The $362.6 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, signed in July 2007 between the Governments of Lesotho and the United States, was formally launched in September in Maseru with the first disbursement of the five-year agreement. The compact program will fund about 17 projects focused on bringing clean and safe water to mainly urban households, increasing the manufacturing sector through a lowlands waterproject, improving the health infrastructure and services for poor rural communities, and expanding economic activity for private sector development by improving access to finance, especially for women.
