Washington, DC — The U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced today a partnership with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) to help expand access to clean water and sanitation in Africa. The partnership will help leverage MCC investments and enhance sustainability and impact. The MCC and TCCAF partnership will work together in the West African nation of Cape Verde.
Cape Verde is an extremely water-scarce country that faces a number of challenges in the water and sanitation sector. Part of MCC’s five-year $66 million compact with Cape Verde will implement crucial water sector reforms and will invest in infrastructure to expand access to clean water and sanitation. This $41.1 million Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project (WASH Project) is designed to establish a financially sound, transparent and accountable institutional basis for the delivery of water and sanitation services to Cape Verdean households and businesses across the country. The project’s approach to improving sector performance is based on a three-pronged strategy: (i) reforming national policy and regulatory institutions; (ii) transforming inefficient utilities into independent corporate entities operating on a commercial basis; and (iii) improving the quality and reach of water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Our cooperation with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation is the perfect public-private partnership to leverage MCC investments in this critical sector. The Government of Cape Verde is undertaking serious policy reforms to strengthen the water sector, and this partnership is proof that they are taking the right steps to attract further private sector investments,” said MCC Resident Country Director Kenneth Miller.
The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has pledged, through the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), to significantly invest alongside MCC’s effort in order to help up to 20,000 low-income households gain access to the water network, providing proper sanitation as well as hygiene education for thousands of people. As the implementing partner, MCA-Cape Verde is coordinating with Cavibel, the local Coca-Cola bottler, to maximize the impact of the partnership.
RAIN is the signature community initiative of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. Backed by a six-year, $30 million commitment by The Coca-Cola Company—in partnership with not-for-profit, humanitarian and government donors working nationally and internationally—RAIN’s goal is to provide more than two million people in Africa with access to drinking water by 2015. RAIN seeks to implement at least one water project in each African country, and the foundation’s partnership with MCC will now enable RAIN to enter Cape Verde, its 31st country out of the continent’s 55 countries.
To date, MCC has invested $2.1 billion in water-related projects in 20 partner countries. Half of this amount is for projects that improve drinking water supply, sanitation and hygiene, with the remaining amount supporting improved water productivity and integrated water resources management.
For more information about MCC and its programs around the world please visit www.mcc.gov.
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