Adding the Natural Resources Indicators: An Opportunity to Strengthen the MCA Eligibility Process

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) currently uses 16 indicators of governance and policy performance to determine a country's eligibility for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) finance. The MCC is proposing several changes to its selection process this year. While most of these changes are modest, the addition of two natural resource indicators--a Natural Resources Management Index and Land Rights and Access--as "supplementary" data initially, is significant. This note describes the new indicators, focuses on the process that led to their selection, and assesses the suitability of the indicators for the MCC’s use.