125 | Reflecting on the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago, the U.S. Congress created a new federal agency that represented a bold experiment in international aid. That agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), strove to reduce global poverty through grant-making to low- and lower-middle-income countries that demonstrated a commitment to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in their citizens. Part of what made MCC distinct in the international development space was its evidence-based approach, which focused on evaluating impacts and fostering a culture of learning and accountability to improve the effectiveness of aid.

For this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, and in recognition of the agency’s 20th anniversary, Alicia Phillips Mandaville of MCC joins Jeff Bernson of Mathematica to discuss the agency’s past, present, and future. Among other topics, Phillips Mandaville and Bernson discuss how MCC approaches country ownership and locally led development, how the agency’s evidence-based approach to learning has evolved over time, and what MCC has learned about how to reduce poverty in developing countries.

A full transcript of the episode is available at https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/twe...

Visit MCC’s 20th anniversary page, which reflects further on the agency’s impacts over two decades: https://www.mcc.gov/about/priority/20...

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Teaser clip
0:34 - Introduction
2:29 - Description of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's creation, background, and mission
5:08 - What makes the Millennium Challenge Corporation distinctive among international aid agencies
9:28 - Examples of how people are benefiting from the Millennium Challenge Corporation's investments
16:34 - What the Millennium Challenge Corporation has learned about how to reduce poverty
23:00 - What the Millennium Challenge Corporation has learned about how to execute the goals of locally led development
29:38 - Reflections on the 20-year evolution of how the Millennium Challenge Corporation uses evidence to learn
34:44 - How other agencies in the U.S. and abroad are engaging with the Millennium Challenge Corporation on the use of data and evidence
38:07 - Future areas of focus for the Millennium Challenge Corporation
44:01 - Outro