Interactive: Explore midyear opportunities from the Millennium Challenge Corp.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a foreign aid agency of the United States government, independent of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Established in 2004, MCC has pioneered a performance-based aid model, delivering aid to partner countries that are typically among the world’s least developed, but which outperform their peers on indicators measuring good governance, economic freedom and investment in human capital. Cooperation takes the form of grants delivered through compacts — larger, five-year grants to qualifying countries — and threshold programs — smaller grants for countries that are near to qualifying and are committed to becoming future compact countries. In recent weeks, MCC has formally notified the U.S. Congress of its intent to negotiate new compacts with the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Sri Lanka, as well as a threshold program with the government of Kosovo. MCC procurement flows through two channels. First, each country with a compact agreement also has a local “MCA Entity,” separate from the MCC itself, which manages procurement of goods, services, and works for that compact’s programming. Second, MCC headquarters also manages procurement, not only for its own needs as the central administrative body but also for some programming needs in partner countries. Devex conveniently aggregates both these streams of procurement opportunities into funding data on Devex.com, bringing all opportunities from MCC and its MCAs into a single source. In compliance with U.S. government Federal Acquisition Regulations, MCC maintains a public pipeline of future procurement opportunities called the Business Forecast. While the pipeline does not represent hard commitments to funding or programs, it gives partners an advance idea of MCC’s funding priorities and the types opportunities that may soon be opened to competition. The most recent semiannual update to this forecast, released a few weeks ago, has an estimated budget ranging from $78 million to $412 million. It provides updates on 213 business opportunities, 40 percent of which are expected to be released in the third quarter of the year, and another 40 percent in the fourth quarter. Of all the opportunities listed, 16 are cancellations (9.3 percent of the total), 111 (52.3 percent) are new awards and 86 (41.7 percent) are modified opportunities. Devex has transformed this data into an interactive dashboard, making it easy to explore. You can learn about the details of each opportunity in our Funding Activity Feed. US-based business opportunities Just under half — 45 percent — of the new or modified upcoming awards are U.S.-based opportunities, accounting for a total indicative budget of between $30 million and $150 million. It’s worth noting that, in line with MCC’s policy of country offices taking ownership of most procurement processes, many of the U.S.-based business opportunities relate to services supporting staff and administration. The largest budget is allocated for the recompetition of the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Acquisition Support Services contract for the contracts and grants management division. With an indicative budget of between $10 million and $20 million, it is expected to be released during the fourth quarter of 2017. Of the U.S.-based opportunities, around 52 percent have an indicative budget between $150,000 and $700,000, while 21 percent have an estimated value of between $700,000 and $5 million. Outside of the US The MCC’s Business Forecast includes 117 new or recently modified opportunities in 29 countries outside the U.S., accounting for a total estimated budget of between $47.7 million and $262 million. The business forecast also includes 16 opportunities with a worldwide scope. The countries with the most forecasted opportunities include Niger with 11, Indonesia and Mongolia with eight each, Cape Verde with seven and Senegal with six. In the chart below you can see the geographical distribution of the upcoming opportunities. The opportunities with highest values are two blanket purchase agreements, with an estimated maximum value of $10 million each. One is a feasibility study of energy projects in Senegal and the other are technical advisory services, including impact assessments and policy frameworks, in Mongolia. Find out more about these opportunities by exploring Devex’s interactive dashboard and Funding Activity Feed. Check out more practical business and development advice online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.