TL falls in MCC annual ratings

Every year, the U.S. Government's Millennium Challenge Corporation evaluates countries for their eligibility to receive large grants under the MCC program. Countries which fall below certain levels can receive "Threshold" funding to help bring their scores up, and Timor-Leste entered this category in 2007, after its scores fell from previous years. Click here for more information about MCC and Timor-Leste.

MCC just released its scores for 2011. Timor-Leste did worse on 11 criteria compared with the previous year, and improved on 4, with two unchanged. Timor-Leste fell from 21% to 10% in the key "Control of Corruption" indicator, continuing a downward trend since 2006.

MCC uses a pass/fail (green/red) system. To pass, Timor-Leste must be better than at least half of the low-moderate income countries rated. To become fully compact-eligible, (as we were in 2005-6),a country must be "green" for Corruption and the majority of scores on each line of the chart at right. Timor-Leste needs to pass Corruption, and at least two additional indicators in the "Investing in People" category, and one more in the "Economic Freedom" category to return to Compact Eligibility, which will be re-evaluated in a year or two, after the threshold program is implemented.