Mauritania: Poverty Assessment

Poverty Profile

Over the past 25 years, droughts have transformed Mauritania from a nomadic to a sedentary society—from an estimated 78 percent nomadic in 1965 to 12 percent in 1988—and to an economy almost equally split between rural and urban activities. The rapidity of this change has disrupted virtually every aspect of the lives of this ancient society, deeply rooted in the traditions of its rigid social structure. The living conditions of most Mauritanians have worsened, and, more important, their vulnerability to poverty has increased and the threat of poverty loom persistently in the background.

The socioeconomic ramifications of this sedentarization and urbanization are enormous and leave no one untouched. Of the 2 million Mauritanians, those considered to be poor from a straight income perspective represent about 57 percent of the population (those who spend less than US$275 a year) Households below that expenditure level consume less than 80 percent of the recommended daily calorie requirement of 2,300 calories. High rates of malnutrition (34 percent chronic and 17 percent acute) were found throughout the country and for all income groups during the period 1987-90.

Poverty appears more severe in rural areas (particularly in the east and the Senegal River Valley) than in urban areas. Nearly 30 percent of Mauritanian households are headed by women, partly explained by high divorce rates and increasing long-term migration; the rate is higher among poor groups. Although data indicate that the level of average expenditures for female-headed households is similar to that of male-headed households, factors such as higher dependency ratios, lower education levels, lower participation in formal employment, and heavy reliance on income transfers suggest that the vulnerability of female-headed households is greater.

Incentive and Regulatory Framework

Long-term reforms designed to foster competitiveness and growth will certainly be demanding and difficult. Irrigation development along the Senegal River basin, undertaken in the mid-1970s as a way of maximizing the fertile and productive land around the flood plain of the River and of promoting the agriculture sector in Mauritania has produced mixed results to date. The area has attracted a number of private investors to develop irrigated schemes. Yet, given the high cost of developing and maintaining new sites, the expansion of irrigated land is progressing slowly.

Forward production linkages into the rural economy tend to be small, given the monopolistic and capital-intensive structure of the processing, transportation, and marketing of rice, thereby minimizing the impact of irrigation on poverty. Moreover, the development of the River valley for irrigation has given rise to land disputes as cultivators claim to have been inadequately compensated for their land and farmers practicing recession agriculture have experienced production losses from irrigation expansion. Finally, the import levy on rice, introduced as protection for local rice production and thus an incentive to private entrepreneurs to exploit the potential of irrigated land, may be having negative effects on poor households.

These considerations suggest that the economics of the irrigation system, particularly of rice, and of the management of the dams, the impact of irrigated agriculture on poor households and the impact of the rice levy on other cereal prices, on consumption patterns, and on agricultural activity need to be re-examined. Finally, the pilot land tenure reform program, which was designed to grant stability of land tenure and to protect traditional land rights, should be pursued with vigor but closely monitored.

Despite a policy of promoting small- and medium-scale enterprises, the Investment Code continues to favor large capital-intensive enterprises. The government has not defined a long-term employment policy. In the short term, it is implementing a labor-intensive program to strengthen institutional capacity and to generate employment in the construction industry in urban areas. The government has also declared artisanal fishing a priority as a means of raising incomes and generating employment. Yet, despite this declaration, which would, among other things, grant small-scale fishermen exclusive fishing rights in certain in-shore localities and provide them with financial resources, progress in implementation has been slow.

Public Expenditure

With regard to the financing of social services, the government has singled out education and health as priority sectors. However, the share of recurrent expenditures devoted to human capital—around 40 percent—has essentially remained unchanged (with slight increases in real terms) over an extended period. Public investment in sectors other than rural development and infrastructure has averaged only 12 percent of total investment expenditures, of which 2.5 percent are for education and 3.5 percent are for health.

Over the past two years, however, the share of primary education in the total education budget has increased to 36 percent. The government's restructuring program for primary education has shown progress, as reflected in the increase in gross primary enrollment from 49 percent in 1987 to 57 percent in 1992 mainly as a result of the school construction program that provides matching funds to local communities for the construction of low-cost classrooms.

The government's health strategy is directed towards the provision of preventive and primary care services to the largest proportion of the population by increasing access to and improving the quality of health services. Decentralization and the introduction of pilot cost recovery schemes in Nouakchott and seven wilayas are progressing well. The government is also piloting a drugs program that provides essential generic drugs at the district health level in seven wilayas. This program is a success and will be expanded. A study to define a monitoring system on the use of health facilities by poor households is underway.

Social Safety Net

Traditional social safety nets have failed to adapt to the changing needs and circumstances brought about by the rapid socioeconomic transformation. New social groups, such as neighborhood-based women's groups, have emerged in response to the inadequacy of these networks. The sale of assets, mainly livestock, has reduced households' wealth and future income base. Migration, although an insurance against food insecurity and a source of household income, is causing seasonal labor shortages in agriculture and placing heavier burdens on women.

Food aid, which covers 40 percent of Mauritania's cereal requirements during normal periods, has ensured food for large segments of the population. Food-for-work programs, in operation since 1985, use food aid as a means of encouraging community participation in the development of small rural infrastructure. While these programs create temporary employment and respond to community needs, they have overemphasized the quantity of infrastructure built and paid little attention to either short-term issues (impact on the food insecure) or to long-term effects (impact on the incomes of the poor).

Poverty Reduction Strategy

The Government of Mauritania has defined the elements of a poverty reduction strategy and proposed a five-year action plan for combating poverty, both of which it presented at the Consultative Group meeting in May 1994. The proposed strategy is largely in line with the recommendations outlined in the poverty assessment. The challenge of this strategy is to define policies and actions that address both rural and urban development in a country that has undergone dramatic demographic shifts.

More specifically, the strategy focuses on rural income generation and increased agricultural productivity, employment creation for the urban poor, and efficient and equitable access to basic social services. In the financing and delivery of social services, the adequacy of overall resource allocations, the appropriateness of intra-budget allocations, the potential for mobilizing nongovernmental resources, and the efficiency with which the services reach the poor are key issues to monitor in the poverty reduction strategy.

The cost recovery schemes in the education and health sectors are progressing well and should be continued. A system to monitor households' use of these services needs to be put in place in the near future in order to ensure that the cost-recovery schemes do not block access to poorer segments of the population.

Statistical System

In 1987, Mauritania launched a permanent monitoring system of social conditions, which the National Statistical Office (ONS) is successfully implementing (a household budget survey for the sedentary and nomadic populations was conducted in 1992 and another one is planned for 1994).

The data collection and processing capability of the ONS is strong, but its analytical capability is limited. The ONS has proposed creating an analysis unit that would maintain a socioeconomic data base for policymakers, an idea that requires serious consideration in an effort to reap maximum benefit from the expensive and time-consuming collection activities. To complement quantitative data with the sociological aspects of poverty, it is proposed that qualitative assessments be undertaken in areas such as the dynamics and coping mechanisms of female-headed households and the living conditions of squatter neighborhoods of Nouakchott.