By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone has strengthened its performance in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecard, passing 13 indicators, according to the latest report from the US foreign aid agency.
The report of the 2020 scorecard, which was officially presented to President Julius Maada Bio on Monday, also show that the country passed the crucial corruption hurdle for the second time in a row. With a score of 81 percent, Sierra Leone made a marked improvement in the fight against corruption indicator and ranked among the top 10 performers in its income categories.
Sierra Leone tops the Mano River Union with the highest score in the overall ranking.
Crucially, Sierra Leone added two new indicators this year to its pass mark – immunization and inflation rate. It also made remarkable progress in the area of spending in primary education.
The MCC, established in 2004, is an independent agency of the US Government, which seeks to reduce global poverty through economic growth by encouraging developing countries to improve on their governance and rule of law performance. It provides time-limited grants and assistance to the participating countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, from fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights. Participating countries are ranked every year based on 20 indicators, and they are rewarded with specific grants if they meet a particular threshold.
United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Maria Brewer, congratulated President Bio for the performance of the country this year. She said the US felt proud by Sierra Leone’s performance in no just passing two more indicators but for also extending its performance in the fight against corruption.
“By passing two additional indicators from last year as well as increasing your control of corruption score to 81% from 79% last year, you do us proud,” Ambassador Brewer said at a meeting with the president at State House, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Information and Communication.
This year’s performance, with a pass mark in 13 indicators, is said to be the highest Sierra Leone has attained on the MCC scorecard since it was established 16 years ago.
Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, whose office is supervising the MMC operations in Sierra Leone, accompanied the US embassy delegation to State House. He said that the country’s performance is indicative of the Bio administration’s commitment to meeting the needs of the Sierra Leonean populace.
President Bio, for his part, thanked the American Ambassador and the MCC for their role in an “objective evaluation” of his government’s performance.
“As a country we are happy for this progress, especially as it relates to energy and water, which are very important components. The threshold programme of the MCC has been of great help and we hope that the foundation laid by this programme will actually help us in those two sectors,” President Bio noted.
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