The Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) at its quarterly meeting unanimously selected Sierra Leone and Kiribati as new countries eligible for the United States Government Grant Assistance.

Sierra Leone was selected for a new compact of the MCC's five-year grant programme to reduce poverty through targeted investments that increase economic growth while Kiribati, was chosen for an MCC threshold programme, the agency's smaller grant programme focused on policy and institutional reform.

This was in a statement from the Corporation copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The statement said Sierra Leone would complete its current MCC threshold programme in 2021 and had demonstrated encouraging policy improvement on MCC's scorecard and that, a new compact would build on the country's continued commitment to sector reform and strong relationship with MCC.

"Selecting Kiribati for a threshold programme initiates MCC's engagement with the country — Kiribati has been an important partner to the United States in the central Pacific since a treaty of friendship was signed in 1979, and this project will build upon that relationship", it said.

The statement quoted Mr Sean Cairncross, the Chief Executive Officer of MCC as saying, he was pleased to announce MCC's new compact partnership with Sierra Leone and new threshold partnership with Kiribati.

He said "Sierra Leone has been a strong threshold programme partner; Kiribati has demonstrated a commitment to MCC's eligibility criteria. We look forward to working with all of our government partners to achieve sustainable economic growth supported by country ownership and accountability to improve the lives of their citizens."

The Board also unanimously approved a $23 million threshold programme with the Solomon Islands.

That MCC threshold programme, the statement said aimed at assisting the Solomon Islands government in addressing the country's biggest constraints to economic growth: management of natural resources in the logging sector and insecure access to land, which limits tourism investment.

The programme takes an innovative approach tailored to the unique landscape in the region and integrated components of MCC's strategic priorities, such as women's economic empowerment and blended finance.

As part of the annual selection process, MCC's Board of Directors reselected Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Niger as eligible for concurrent compact programmes for regional integration; Malawi, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, and Tunisia for compact development; and Ethiopia, Kenya, and The Gambia for threshold program development.

The Board also reaffirmed its support for continuing compact development in Indonesia, Kosovo, and Lesotho.

The Board discontinued the proposed compact with Sri Lanka.

The MCC is an independent U.S. Government agency working to reduce global poverty through economic growth.

It provides time-limited grants to developing countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, from fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights, as evaluated by MCC's scorecard.

The MCC takes a business-like approach, with bedrock commitments to data, accountability, and evidence-based decision making.