Poverty and poverty reduction in Mauritania

Mauritania is a poor, Sahelian country with few natural resources and has been plagued by widespread poverty for a long time. In the 1990's, however, the government launched its poverty alleviation strategy, which has had international backup by the IMF and the World Bank, and which has provided significant improvements. Mauritania was declared eligible for the poverty reduction initiative for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) in March 1999. The following is an abstract of an IMF analysis of the poverty situation in Mauritania.

Economic background 
Mauritania has been engaged for a little over a decade in ambitious reform policies that have affected all aspects of the country’s political, economic and social life. 

The decentralization introduced in 1988 has resulted in the creation of 208 autonomously administered communes. In 1991, a pluralist democracy was established with the adoption of a constitution that guarantees basic liberties and the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers, and that introduced the practice of universal suffrage for the election of the President of the Republic and of the people’s representatives at the National Assembly. 

At the same time, the program of economic reforms begun in 1992 has made it possible to adjust the Government’s finances and those of the main public enterprises, to stabilize the macro-economic framework, liberalize markets and prices, improve the legal and judicial environment for business activity, foster private sector development, improve the supply of infrastructures and redirect the Government towards its essential mandate of regulation, resource allocation and development of basic social services. 

Thanks to these policies and reforms, Mauritania has achieved a good economic performance. Thus, the average annual growth rate was 4.4 percent between 1992 and 1999, whereas inflation was held to an average annual rate of 6.2 percent over the same period, and the fiscal balance went from a deficit of 9.8 percent of GDP in 1993 to a surplus of 1.5 percent in 1998. At the same time, the current balance of payments deficit, aside from official transfers, was reduced from 28.9 percent of GDP in 1993 to 11.2 percent in 1998. 

This good performance was accompanied by a perceptible reduction in poverty, the incidence of which went from 56.6 percent in 1990 to 50 percent in 1996, and by a definite improvement in the main indicators of sustainable human development. 

However, the poverty situation remains worrisome. Nearly half of the population is living on less than one US dollar per day, and access to potable water and to health and education services remains inadequate, and the quality and efficacy of these services is well below acceptable standards. A spatial analysis of poverty demonstrates the extent of the phenomenon in rural areas, where nearly 3 out of four people are living below the poverty threshold. In general, rural areas are lagging considerably behind in terms of infrastructures and access to basic social services. However, poverty in its various manifestations also affects the large cities, which have large areas of precarious housing in which the supply of basic infrastructures is generally poor and underemployment high. 

Finally, the Mauritanian economy is still laboring under structural handicaps: an undiversified and uncompetitive productive base, inadequate infrastructures, an ineffective training system, inefficient financial intermediation services and limited institutional capacities. 

Mapping the poverty situation 
Although fragmentary, the available data on poverty is enough to point up four main facts that have determined the options under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP): 
About one household in two is living in poverty. A proportion of this magnitude requires pro-active public policies geared to quick poverty reduction. It also means that, on a countrywide scale, such an objective represents a considerable challenge. Rigidities of demand, the low level of labor productivity and, in particular, financing constraints, are all part of a constellation of constraints in which massive job creation and improved access to essential services (such as education, health, housing, potable water, etc.) will be difficult. 

Poverty and inequities have decreased. The latest poverty profile shows that there was a significant drop in poverty between 1990 and 1996. Growth experienced over the period thus had a significant impact on the incidence, depth and severity of poverty. The data also bear witness to a certain sharing of growth, or at least to a narrowing of the expenditure gap between households. Stronger growth and improvement in the Government’s regulatory and redistributive functions should therefore result in more definite impacts. 

Poverty is mainly a rural phenomenon and calls for targeted responses. Although the rural population has become a minority in terms of numbers, it should be noted that eight out of ten poor people live in rural areas and that rural areas account for an even higher percentage of extreme poverty. This observation points up the important role that agricultural policies, as well as transversal interventions to diversify rural employment, must play in the future. But, we also need to look beyond this rural/urban dichotomy, since large pockets of poverty exist in underprivileged urban neighborhoods and disparities are also noted at the rural level. Nuanced responses are required, depending on local development dynamics. 

Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon. The various forms of poverty - incomes, living standards, potential - are closely linked. At the level of the individual, a low income level is correlated with low labor productivity, determined among other things by factors associated with health or education. Access to the latter is, by the same token, strongly influenced by a household’s monetary situation. At a more general level, the macro-economic framework, public policies, and the institutional and cultural environment are also determinants of poverty. Poverty reduction therefore requires simultaneous intervention in the overall environment, production conditions, living conditions and socio-cultural behaviors. 

Monetary poverty
According to the latest survey of household living conditions, poverty affected nearly half of the Mauritanian population in 1996, and extreme poverty affected nearly a third of that segment. The extent of poverty has diminished, however, compared with the beginning of the decade (56.6 percent in 1990). The decrease in poverty is even more marked when one looks at differential indicators, which reflect trends in inequality amongst the poor. Thus, extreme poverty has decreased more rapidly than poverty, dropping from 44.7 percent in 1990 to 32.6 percent in 1996, a drop of over 12 points over the period in question. In other words, the decrease in poverty was most marked in the poorest segments of the population. Indicators of the depth and severity of poverty have confirmed this generally positive trend, since they registered decreases of 10 and 9 points, respectively, going from 28.2 percent to 18.3 percent and from 18.1 percent to 9.1 percent between 1990 and 1996. In absolute terms, the decrease in poverty is obviously less pronounced, given the sustained rate of demographic growth. 

Monetary poverty is, however, primarily a rural phenomenon. Thus, the incidence of (individual) poverty in 1996 averaged 68.1 percent in rural areas, as against 26.8 percent in urban areas. Over three quarters (76.4 percent) of the poor live in rural areas. However, large disparities emerge between the «rural fleuve» areas (incidence of poverty of 60.2 percent) and the «rural other» areas (arid zone) (incidence of poverty of 71.1 percent). In Mauritania, 57 percent of the poor live in the latter zone. It should be noted that some areas have poverty rates approaching 80 percent or even higher. These include the area of Aftout (which straddles the four regions of Assaba, Gorgol, Guidimakha and Brakna), and the Affolé region (Hodh El Gharbi). 

An analysis of extreme poverty (less than UM 40.701 per year per capita) shows that 82.7 percent of people living under the extreme poverty line reside in rural areas: 64.8 percent in “rural other” areas and 17.9 percent in “rural fleuve” areas. 

Large differentials are also observed within the urban population. The incidence of poverty is nearly two times lower in Nouakchott (20.6 percent of the population) than in other cities (where it is 37.8 percent). A 1:4 differential exists between the cities of the Centre-Nord and Nouakchott on the one hand, and the cities along the river and the South-South-East on the other, where the poverty rate exceeds 43 percent. 

In terms of dynamics, urban poverty has apparently retreated much more rapidly, but at varying rates between the capital and other cities. In rural areas, the trend is more contrasted: incidence has decreased by 13 points in the Senegal River Valley, whereas the situation has deteriorated in other rural areas (i.e., Centre and Sud). The reduction in extreme poverty affects all regional strata, although it is more relevant to Rural Fleuve and Nouakchott than to the ‘Other Cities’ and ‘Rural, Other’ categories. 

The insufficient comparability and precision of nomenclatures used for the two profiles does not allow for an in-depth analysis of poverty by socio-economic group. However, the data indicate that, although the incidence of poverty obviously varies according to socioeconomic group, it is spatial differentiation that predominates. The two groups exhibiting poverty rates over 60 percent are farmers – who are most affected by poverty – and non-farm workers in rural areas. Self-employed persons in urban areas are next, especially those living in cities other than Nouakchott (for whom the poverty rate is 42.6 percent). 

The EPVC surveys of 1990 and 1996 yielded significant results for four regions only (Nouakchott, Other Cities, Rural Fleuve, Rural Other) and therefore failed to produce totally meaningful results for all wilayas. The current survey, which has been underway since July 2000, will remedy these inadequacies and will also, with its «social capital» component, give insight into poverty as it is perceived by households, their participation in public or community activities, as well as their opinions on the functioning and quality of public services. The socioeconomic groups of Nouakchott and urban salaried workers in all other cities have similar poverty rates, with about one person in five living below the poverty threshold. 

