It's that time of year again – time for MCC's annual country eligibility decisions.
When MCC's board of directors meets tomorrow, one of its main tasks will be to select which countries will be eligible for an MCC compact or threshold program. My bets are on: Cote d'Ivoire for a new compact, Senegal for a second compact, and Togo for a threshold program. Other possibilities include compact eligibility for Kosovo and India (for very specific, limited purposes), and threshold eligibility for Sri Lanka.
The board will also likely vote to continue developing compacts with Nepal, Niger (first compacts), and the Philippines (second compact). Two other countries with second compacts in development, Lesotho, and Tanzania, may be reselected, but recent political events in each country will complicate the board's decision.
Check out Rethink's annual MCC selection predictions paper for more detail on these predictions (plus why some countries will be passed up), as well as a discussion of the overarching issues this year: the budget environment, the second compact landscape, prospects for a regionally-focused investment, and the "graduation" of current partner countries.
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise.
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