MCC Reinstates Niger’s Threshold Program; Two Board Seats Still Vacant

The big news out of last week’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors meeting: MCC reinstates Niger’s threshold program.  In addition, the review of MCC’s selection process is underway, but there is still no news on filling the two vacant public board seats.Niger’s Threshold Program Reinstated:The reinstatement of a previously suspended MCC program is a first for the agency. As previewed before the meeting, Niger’s $23 million threshold program was suspended in December 2009 following former President Mamadou Tandja’s unconstitutional bid to remain in office beyond his second term. Tandja was subsequently ousted, and democratically-elected Mahamadou Issoufou has been leading Niger for four months.The reinstated program completes the arc of a nice MCC story whereby the agency selected a country for relatively good policy performance, suspended aid following a stark decline in policy and practice, and has now restored a program based on demonstrated (not just promised) policy and governance improvements.According to the MCC, Niger’s reinstated threshold program will take into account important feedback and lessons learned from the MCC’s first threshold programs. Consequently, the reinstated program will not just pick up where the old agreement left off; rather it will likely be redesigned, in part to incorporate MCC’s new approach to threshold programs. Any redesign, however, would have to go back to the board for approval. I’m curious to learn more about USAID’s role in the new program and whether a new, longer clock will start ticking if and when a redesign is approved.Selection Review:MCC staff also highlighted the upcoming review of how the agency uses the seventeen third-party policy indicators to select countries eligible for MCC assistance. We cover most of the details, and give a sneak peak of our own review in process, here.Two Board Members Still MIA: Finally (and disappointingly), there was no word on progress to fill the two remaining public board seats.