Challenge
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an independent U.S. government agency that works to reduce poverty through economic growth by partnering with developing countries that demonstrate good governance, economic freedom, and investment in their people, delivering funding through its Compact and Threshold programs. MCC’s Human and Community Development practice group strengthens a country’s business environment by enhancing workforce readiness and boosting productivity through strategic investments in skills, training, and health. To that end, HCD requires support to conduct due diligence and oversee the implementation of programs focused on education, skills development, training, and integration of user-centered design and behavioral insights.
Solution
MCC’s Human and Community Development (HCD) practice group leads the agency’s work on education, workforce development, behavior and user experience across its Compact and Threshold programs. Making Cents International is a subcontractor to International Development Group (IDG) on MCC’s global HCD contract, providing specialized technical expertise in workforce development, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and education systems strengthening. To that end, Making Cents is working to support the HCD practice group across the full cycle of MCC’s projects, from early planning and design through mobilization, implementation oversight, and program closure. Our workforce development, TVET, and education experts will be involved in activities such as stakeholder analyses, reviews of project proposals and implementation plans, and design of program logic models and theories of change to improve how MCC-funded programs are adopted and used on the ground. As of August 2026, our workforce development expert is on a team that is providing due diligence support for an MCC-funded program in Liberia, which focuses on workforce development in the energy sector.
Over the course of the contract, the work is expected to span a range of MCC’s current and prospective partner countries, including Belize, Kosovo, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Mozambique, Liberia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Fiji, and Kiribati, among others, with the portfolio of countries expected to shift over time as MCC’s compact/threshold programming evolves.