Millennium Challenge Corporation Announces $9.43 Million Pre-Compact Development Grant Agreement with Burkina Faso

Washington, D.C.—The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) today announced a grant agreement with the Government of Burkina Faso to provide up to $9.43 million to support Burkina Faso’s development of a Millennium Challenge Compact.  The funding will be used to establish an accountable entity, fiscal and procurement agent fees, preparatory work for the proposed land project, final design studies for the proposed roads project, and baseline data gathering.  

In October 2006, the government of Burkina Faso submitted a proposal to MCC that seeks to reduce poverty through economic growth in the rural sector by fostering land tenure security, investing in irrigation and watershed management in­frastructure and improving existing agro-industrial supply chains, and constructing national roads and feeder roads. In addition, MCC and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are currently in discussions to work with the government of Burkina Faso to facilitate the extension of the successful MCC threshold program focused on girls’ primary education.

Although Burkina Faso’s compact proposal is still under due diligence review by MCC, this pre-compact grant will help accelerate the development and effective implementation of a compact, expected to be signed in 2008. This grant is complementary to the considerable resources, approximately $5 million, the government of Burkina Faso has contributed to the development of its proposal. 

For more information on how MCC is working together with Burkina Faso to reduce poverty through economic growth, including past press releases and web-based resources, please visit:  http://www.mcc.gov/countries/burkinafaso/index.php.

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Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States government corporation designed to work with developing countries, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and elimination of extreme poverty.