Vice President for Millennium Challenge to visit Armenia

Vice President for Compact Operations of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Patrick Fine, will visit Armenia October 2-4 to review the results of the five year US-funded MCA-Armenia Program. During his visit he will meet with President Serzh Sargsian, senior officials of the Government of Armenia, farmer beneficiaries, donor partners, and private sector and civil society representatives.

In 2006, the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Government of the Republic of Armenia signed a Compact with the objective of reducing rural poverty through a sustainable increase in the economic performance of the agricultural sector. Since its completion on September 29, 2011, the MCC grant investment of nearly USD 177 million in the MCA-Armenia program has benefitted over 420,000 rural residents in around 350 communities across Armenia by refurbishing major sections of the country’s main canal systems, modernizing some of the most urgently needed pumping stations, introducing new gravity irrigation schemes, re-building tertiary canals and restoring sections of the Ararat Valley Drainage system. The MCA-Armenia program has also trained over 45,000 farmers in improved agriculture practices, delivering technical assistance to water supply institutions, and providing USD 8.5 million in credit to farmers and small agribusinesses to support the program objectives.

MCC is an innovative U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty.