It’s not easy to land a Millennium Challenge Corp. compact. For Niger, the process took a decade.
“It was a long road,” Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou told Devex in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
MCC’s “constraints to growth” analysis identifies areas where development assistance could help a country realize its economic potential. While 80 percent of Niger’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, nearly 3.4 million Nigeriens are chronically food insecure, according to the United Nations. Under Issoufou, Niger has undertaken a “3N Initiative” — Nigeriens Feeding Nigeriens — aimed at boosting both food access and agricultural productivity.