On May 7, the government of Malawi and the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) inaugurated a $350 million compact, as reported by Nyasa Times, a Malawian news service.
The MCC is an agency of the US government that invests in “well-governed countries” and “provides time-limited grants promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions”, according to its website
The MCC primarily invests in projects that deal with agriculture, health, water security, and education.
The main goal of this investment into Malwai is to improve road infrastructure between rural areas and market regions.
At the inauguration ceremony, President Chakwera, the president of Malawi, said that “These prices potentially inhibit the development of Malawi’s rural economy and stymie structural transformation by preventing the rural to urban movement of labor and diversified production of cash crops”, according to the Nyasa Times.
Although the partnership between the MCC and Malawi has existed since 2005, this recent large-scale investment is likely part of a greater movement by the US to politically engage African nations. As China’s influence across Africa has steadily increased in the past decade, the US likely seeks to deny further influence, and by extent, access of China to African nations.
