“Government funds alone simply aren't going to get the job done. What's needed is the engagement of the private sector and the private capital flows that come into these markets to make lasting change sustainable.”

Created in 2004 with broad bipartisan support, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is a US Government aid agency that seeks to reduce poverty in the developing world through economic growth. CEO Sean Cairncross is committed to working with governments that have a proven record of stability, good governance, and existing investments in their own people. He proudly points to the fact that MCC was recently ranked first among US aid agencies for transparency.

“Each project has to have a certain economic rate of return before MCC will invest in it,” he tells Mike on the podcast. “We look at that over the course of time for 20 years after that project is completed in order to report essentially to our stakeholders, the US taxpayer, that this is money well spent and that we've achieved a result.”