It appears that the incidence of poverty has greatly decreased among urban salaried workers (21 percent in 1996, compared to 39.4 percent for salaried civil servants and 56.2 percent for those in the private sector 1990), self-employed persons in Nouakchott, and farmers of the Rural Fleuve region. 

The incidence of poverty varies depending on the gender of the head of household. Incidence is higher among female-headed households in Nouakchott and in cities of the Centre-Nord, lower in cities in the South and in rural areas. In the case of single-parent families, which are more numerous in urban areas (22 percent of households), the incidence of poverty is three times higher among female-headed households. 

Poverty in terms of living conditions 
Data on the poverty of living conditions, which stands in relation to the degree of accessibility of basic social services, point to an overall improvement in social indicators. However, the levels and the quality of these indicators remain below desirable standards. They also confirm important geographic disparities that overlap to a great degree with those revealed by indicators of monetary poverty. 

Over the past few years, the education sector has experienced a rapid increase in the gross primary enrollment ratio (at the basic education level); this figure went from 45 percent (in 89/90) to 86 percent (in 99/00). The data indicate a spectacular performance in catching up to other countries in the sub-region and underline the fact that the enrollment ratio for girls (81 percent) is falling into line with that of boys (87.6 percent). Gender disparities remain very pronounced, however, at the other academic levels: 50 percent of girls reach the 6 th year of basic education, and represent barely 3 percent of technical and vocational training, and 15 percent of higher education. 

Literacy has made considerable progress: the illiteracy rate among adults dropped from 61.1 percent in 1990 to 42 percent in 1996. Data from the EPCV surveys shows that that part of the population with the smallest expenditures are the most affected by illiteracy. It should be noted, however, that these disparities are less marked among men in urban areas. 

Despite the inadequate volume of data and the uncertain reliability of data that is available, the various health indicators have improved slightly, and less spectacularly than in education. Thus, between 1990 and 1998, life expectancy at birth (LEB) rose from 47 to 54 years, whereas infant mortality (IM) and child mortality (CM) dropped, respectively, from 117%o and 170%o to 90%o and 140%o. The fertility rate (FR) went from 6.1 to 5.4, whereas the prevalence of HIV/AIDS (RPHIV) remained relatively stable at around 0.5 percent. Over the same period, the rate of accessibility of health facilities (RAHF) within a distance of 5 km rose from 30 percent to 70 percent. 

This weak progress is mainly attributable to inadequate vaccination coverage (especially in rural areas, due to the suspension, over the past few years, of the activities of mobile vaccination teams); low rates of contraceptive use, prenatal visits and assisted childbirth; as well as to insufficient access to curative visits for children under the age of 5, and to ineffective prevention and treatment efforts for infectious diseases (such as AIDS, malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infections, etc.) It is also explained by the insufficient availability of essential drugs, especially since 1998, the poor fit between personnel qualifications and assignments, which is linked to problems of training, pay and motivation as well as to the stagnation, in real terms, in public health expenditures. 

Regarding access to potable water, the rate of connection has picked up modestly, going from 15.4 percent in 1990 to 19.1 percent in 1998. In eight regions, the rate is below 10 percent and in five it is below 5 percent. The situation is more favorable if one uses the «water points per village» indicator, which reached an average rate of 60 percent in 1998 (aside from Nouakchott). This average conceals important differences among regions, however: rates are relatively satisfactory for Brakna (95 percent) and Trarza (143 percent), but below 50 percent in seven wilayas (two Hodhs, Assaba, Gorgol, Adrar, 
Tagant and Nouadhibou). 

In urban areas, water consumed is still mainly purchased from water re-sellers (52 percent en 1996). The rest of the supply is accomplished by means of the potable water supply network (29 percent), public standpipes (7.6 percent) and wells (9.7 percent). Water consumption remains very low for lack of resources: 40 liters/day on average in Nouakchott, but only 13 to 22 liters/day in the underprivileged neighborhoods where half of the city’s population lives. In these neighborhoods, water costs around 2 dollars per m 3 (depending on the season), or 7 times the price paid by subscribers to the national power and water company (SONELEC) network. Water supply occurs under even more precarious hygienic conditions in rural areas, where over 77 percent of households consume water from wells and 
13 percent get their water from the Senegal River, other rivers, lakes or from rainwater. 

