UNCDF returns to Mauritania after an absence of more than three years

1 March 2005: Within the context of a new partnership between the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the new ‘Support to the Assaba Communes Project’ was launched in Kiffa, Mauritania on 20 February 2005. The project is designed to create conditions favouring sustainable development in Assaba, the Mauritanian province with the highest concentration of people living in poverty. The three-year project has a total budget of more than US$3 million, including a 1.6 million euro trust fund from France and financial contributions from UNCDF (US$300,000), UNDP (US$600,000) and the Government of Mauritania ($US 318,000, including the contributions from local governments).

The key development objective of this project is improved access to basic social services and infrastructure. This objective is achieved through building capacity in support of local initiatives, and through providing grant capital to support local development plans. The project will directly benefit a population of about 180,000 people, administratively linked to 21 ‘local collectivities’ (local governments), of which one urban commune and 20 rural communes, comprising a total of 345 villages or settlements. It is a population widely spread over a huge territory, living precariously in harsh physical environments.

The project is part of an overall effort to consolidate democratic decentralization in Mauritania, under the oversight of the General Direction of Local Governments (Ministry of the Interior, Post and Telecommunications). It supports the key role of local authorities in local development and poverty reduction. Concrete support will be provided to a process of participatory and sustainable planning of local development, with an emphasis on the strengthening of the technical and managerial capacities of all local stakeholders, including elected authorities and the civil society – particularly women’s associations, grass-roots organizations - and local line departments. Local governments will be provided, through the channel of the Treasury department, with grant capital funds to support their investment budgets. Each ‘commune’ will thus be able not only to define and deliver pro-poor small socio-collective infrastructure, but also to promote and to support the implementation of a number of grass-roots initiatives aimed at protecting and rehabilitating local natural resources and improve their productivity.

The Launch of the New Project in Photos

(by Angelo Bonfiglioli, UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor)

An ancient palm plantation in Assaba.

Participants of the stakeholder workshop during the launch of the project in Kiffa, 20 February 2005.

The Town Hall of the Commune of Kamour (Assaba).

The Commune of Kamour, in the area to be served by the project.

UNCDF contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Least Developed Countries through a variety of innovative approaches in both local development and microfinance. More information on UNCDF programmes in Mauritania can be found on the Mauritania Country Web Page.