125 | 20 Years of Evidence-Based Poverty Reduction from the Millennium Challenge Corporation

On the Evidence

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 mathematica.org/blogs/twenty-years-of-insights-from-the-millennium-challenge-corporation-on-reducing-poverty. Visit MCC’s 20th anniversary page, which reflects further on the agency’s impacts over two decades: https://www.mcc.gov/about/priority/20th-anniversary/