Bank bolsters our efforts to reduce poverty, increases collaboration, and allows us to pursue more innovative solutions,” said Yohannes.  

MCC and AfDB, including its partner entity the African Development Fund, will collaborate on complementary program areas, including by strategically using AfDB grants in recipient countries in parallel with existing MCC investments, and by cooperating on future MCC compact development work in order to build on AfDB’ s regional experience, technical expertise, and lessons learned in sectors of common interest.  

“ We have agreed to collaborate through technical cooperation and parallel financing in key areas.  As many of our client countries are recovering from the recent crises, we are urged to work closely together and leverage our comparative advantages,” said AfDB President, Dr. Kaberuka.

MCC and AfDB will work together in developing and implementing programs and projects in African countries in a number of sectors, with an expected concentration on infrastructure.  These collaborative efforts will likely be piloted initially in Mozambique, where AfDB will work with Millennium Challenge Account-Mozambique and the Government of Mozambique to identify investments compliementary to the MCC-funded program that would benefit from AfDB grants.

The MOU between MCC and AfDB reinforces ongoing cooperation and opens avenues for increasing the effectiveness of foreign assistance through formal partnership.  MCC and AfDB will share their respective strengths, knowledge, and resources to support host-country development initiatives that advance their common goal to promote economic development in Africa.