Mauritania: The African Development Bank grants $17 million to strengthen resilience of female market gardeners, add value to agricultural production and increase incomes of rural women

The African Development Bank (ADB) Group Board of Directors has approved a grant of $17 million to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania to implement the Project for Promotion of Gender-Sensitive Agricultural Value Chains and Women's Entrepreneurship (French acronym PCVASGEF).

This project is financed under the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) and aims to increase productivity and add value to agricultural products to boost women's income and support female entrepreneurship in Mauritania. The project is a part of the Programme to Support Agricultural Transformation in Mauritania which works to adapt to climate change and promote inclusion.

"This project is an important lever for agricultural transformation in Mauritania. It will help to empower the country’s women by supporting their work in the vegetable production and packaging industry. It will create local market garden production centres and irrigation basins that operate throughout the year, preventing production disruptions at national level," explained Malinne Blomberg, the Bank’s Country Manager for Mauritania.

The project will create new market gardening plots managed by women (1,014 hectares divided into 321 small modular plots between two and four hectares each) as well as 4,500 hectares of improved drainage basins.

More efficient use of agricultural produce will be made possible by building and equipping 12 multi-purpose, internet-connected centres for the promotion of female employment, two vegetable packaging and storage units and six local vegetable markets. The programme is focused on encouraging entrepreneurial culture among women (creation of innovative start-ups, backing for young entrepreneurs, training, etc). It includes capacity-building for actors in the market-gardening value chain, support for women's organisations (including 205 women's market-gardening cooperatives) and the establishment of 12 agricultural savings and loan associations.

The project will be implemented in 12 districts of the Brakna and Trarza regions. These are among the most vulnerable in Mauritania and where the situation of women is particularly precarious. The project will directly benefit up to 22,200 households and will have indirect impact on nearly 90,000 people. It will help to improve food security and strengthen the resilience of households, particularly women and young people, through innovative and efficient irrigation systems, greater use of solar energy, agricultural transformation, access to markets and upgrading of value chains.

The active portfolio of Bank Group in Mauritania now includes 20 operations with net financial commitments of $422 million.