Threshold Countries
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There have been 22 countries named eligible for Threshold Program funding, including three new countries, Niger, Peru and Rwanda, that were selected in the FY 2007 selection. The following is a list of all Threshold eligible countries with the year which they were first deemed eligible in parentheses. Yemen, suspended in November of 2005 for a deterioration in performance on several indicators, had its Threshold eligibility reinstated on February 14, 2007 due to its demonstrated commitment to reforms addressing indicator slippage. Countries with approved Threshold Programs are marked with an asterisk (*). Albania* (2004)
To date, twenty-two countries have been approved for Threshold Program funding: Philippines, Ukraine, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Tanzania, Paraguay, Albania, Jordan, Moldova, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Kenya, Uganda, Guyana, the Kyrgyz Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Yemen, Niger, Peru, Rwanda, and Mauritania worth a total of $398 million. The legislation authorizing the MCA allows for up to 10% of total MCA funds to be directed towards any country that "demonstrates a significant commitment to meet the [selection] requirements but fails to meet such requirements (including by reason of the absence or unreliability of data)." This clause is the basis for the Threshold Program which is to be administered through USAID in cooperation with the MCC. Countries eligible for the Threshold Program are invited to submit funding proposals geared towards improving their performance in the indicators they missed in the selection process. Visit the Threshold Program country pages to review each country's performance on the indicators.
Threshold Program Country Selection: In FY 2004, the first year of country selection, the MCC described the following process to select eligible countries for the Threshold Program: The Board favored countries that had to improve upon two or fewer indicators to qualify cleanly under the MCA eligibility criteria; i.e., by improving on two or fewer indicators the country would score above the median on half of the indicators in each policy category, would score above the median on the corruption indicator and would not score substantially below the median on any indicator. In addition, the Board reviewed whether countries that passed this screen also demonstrated a commitment to undertake policy reforms that would result in improvements in deficient MCC policy indicators. Read CGD's analysis on the 2004 Threshold Selection Process
MCA Threshold Program Focus by Country and Indicator The MCC established the Threshold Program to help those countries that are near eligibility and committed to reform to improve their rankings on MCC policy indicators. This chart (xls) shows, for each Threshold country, which indicators failed at the time of Threshold eligibility and what reforms the Threshold Program targets. All but four Threshold Programs (Burkina Faso, Guyana, Jordan, and Sao Tome and Principe) focus on the control of corruption.
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