Alicia Phillips Mandaville, The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)

How do you effectively spend billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to help fight global poverty? And how do you invest for climate resilience and account for the unknown such as the risks of pandemics? We hear from Alicia Phillips Mandaville who is the Vice President of the Department of Policy and Evaluation at The Millennium Challenge Corporation (the MCC) – as she takes as through the MCC’s leading-edge thinking on investing for global growth and poverty reduction. The MCC is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. During our conversation Alicia explores how to spend money to fight global poverty – explaining and providing examples of why focusing on a small number of well-governed countries; selecting infrastructure investments; and requiring accountable transparency are three critical factors that determine successful economic growth and poverty reduction. Alicia provides advice on business decision making, investments and policy shifts that could also help. In addition, Alicia looks into the future of impact investing - unpacking why putting people at the heart of climate action and understanding risk is essential to fighting climate change and preparing us all for an uncertain world. Alicia’s background and experience spans data-driven tools and qualitative research. She has worked at the intersections of governance, economic development, and technology – for tech start-ups, for NGOs, for the Deputy Secretary of State in the US as well as for the MCC. Links: • MCC Climate Strategy: https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/climate-change-strategy • Malawi Energy Infrastructure Development – Evaluation Brief: https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/evalbrief-032521-malawi-idp • Malawi Power Sector Reform – Evaluation Brief: https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/evalbrief-070720-mwi-power-reform • Malawi Environmental and Natural Resource Management – Evaluation Brief: https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/evalbrief-041620-mwi-enrm-cs •