IFAD Photo by Sarah Nimeh Mauritania, Agricultural Rehabilitation Programme - Phase II Date-harvesting  in Atar Ville, an oasis in the Atar group.

Programme area. The programme activities will be concentrated in areas already targeted by ongoing IFAD-supported projects and programmes. Specifically, the programme will cover the oasis areas, the regions of Gorgol, Assaba and Guidimaka and the non-oasis areas in the two regions of Hodh el Gharbi and Hodh ech Chargui. Mauritania's poverty reduction strategy paper identifies all these areas as suffering chronic food insecurity.

Target group. Overall, the programme targets approximately 65,000 households, with some 67,000 individuals expected to benefit directly from the activities. The target group will be composed of rainfed farmers, oasis farmers, farmers practising flood-recession agriculture, nomadic herders, landless poor, rural poor people involved in small-scale business activities, women and young people.

Programme objectives. The programme's overall goal is to increase incomes and improve living conditions for the poorest rural groups, especially women and young people. The specific objective is to promote and develop a limited number of value chains in order to bring the target groups into the rural economy and increase the value added accruing to them.

Programme description. In addition to programme management, the programme is currently expected to have three components:

• Communication, outreach and support to partnership-building along the value chains. Dialogue and effective collaboration will be promoted among the various actors involved in each value chain. Standards and opportunities for cooperation (i.e. cooperatives, joint-trade organizations) will gradually be created, with the full involvement of participants, by means of a value chain development strategy. Support will be provided for developing essential links with the national legal framework, national trade and pricing policies, the national financial sector, etc. Information on value chain promotion (information, advertising, advocacy, etc.) and functioning (price and market information) will be made available.
• Support to value chain stakeholders. The programme will provide non-financial support specifically targeted at the various stakeholder categories (target group, rural organizations, the private sector, civil society and public institutions). A significant proportion of programme resources will be allocated to the target group and/or their grass-roots organizations.
• Innovation, action research and knowledge management. Relevant learning and innovations in technical, social, organizational and/or legislative areas will be researched (locally and internationally), capitalized upon and widely disseminated. Innovations will be promoted by setting up experimental schemes and pilots, with the assistance of either ad hoc grants or direct support to the promoters of pilot activities. The groundwork will also be laid to expand the programme to support other value chains/commodities.

IFAD Photo by Horst Wagner Mauritania, Agricultural Rehabilitation Programme - Phase II Groundnuts and potatoes are among the produce sold at the open market in Kiffa.

Important features. The Government of Mauritania attaches particular importance to anchoring growth in the economic activities of the poor, and this represents one of the main thrusts of the national poverty reduction strategy. On this basis and in alignment with IFAD's Strategic Framework objectives and the strategy of the Western and Central Africa Division, IFAD's country strategic opportunities programme for Mauritania identified the promotion of increased agricultural production through community management of natural resources and development of value chains. This programme is an innovation for Mauritania: no donor has previously invested in the development of commodity chains by coordinating the activities of independent actors operating along the chains who have not yet managed to establish coherent and shared commodity development strategies.

Potential cofinanciers. Interested cofinanciers are invited to contact IFAD.

 

Facts and figures Region: Western and Central Africa Programme name: Value Chain Development Programme for Poverty Reduction Country: Mauritania Programme ID number: 1433 Nature of programme: Value chain development Programme cost (provisional): US$20 million Estimated IFAD financing: To be determined Cofinancing gap: See section on potential cofinanciers Domestic contribution (provisional): 20 per cent of programme cost Proposed terms: Highly concessional with a 50 per cent grant element Stage of programme cycle: Under detailed programme design Next step in programme development: Programme design completion scheduled to start in June 2008. Country meeting scheduled for mid-June 2008 Tentative date for consideration by the Executive Board: December 2008 Programme duration: Six years Tentative programme start-up date: June 2009 Implementing agency: To be determined (currently under discussion) Borrower: Islamic Republic of Mauritania Hot links IFAD operations in Mauritania Planned project activities disclaimer Contact information Mr M. Béavogui Director, Western and Central Africa Ms C. Sparacino Country Programme Manager c.sparacino@ifad.org International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Via Paolo di Dono, 44, 00142 Rome, Italy Tel: +39 0654591 e-mail: ifad@ifad.org