Lesotho government sign $363 million poverty reduction grant

In a recent signing ceremony in the State Department's Benjamin Franklin room, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Ambassador John Danilovich, and Lesotho's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Mohlabi Kenneth Tsekoa, signed a $363 million agreement designed to reduce poverty by promoting sustainable economic growth.

MCC's Chair, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, officiated and witnessed the signing joined by Lesotho's Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili. The five-year Millennium Challenge Compact with Lesotho aims to increase water supplies for industrial and domestic use, to mitigate the devastating affects of poor maternal health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases, and to remove barriers to foreign and local private sector investment.

By 2013, the Compact will benefit the majority of the population of 1.8 million due to its broad geographic scope and focus on sectors that impact most, such as health and the provision of portable water. Since its inception in 2004, MCC has signed Compacts totalling nearly $4 billion with 13 partner countries: Madagascar, Cape Verde, Honduras, Nicaragua, Georgia, Armenia, Vanuatu, Benin, Ghana, Mali, El Salvador, Mozambique, and Lesotho.

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