Liberia has met the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) requirements, and stand a chance of selection for the US$500 million compact grant as of 2024.
The scorecards play an important role in the competitive selection process, to determine which countries are eligible to establish a five-year grant agreement known as compact.
A country is considered to have passed the scorecard when it fulfills at least 10 of the 20 indicators, which include the “control of corruption” indicator and either the “civil liberties” or “political rights” indicator, stating that in the 2024 fiscal year report released by the MCC, Liberia’s performance exceeded expectations by passing 14 of the 20 indicators.
The 14 indicators encompassed various aspects, including fiscal policy, inflation, political rights, civil liberties, control of corruption, trade policy, rule of law, freedom of information, gender in the economy, land rights and access, health expenditures, access to credit, employment opportunities, and immunization rates.
Accordingly, this achievement marks a significant shift or improvement, as compared to the previous year, where Liberia fell short in 11 indicators, including several of those successfully passed this year, such as “rule of law,” “trade policy,” “inflation,” “fiscal policy,” and “immunization rates.”
However, the country faces challenges in 6 indicators for the fiscal year 2024, including regulatory quality, government effectiveness, education expenditures, natural resources protection, the newly introduced gird’s primary education completion rate, and child health.
MCC’s Board Evaluation Criteria, chaired by the United States Secretary of State (Foreign Minister), Anthony Blinken, evaluates candidate countries for compact eligibility based on three statutorily mandated factors: policy performance, the potential to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth, and the availability of MCC funds.
In the foregoing, Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Tweah, says passing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecard meant that the government is vindicated from the negative propaganda been spewed by the opposition bloc for almost 6 years.
He said the government meeting the MCC requirements after 5 years of failure, can be attributed to the exemplary leadership of the present administration, which it fell short of meeting last year, having met only 10 of the 20 indicators.
Addressing the media yesterday in Monrovia, Tweah stated that passing the scorecard comes at the time when the regime’s first six term is being heavily criticized, amid a pending run-off poll between it and the main opposition challenger, the Unity Party, which is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, stating that it is a significant shift in the policy achievement.
