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 utilized 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 enabled MCC and prospective partners to co-create partnerships that make the best use of each organization’s distinct knowledge, networks, innovations, investments, personnel, and resources. In FY 2018, MCC showcased nine distinct partnership opportunities in the APS, received 53 partnership concept papers from prospective partners, and launched seven new partnerships, with several others still in the process of formation. Partnerships borne via the APS in FY 2018 include partnerships with the following organizations:- The Center for International Development at Harvard University to develop enhanced economic growth diagnostics methods and techniques that address commonly faced challenges and advance new ideas on the growth diagnostics methodology that forms the basis of MCC’s Constraints Analysis process. The effort will focus on three important areas within growth diagnostics: human capital, finance, and coordination failures for structural transformation. Each major focus area will review the theoretical foundations that frame the approach, as well as produce practical guidance that informs the application of MCC’s constraints
- AidData, a research and innovation lab located at the College of William & Mary, to combine expertise in remote sensing, machine learning, geospatial science, economics and land use public policy to develop an integrated approach for using high-resolution remote satellite data for timely measurement of land-use
- A consortium led by LIRNEasia to create cost-effective systems for monitoring and evaluating traffic and transport by conducting big data analytics on mobile phone network
MCC’s Strategic Partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
MCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in April 2017, identifying potential areas for strategic collaboration. Given the importance of evidence-based approaches to MCC's model, partnering with the OECD allows MCC to leverage OECD’s wealth of harmonized data from major donor countries and infrastructure for analysis to inform MCC’s work. MCC's ties with the OECD have grown, from collaborations on the constraints analyses in Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire in 2017, to a new partnership agreement to support the MCC Tunisia Country Team signed in August 2018. Through this agreement, OECD is bringing its unique methodology and expert resources to conduct a Competition Assessment in two sectors in Tunisia. 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 environment project.MCC’s Partnership with Bechtel related to National Infrastructure Master Planning Methodology
MCC and Bechtel launched a partnership in FY 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. Through the national infrastructure master planning partnership, MCC and Bechtel are working together and with relevant stakeholders in the selected MCC partner country to develop a national infrastructure master planning methodology and to co-create a detailed and actionable national infrastructure master plan. MCC and Bechtel chose to partner on this work in order to leverage complementary capabilities of MCC’s deep sector-specific infrastructure planning experience in energy, water and sanitation, transportation, and vertical structures with Bechtel’s well-established methodology, technical experience, and global expertise in integrated infrastructure master plan development and implementation. 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 sector-specific infrastructure programs; and to better assess how infrastructure master planning can catalyze private sector investment in MCC partner countries. Bechtel intends to use insights from this collaboration to better assess how infrastructure master planning processes can help MCC partner countries improve project quality and certainty of outcome for sector- specific or national projects; and to understand how Bechtel can increase the awareness, capacity, and utilization of infrastructure master planning disciplines 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 encourage young women to increase their exposure, obtain skills and 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 inspiring accomplished scientists and technologists, WiSci seeks to empower young women with knowledge and leadership and technical skills needed to lead during times of rapid technological development and change. Through a new partnership with the U.S. Department of State and close collaboration with the United Nations Girl Up program, Intel, Google, Microsoft, the American Society for Microbiology, and Georgian private sector and government partners, MCC and MCA-Georgia helped to bring a WiSci camp to Tblisi, Georgia, in August 2018. The Georgia camp demonstrated the relevance of the WiSci partnership and program model to MCC compacts, and MCC is working with WiSci partners to launch new WiSci camps in MCC partner countries in 2019. In addition, MCA-Georgia entered into a partnership with Women for Tomorrow to promote and recognize women in business, amplifying the MCC compact’s impact on women’s economic empowerment.MCC’s Partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute to Boost Global Food Security
Since its first compact in 2005, MCC has provided more than $5 billion in funding to strengthen agricultural and rural economies in poor countries and promote reliable access to sufficient, safe, and affordable food. In FY 2018, MCC and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) entered into a new collaborative agreement designed to reduce poverty and drive economic growth through more effective interventions all along the agricultural and food economy. The MCC-IFPRI collaboration will produce evidence-based recommendations to advance nutrition sensitivity, strengthen public goods, and attract private sector investment via blended finance mechanisms.MCC’s Partnership with The Brookings Institution
In many of MCC’s partner countries, the poor are migrating to urban areas to seek economic opportunity, and urban populations are getting larger. In FY 2018, MCC and The Brookings Institution entered into a strategic partnership to develop and test tools to enhance MCC’s ability to quantify the relationship of urbanization and urban environments to national economic growth and poverty reduction in partner countries.Data for Development Capacity Building
By 2040, 90 percent of jobs worldwide will require some level of data skills. The Data Collaboratives forLocal 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.Since mid-2016, in Tanzania, DCLI trained more than 2,000 individuals and engaged over 2,830 community organizations through listening campaigns, art, music, and visualizations to understand local priorities and then use data to improve health, gender-based and economic outcomes. Forty-six individuals and organizations launched innovative data-driven solutions that improve service delivery, empower young women and girls, and support youth employability. Innovative community mapping efforts in subnational areas (wards and shinas in Kyela, Mbeya and Temeke districts) resulted in over 2 million new data points, enabling highly targeted interventions against HIV. Hospitals like the Amana District Hospital (Temeke) are using this information to map disease hotspots, and frontline PEPFAR partners like Kihumbe are now more effectively connecting vulnerable populations to services.
Tanzania’s ability to leverage the data revolution for development will be powered by Tanzanians: this year, inspired by students’ interest in the DCLI-funded Tanzania Data Lab, 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, are part of the inaugural class and will be placed within PEPFAR implementation partners like MDH , JHPIEGO, Mkapa Foundation to use data science to solve important development problems.
In mid-2018, DCLI expanded to Cote d’Ivoire, where MCC signed a $525 million compact and PEPFAR expends more than $130 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 also keep more adolescent girls in school, empowering them economically and contributing to the PEPFAR goal of reducing their risk of contracting HIV. Twenty-nine fellows are expected to complete data science training by December 2018 and will be placed within ministries and organizations at the national and regional levels to augment development impact – the start of a deeper ecosystem approach to better development outcomes.