Inside MCC’s $292 million contracts for 2025

Last year, the Millennium Challenge Corporation marked 20 years of operation. Since its establishment, the agency has worked in 48 countries, investing nearly $17 billion in projects aimed at reducing extreme poverty through economic growth. MCC primarily funds projects through compacts. These are large, five-year agreements that place responsibilities on the recipient countries in exchange for funding. The agency also awards threshold programs, which are smaller grants for countries that are yet to become eligible for compacts. Based on its latest annual report, MCC’s current active compact and threshold programs amount to over $5 billion, with $2 billion signed or launched in FY 2024 alone. It’s a slight increase from the $1.7 billion signed in the previous fiscal year. As stated earlier, partner countries typically have ownership over these projects, but MCC also tenders contracts to help with the administration of projects — such as with due diligence and monitoring and evaluation — and to support the agency’s overall operations. On Nov. 15, MCC shared its business forecast for the fiscal year 2025, containing contracts it currently intends to tender. The pipeline only includes opportunities worth at least $250,000. It contains provisional information for potential bidders, including the procuring department, maximum budget, procurement method, and anticipated award date. We crunched the data to see what MCC plans to prioritize in the coming months. We also provided a brief overview of the Partner Country Business Forecast down below. PCBF contains contract opportunities from MCC partner countries. What does the overall data say? MCC’s latest forecast includes 143 contracts, with a maximum budget of $292 million. Of this, 106 contracts, worth up to $221 million, are in the planning stage, while the remaining 37 contracts, worth up to $71 million, were already approved. Most of the contracts are small-sized, with 112 opportunities worth less than $1 million each. Another 26 contracts have a budget range of $1 million to less than $5 million, while five contracts have allocations of $5 million to $9.99 million. More than a third of the anticipated opportunities are expected to be awarded in Q3 — a maximum budget of $106 million and an average contract size of $2 million. About 35 contracts, with an average size of $1.5 million, are likely to be awarded in Q2; 32 contracts, averaging $2.6 million, in Q1; and 23 contracts, with an average size of $2.3 million, in Q4. Who’s procuring the contracts? The largest portion of the budget came from the Department of Compact Operations, worth up to $138 million for 81 contracts. The department manages overseas missions and was also the top procuring office in the previous forecast. The Department of Policy and Evaluation ranked next, with 42 opportunities worth up to $82 million, then the Department of Administration and Finance, with 20 contracts worth up to $72 million. Each procuring department provides a description of the services they would need. Based on the data, 28 opportunities, worth up to $68 million, are for monitoring and evaluation. IT-related procurements ranked next, with six contracts worth up to $28 million; infrastructure, with 14 contracts worth up to $27 million; and energy, with eight contracts worth up to $16 million. What are the geographic priorities? Similar to the previous forecast, we found some discrepancies with MCC’s geographic classification. To address this, we reviewed each contract to identify their place of performance. More than half of the contracts, worth up to $172 million, have no specific location as they are intended to support MCC’s operations. Among those with specific locations, Nepal has the biggest budget, worth up to $22 million for six opportunities. Malawi ranked next, with five contracts worth up to $13 million; Niger, with two contracts worth up to $11 million; and Belize, with three contracts worth up to $11 million. Overview: MCC PCBF On Dec. 31, MCC also shared its Partner Country Business Forecast, which covers Q1 2025 up to Q1 2026. It’s similar to the business forecast, except that the partner countries themselves manage it. We noticed that MCC updated the threshold for what’s included in PCBF. In the past, the forecast lists opportunities worth over $200,000. The latest one only includes contracts worth over $300,000. However, unlike the business forecast, PCBF does not include the planned budget for the opportunities. Overall, 62 anticipated awards were included in the forecast. Of these, 47 contacts are for consulting services, three contracts for procurement of goods, and two contracts for IT services. Among partner countries, Nepal and Malawi have the most opportunities, with eight contracts each. Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Kenya, and Indonesia ranked next, with seven contracts each. By sector, a quarter of the opportunities are for transport and logistics. Energy followed with 13 contracts, institution reforms with seven contracts, and financial services with five contracts. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.