Freetown, November 12, 2025 Sierra Leone’s $480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact remains firmly on track as the FY2026 Scorecard introduces new indicators and benchmarks to reflect evolving U.S. government priorities. The new scorecard, which expands from 20 to 22 indicators, underscores the country’s steady progress in governance, economic freedom, and social development.
The FY2026 scorecard introduces two new “hard hurdles” Control of Corruption and Government Accountability, along with Personal Freedom replacing the previous focus on Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Sierra Leone continues to perform strongly, passing five out of six indicators in the Ruling Justly category, including Control of Corruption, which the country has now passed for seven consecutive years. Sierra Leone also meets both new indicators: Personal Freedom and Government Accountability.
In the Economic Freedom category, Sierra Leone maintains strong performances in Women in the Economy (95%) and Employment Opportunity (82%), while the inclusion of new metrics- Business Start-Up, Market Competitiveness, and International Market Access provides additional opportunities to benchmark progress on trade, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness. The government views these additions as a chance to measure and strengthen ongoing reforms in these key areas.
In the Investing in People category, the previous indicators for Immunization Rate and Education Expenditure have been replaced by Chronic Disease and Workforce Development. While data limitations affected scoring in the latter, Sierra Leone remains committed to improving health and education systems to meet future benchmarks.
Overall, Sierra Leone continues to pass all the indicators from the previous scorecard that remain on the new one, reaffirming its consistent progress and policy alignment with MCC’s core principles of good governance, accountability, and inclusive growth.
The Government of Sierra Leone is fully committed to the successful implementation of the MCC Compact and views the expanded scorecard not as a challenge, but as an enhanced tool to drive ongoing reforms, promote private sector competitiveness, and improve service delivery for all citizens.
By William E.I Freeman
Public Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement Specialist
Sierra Leone Compact Development Unit
+23278419420 / w.freeman@slcdu.org
