The Coordinating Council of the II Millennium Challenge Account has made a positive assessment of the second package of aid and given assurances that it will provide a further US$5 million in funding in the next quarter, Cabo Verde’s (Cape Verde’s) Finance Minister said.

“We are reaching a point at which it will be possible to make a qualitative leap because many of the studies have been carried out and reforms on a legal level are on the final stretch and are now moving on to the contract phase,” said Cristina Duarte, cited by weekly newspaper A Semana.

The minister said that the contracts would “significantly” increase obligations, which over the next three months total US$5 million.

This second compact is helping Cabo Verde to apply a management model to the water and sanitation sector as well as property management, both sectors which four years ago were considered to be facing constraints at a time when Cabo Verde was preparing its 3rd strategic document for growth and poverty reduction.

The archipelago set up the National Agency for Water and Sanitation (ANAS) and a regulatory framework, which allowed the private sector to move in on a safe and predictable basis supported by the Water and Sanitation Fund (FASA), which finances all physical work. (macauhub/CV)