The accord between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda brokered by the United States in June represents more than a diplomatic breakthrough for the Trump administration. It is a test of whether Washington can transform plans for peace into a durable, mutually beneficial economic and security outcome in one of the most mineral-rich regions in the world.
The African Great Lakes region is where nearly three‑quarters of global cobalt is mined and where flows of untraceable tantalum, tin, and tungsten continue to fuel sustainability risks that ripple through the supply chains of US manufacturers. If the peace agreement and the related US-DRC critical minerals deal fail to deliver on their promises, illicit networks will entrench themselves further, and China will remain the default processor and refiner of the minerals core to electric vehicles, semiconductors, and defense systems. The United States has one instrument that can respond with the scale, speed, and credibility this moment demands—the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
Designed to turn political will into economic transformation
Founded in 2004, the MCC set out with the aim of using large grants to spur economic growth and open markets in poor countries with good governance. The MCC has been active in twenty-four African countries, making investments of over ten billion dollars in energy, agriculture, and infrastructure, with a notable 3,800 kilometers of road completed. Within the US government’s economic statecraft toolbox, the MCC’s large-scale grant capital is a rare and strategic asset able to fund enabling infrastructure for US investment in markets of strategic import. The MCC can also work regionally, not just bilaterally, which is exactly what a cross-border security and trade deal requires. Reimagined as “MCC 2.0,” it can accelerate the development of minerals-corridor infrastructure in African markets, help investors navigate complex permitting regimes, and crowd in US private investment. Armed with flexible funds, MCC compacts finance feasibility studies, workforce upskilling, data gathering, energy, and infrastructure that create the “bankability” that US investors need to move into the DRC market, while also driving regional economic development.
Unlike the US Development Finance Corporation, which is driving the US-Ukraine minerals deal signed earlier this year, the MCC has expertise in driving policy shifts by conditioning disbursements on reforms, addressing market entry barriers. The corporation’s regional focus also suits the fact that mineral supply chains will cross borders, allowing the MCC to reinforce both the corridor‑based US-DRC minerals deal and the related DRC‑Rwanda agreement. Tying disbursements to measurable governance benchmarks gives the United States leverage beyond diplomacy and makes reform inseparable from financing. With the MCC, the Trump administration has an execution platform, not just a financing source, that can support the long-term success of the US-DRC critical minerals deal.
Country eligibility requirements: An operational choice, not legislative constraint
Over the past twenty years, the MCC has developed complex and often onerous eligibility requirements that score countries—using data from Freedom House, Reporters without Borders, and the World Bank, among others—and determine which can receive grants. Neither the DRC nor Rwanda would qualify for a full compact under MCC’s current scoring regime.
However, these eligibility practices do not have to stand in the way of the MCC being mobilized to make the peace and economic agreements successful. The metrics that are currently used to determine country eligibility are an operational choice: Such use of these metrics is not mandated by the statute that created the MCC, and it precludes the agency from adapting to urgent, strategic opportunities like the one now unfolding in Central Africa. Congress instructed the MCC to partner with countries demonstrating a commitment to governance, economic freedom, and investment in people, and the compacts must align with US national interests.
The procedural hurdles and rigid scorecard formulas that have been layered on the law’s framework can be removed by new political leadership. To let operational rigidity block US minerals security and Congolese development ambition is to let process defeat purpose.
MCC needs political direction
There is no need to rewrite the MCC’s authorizing statute. Congress has already put in place its legal authority and full‑year appropriations. What is needed is political direction. Now that the corporation has a new board that met in August, the agency is beginning work on compacts that had been paused during the foreign assistance review. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as chair of the MCC board, should instruct the MCC to fast-track a Great Lakes regional compact to become the platform for the execution of the peace agreement and critical minerals deal. Such a compact, focusing on power, rail, border systems, mining-skills training, and rule‑of‑law, could create an investible minerals corridor integrated with the US-supported Lobito Trans‑Africa Corridor* connecting the DRC to ports in Angola.
At the least, a $750 million Great Lakes regional compact could rapidly do the following:
- Support data collection and the use of artificial intelligence in minerals exploration;
- Fund the basics of bankability, including through feasibility and environmental studies;
- Co‑fund last‑mile rail and road spurs to connect the Kivu (in the DRC) and Copperbelt (in Zambia) nodes to Lobito rail and border crossings in coordination with the DFC’s Lobito financing;
- Finance substation upgrades and dedicated lines to processing zones in eastern DRC;
- Digitize customs, implement pre‑clearance for certified minerals, and modernize warehousing;
- Support metallurgy/geoscience training and tech transfer programs; and
- Accelerate traceability and the formalization of the artisanal mining sector through digitization.
The metrics for success could be visible within a year in terms of private capital mobilized, US offtake agreements, and reduced cost of production. As specific mining projects mature, DFC and Export–Import Bank financing could be leveraged to match the growing need for equity and debt financing and insurance products.
The bottom line for the administration
The Trump administration should be applauded for its diplomatic efforts in Central Africa. Now it must back that diplomacy with a minerals corridor that demonstrates the shared economic dividends of peace. The MCC is operating, the board is engaged, and the legal and financial authorities exist to move now. A Great Lakes regional compact would leverage the MCC’s unique strengths—flexible grants, reform conditionality, and regional scope—to turn a fragile deal into durable minerals security and local development. Any delay would simply entrench China‑centric processing. It’s time to move fast, with the MCC in front.
Aubrey Hruby is a senior adviser and senior fellow at the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council and leads the center’s Critical Minerals Task Force.
*Rawbank, which supports the Atlantic Council Africa Center’s work on the Democratic Republic of Congo, has an equity stake in the Africa Finance Corporation, which leads the development of the Lobito Corridor.
The Africa Center works to promote dynamic geopolitical partnerships with African states and to redirect US and European policy priorities toward strengthening security and bolstering economic growth and prosperity on the continent.
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Image: Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosts a Declaration of Principles signing ceremony between Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., United States, on April 25, 2025. The United States works to end years of conflict in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between Congolese government forces and rebels supported by Rwanda. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto)NO USE FRANCE
