The board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC, the U.S. external support agency) on Wednesday June 28 approved a $500 million (€458 million) program for Mozambique’s Coastal Connectivity and Resilience Pact.
The approval follows the memorandum signed with the Government in January 2023 and “reaffirms MCC’s commitment to directly address constraints to economic growth through innovative solutions,” the MCC announced in a statement.
The program will focus on development in the central province of Zambezia. “In Mozambique, we are implementing MCC’s most climate-friendly pact, a combination of resilient transportation infrastructure, green economy opportunities, blue economy, and policy and institutional reforms to enable more effective, long-term growth”, the agency detailed.
This is MCC’s second pact with Mozambique, after another worth $506.9 million (464 million euros), concluded in 2013, and which focused on water supply and sanitation, land ownership issues, transportation, and agriculture. This time, the focus is on improving transport networks in rural areas, encouraging commercial agriculture through policy and tax reforms, and improving coastal livelihoods through climate resilience initiatives.
The MCC is an agency funded by the United States Government that provides time-limited grants to developing countries.