Nouakchott, 1 October 2024 – “IFAD's country programme has contributed to the development of small-scale family farming by supporting an increase in arable land, agricultural production and diversification; strengthening community structures and organisations; and developing oasis areas”, noted Dr Kouessi Maximin Kodjo, Lead Evaluation Officer at the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE), during the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation final national workshop, on 1 October 2024.

Elaborating on these accomplishments, Dr Genny Bonomi, IOE Senior Evaluation Officer, explained that the introduction of consultation and planning mechanisms at local level and the related funding mechanisms have been innovative social mechanisms. The programme helped to increase the area under cultivation and improve access to pastoral infrastructure. In oasis areas, the programme contributed to set an extension system based on locally selected relay farmers. These are relevant innovations in the Mauritanian context, where technical services are faced with constraints in terms of the availability of human and logistical resources to provide local support.

Co-organized by the Government of Mauritania and IOE, in collaboration with IFAD’s West and Central Africa Division, the on-line virtual workshop brought together a wealth of high-level attendants, including Mr Moustapha Ould Sidi Mohamed, Economic Advisor in charge of Development, Acting Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.  Over 70 participants joined the hybrid event, on-line and in-person, representing the government of Mauritania, development partners, civil society organizations, private sector partners, and IFAD senior management and staff.

During the workshop, participants discussed the main findings, recommendations and issues emerging from the CSPE. The meeting also provided an occasion to focus on the opportunities and challenges of the partnership between IFAD and the Government in the near future and discuss strategic priorities for IFAD's upcoming programme.

The evaluation covered the last two Country Strategic Options Programmes (COSOPs), the current one which started in 2018 and the previous one which dates back to 2007, for a total period of 17 years. The portfolio of projects evaluated includes 8 projects with a total budget of USD 202.8 million, of which USD 119.5 million was financed by IFAD and the remainder by the Government of Mauritania, other financial partners and beneficiaries.  

Workshop participants noted in line with the recommendations of the evaluation the importance of working on rural finance which is among the main constraints for the development of the agricultural sector, and stressed the need for designing projects with a strong focus on sustainability. Participants also highlighted results in organising and structuring producers in the Oasis as one of the most significant achievements of the programme.

The programme strongly focused on women which have been in many cases the main beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects. It promoted market gardening and semi-intensive poultry farming which are value chain with a high presence of women. Despite efforts made by projects to involve women in community organisations, their participation in decision making process is not yet visible.  Youth were also supposed to be one of the main groups targeted by projects, however the programme failed in developing specific activities or approaches to successfully involve them.

The programme helped to promote the value chain approach by introducing various innovating mechanisms, including value chain working groups and public-private-producer partnerships.  However, their consolidation remains a challenge. With some exceptions, projects did not focus in their design on structuring producers, giving them access to credit and setting up sustainable advisory support systems, aspect particular important for sustainability as the external advisory support provided by technical operators often stops after the projects end.

Knowledge management (KM) was another area of concern, with few projects having developed a structured KM approach. In addition, IFAD did not make sufficient use of existing platforms at country level for knowledge sharing, which reduced the visibility of the activities and knowledge generated. Equally unsatisfactory was the attention on sustainable management of natural resources and adaptation to climate change, as projects did not sufficiently monitor the potential negative impact of interventions on natural resources such as water or pastoral land.

For the development of the next country strategy, the CSPE recommends maintaining, among the strategic choices, support for the development of agricultural and pastoral production systems with a progressive deployment of value chain approaches. The evaluation also recommends maintaining and strengthening in the programme the community development approach as the basis for local development, reintegrating rural finance and supporting institutional strengthening in the agricultural sector, including non-state structures. Furthermore, to enable measurable social change and economic empowerment of women beneficiaries, projects should continue to support women by implementing appropriate gender strategies and mobilising the necessary expertise.

Since 1980, IFAD has financed 16 projects in Mauritania. Despite being classified as a lower-middle-income country, Mauritania remains in the category of countries with a low human development index. The dispersal of the population and the scattering of villages pose a major challenge to ensuring universal access for the population to basic infrastructure and services. The rate of malnutrition remains a cause for concern, with 17.4% of children under the age of 5 still affected by stunting.

For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia, Senior Evaluation Communication & KM Specialist [here].

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