MCC Releases FY25 Country Scorecards

WASHINGTON (November 21, 2024) - Today the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) released its fiscal year (FY) 2025 country scorecards, a key component in determining which countries will be selected as eligible to develop five-year grant agreements, known as compacts, in FY 2025.

Of the 76 country scorecards created by MCC, 26 countries passed, and 50 countries did not. All the FY 2025 scorecards are publicly available on MCC's website. Scorecards consist of a collection of 20 independent, third-party indicators that measure a country's policy performance in the areas of economic freedom, ruling justly, and investing in people.

MCC's Board of Directors selects new partner countries annually in December based on policy performance as measured by the scorecard, the opportunity to reduce poverty through economic growth, and the availability of funding. Currently, MCC produces scorecards for low- and lower-middle income countries, as classified by the World Bank.

Competitive Selection of MCC Partners

MCC uses a competitive, data-driven, and transparent process for determining where the agency invests to reduce poverty. To be considered for MCC compact funding, countries must pass at least 10 of 20 indicators, including MCC's hard hurdles for eligibility - the Political Rights or Civil Liberties indicator, and the Control of Corruption indicator. After considering the pool of countries that pass the scorecard, MCC's Board of Directors determines which countries are eligible to develop grant programs.

MCC's rigorous eligibility criteria and competitive selection process create a powerful incentive for countries to reform their policies even before a program dollar is spent - referred to as "The MCC Effect." Countries around the world are using MCC's scorecard as a road map for policy and institutional reforms to qualify for MCC funding and identify where improvements are needed to foster economic growth, all before a single program dollar is spent.

On November 20, 2024, MCC released a paper that finds that going from failing to passing the MCC scorecard is associated with bringing 1.9 million people out of extreme poverty. This demonstrates that countries undertaking the good governance reforms associated with passing the MCC scorecard can have as great an impact on poverty reduction as if a country grew its economy by $1.2 trillion - a large level of economic growth that often takes years to achieve.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation is an independent U.S. government agency working to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Created in 2004, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.

###