Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact II has been the largest investment in Georgia’s education sector since the country’s independence, and aimed at developing Georgia’s human capital for economic growth and poverty reduction. The $140 million Compact was implemented over five years, starting on July 1, 2014 and ending on July 1, 2019. The Compact was an international agreement signed between the Government of Georgia and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), ratified by the Parliament of Georgia and implemented by Millennium Challenge Account-Georgia (MCA-Georgia).
Studies have shown that human capital is a driver of economic growth for countries with developing economies. Recognizing this, Georgia has achieved significant progress in human capital development over the last decade. In 2012, the inadequate quality of human capital was identified as a major constraint to economic growth. The human capital deficit was particularly acute in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. To tackle this challenge, the Government of Georgia, represented by the Millennium Challenge Account-Georgia, with funding from the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, has implemented projects in general, vocational, and higher education focusing on improving education quality and developing Georgia’s human capital in STEM fields.
The MCC Georgia Compact II Improved Learning Environment Infrastructure Activity aimed at rehabilitating schools in rural areas of Georgia and the creation of a sound Operations and Maintenance system for all Georgian schools to ensure that infrastructure in schools is of adequate quality and receives long-term, sustainable oversight. As a result, 91 public schools in the regions of Georgia were fully rehabilitated, equipped with science labs, and a school operation and maintenance system was introduced and piloted. Also at the school level, professional development of 17,800 teachers in STEM subjects and English language was successfully carried out and institutional capacity-building of up to 2048 public school principals and facilitators was achieved through trainings and leadership academies. The Compact enabled Georgia to participate in international assessments (TALIS, TIMMS, and PISA) which allow impact measurement of the education policies and implemented activities and reforms. The overall goal of all of these activities and projects in general education sector was to improve the learning outcomes of students and to better prepare them for future challenges.
A vocational education improvement activity — the Industry-led Skills and Workforce Development Project – was successfully carried out within Compact II. Through competitive program improvement grants, 51 new technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs were launched with 10 vocational education providers in Georgia. Activities for strengthening sector policy and provider practice in vocational education were successfully carried out, resulting in issuance of small grants promoting industry engagement in vocational education, TVET awareness raising campaigns, and more.
The STEM Higher Education Project launched international standard higher education programs in STEM fields in Georgia and created a new cohort of highly skilled, professional, and internationally competitive engineers and technology specialists. This was achieved through a partnership with San Diego State University (SDSU) in Georgia, and included building the capacity of local partner universities to obtain U.S. accreditation of its STEM programs. Over $21 million was invested into state of the art science labs and educational infrastructure for the SDSU programs in Georgia offered at three Georgian partner universities.
MCA_Georgia has implemented activities promoting social and gender integration into all Compact programs at every stage of implementation to ensure equitable access and benefits and contribute to inclusive growth. MCA-Georgia integrated internationally-accepted principles of environmental and social sustainability into the design and implementation of all Compact activities. Georgia is recognized by MCC’s as the remarkable success story of their impact oriented work.