Published: October 10, 2013 Author: Hillary Bengtsson
The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) was recently awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) to partner with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to provide impact evaluation research for MCC projects.
MCC is a U.S. foreign aid agency created by the U.S. Congress in January, 2004, that is committed to providing smart U.S. foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country ownership, and proven results. MCC is working toward improving the lives of people in developing countries by creating the markets of the future, with whom global companies can do business and trade.
To support MCC objectives, NDIGD will draw from multidisciplinary resources at the university that align with MCC objectives to help foster demand-driven, interdisciplinary approaches to major development challenges.
NDIGD will work to support MCC goals by 1) providing monitoring and evaluation services that will measure the impact of programming on institutions and the impact of reforms on desired outcomes; and 2) conducting project design and policy analysis for the implementation of global development projects. In addition, the new partnership will support training and capacity building through the integration of multidisciplinary teams and proven approaches to developing training and education programs.
NDIGD embraces a holistic approach in areas that include commerce and economic development, security and peacebuilding, rule of law; global health, infrastructure, human development, energy and the environment, and education. Notre Dame’s strengths will help advance MCC goals via an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach that will combine stringent project monitoring and evaluation, development policy and cooperation, and policy improvement.
“We are very pleased to leverage our university-wide expertise across multiple disciplines to support MCC in monitoring and evaluation, as well as the design of development projects that are well-matched to the university’s expertise, capacity, and mission,” says Notre Dame vice president for research Robert Bernhard.
The new partnership between NDIGD and MCC will help provide a strong framework for the rigorous evaluation of the impact of integrated global development projects that assist in the development of peaceful nations and assist people suffering from extreme poverty.
Contact: Michael Sweikar, NDIGD Managing Director msweikar@nd.edu