Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Action Plan 2006-2010

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Action Plan 2006-2010 is a national multi-sectoral strategic document of Mauritania. Its vision is based on the four strategic themes identified in the past, which remain relevant: (i) accelerated growth and the maintenance of macroeconomic stability; (ii) anchoring growth in sectors from which the poor derive direct benefit; (iii) developing human resources and improving access to basic services; and (iv) improving governance and building capacities.
The document aims to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. To this end, it sets out measures to enhance food self-sufficiency; to promote growth of the sector in order to guarantee the food security of the country; to improve the capacities for rapid intervention in the event of a food crisis will also be targeted; to improve household access, in particular on the part of the poorest, to essential staple foods, and promote adequate food behavior and nutritional practices; to screen for and provide care for pregnant women suffering from malnutrition, and provide technical support and overall coordination for the sectors involved in the areas of food security, community and school nutrition, and food quality control; to strengthen crisis prevention capacities and food security program design capacity; to support capacity building for the Food Security Commission (CSA); to reduce the incidence of hunger and malnutrition among the people, particularly among vulnerable groups; to reduce hunger and malnutrition in the population, especially for the most at-risk groups; to renew the principal sectors of economic activity in rural areas; to provide equitable access to resources; to increase the supply and availability of goods and services needed for the sustainable development of the sector; to improve the management capacities for integrated and participatory rural development; and to strengthening the mechanism for surveillance as regards serious diseases.
In addition, the Strategy aims to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. To this end, it aims for systematically integrating the principles of sustainable development into national policies, and reversing the current trend of depleting environmental resources; promoting environmental information as a tool to help with decision-making; protecting and improving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, in particular in wetlands; protecting and improving the maritime and coastal environment; combating soil degradation and sanding; improving urban and rural living conditions; sustainably managing environmental wastes; and systematically conducting environmental impact studies and enhancing the capacities of the administrations responsible for coordinating them; and improving water control, continuing the program of improving or rehabilitating dams, dikes, and dikelets, as well as the program for the ongoing hydrological monitoring of 50 watersheds, and the promotion of traditional watershed techniques (the zaï technique of crescent shaped-pools to catch runoff water, the stone barrier erosion control method, etc.).
Further, for reducing rural poverty, the document targets to achieve these ambitious objectives, Mauritania intends to strengthen its economic and social development policy for the next 10 years, during which it will continue to focus on combating poverty; reduce the incidence of rural poverty from 59 percent in 2004 to below 51 percent in 2010; and to increase the coverage of potable water service to 62 percent in rural and semiurban areas.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Strategy seeks increasing agricultural production in all subsectors (rice, cereal grains, dates, gum arabic, timber, etc.) through suitably adapted measures, such as the improvement and rehabilitation of more arable land, water control, and significantly improving yields (improved seeds, manuring, soil fertility management); diversifying the production and export of vegetables and fruits through credit availability, extension services, the creation of industrial processing units and units for the nonindustrial preservation of market garden products, and the development of economical irrigation techniques; improved supply and marketing, by decreasing the isolation of production areas, increasing storage capacities, and expanding the use of targeted lending; promoting local agricultural tools; and combating crop pests; and protecting crops against wandering livestock; and improving the business climate and promoting SMEs.
In order to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the document aims to introduce a cohesive and efficient system for predicting and managing epidemics and natural disasters; and to combat crop pests.
To improve the economic participation of women, five objectives have been defined: improving women’s access to production factors, combating the unemployment and underemployment of women, enhancing the productivity of women, improving market access, and developing female entrepreneurship. To improve women’s access to basic social services, four goals have been defined: eradicating female illiteracy, guaranteeing the basic education of girls, improving women’s health, and improving the living conditions of women and households.
Improved coordination of the government’s actions will be carried out first at the level of the Prime Minister, who chairs the Interministerial Poverty Reduction Committee (CILP). These actions plans, submitted quarterly, will be closely monitored and reflected in the quarterly reports on physical and financial execution. The CTLP and its Coordination Secretariat will subsequently contribute to strengthening this coordination thanks to the monitoring and evaluation system and reporting tools to be introduced for the PRSP. The interventions of the various poverty reduction stakeholders will be coordinated: (i) at the central level, within the forums established in the institutional mechanism of the CSLP (CCLPs, CDLPs, GTTs, and CTSs), which will be renewed; and (ii) at the wilaya level within the Regional Poverty Reduction Committees (CRLPs), which will ensure the coordination of all interventions called for under the Regional Poverty Reduction Programs (PRLPs).