Regarding housing, over three quarters of households are «owners» of the property they inhabit. Urban areas are characterized by a much higher proportion of renter households and by their great mobility. The issue of housing is central to the problem of poverty alleviation in urban areas. According to the 1998 housing survey, over one quarter of Nouakchott’s population lives in a substandard dwelling (such as a tent, shack or hut). 

This proportion is as high as 35 percent in Kiffa and 44 percent in Aïoun. In these neighborhoods, only 18 percent of dwellings are equipped with electricity and nearly 80 percent use wood and charcoal as fuel. Hygienic conditions are very poor: one third of households lack direct access to potable water, and less than a third have adequate sanitary facilities (such as sewers, septic tanks or latrines.) 

Rural poverty 
The rural milieu, home to 45 percent of the total population and 53 percent of the working population, remains the primary source of jobs. Rural jobs and incomes are largely dominated by the agricultural and livestock sectors, which account for 78 percent and 8 percent of rural employment, respectively, whereas trade and handicrafts occupy only a marginal position. Rural employment is generally characterized by a high degree of vulnerability: underemployment affects at least half of the working population and salaried employment, although increasing, is still very limited. 

The disproportion between the weight of agriculture and livestock in terms of employment on the one hand, and in terms of value added on the other (it accounts for barely 1/5 of GDP, of which, on average, 5 percent is attributable to agriculture and 15 percent to livestock) gives an indication of the low overall productivity of these two sectors, and especially of agriculture. 

Rural poverty is derived largely from the constraints hampering agricultural development, the most important of which are: Availability of water: this is the main limiting factor for agricultural production. The arable land potential is scarcely more than 500,000 ha (i.e., less than 1 percent of the national territory) and rainfed crops cannot be grown in the southern part of the country (Guidimaka and the southern fringes of the two Hodhs). 

Solutions based on collective water resource preservation and management are required here; 
Access to land: the size of farms makes it difficult, even with improved input supply, to extract large monetary surpluses. Thus, of nearly 140,000 farms surveyed in 1998, over 9/10ths are under 5 ha and 60 percent are smaller than 1 ha. The lack of secure land tenure (in the form of definitive property titles) is also not conducive to agricultural investment. An expansion of land tenure reform and improvement of the mechanisms whereby land changes hands, based on the actual development of the land, should make it possible to improve the situation of small farmers; 
Financing: geographic coverage of agricultural credit (via the National Union of Savings and Loans Organizations, UNCACEM) remains limited and the network of micro-financing institutions is underrepresented in rural areas; 
Lack of infrastructures: distance from consumption centers, isolation of rural areas and the current organization of road transport contribute to higher costs for inputs and for the marketing of products. The absence of village-level storage and conservation infrastructures also penalizes small farmers through the mechanism of intra-annual price variation; inadequate operationality of research, training and extension services; the livestock sector’s very low degree of integration into formal economic circuits, even though the sector’s potential is high; the small size of the domestic market. 

An obvious correlation exists, in addition, between rural poverty and the environment. Poor populations are obliged to draw down natural resource capital, and this itself has a negative impact on production. 

Urban poverty 
Droughts and the deterioration of rural living conditions have provoked massive migratory flows, mostly consisting of poor people. The proportion of the population that is urban thus went from 4 percent of the total in 1962 (37,000 persons) to over 55 percent in 1999 (1.4 million), and this new population has concentrated itself in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou (which together account for 80 percent of the current urban population) as well as in secondary centers located south of a line connecting Nouakchott and Tidjikja. Faced with a significant decrease in modern sector employment, informal employment has developed considerably; it is thought to represent over 70 percent of urban jobs at present. However, employment opportunities are too few to accommodate the labor supply, and important constraints hamper the development of new income-generating urban activities. 

In the absence of any urban planning, and due to migrations towards the urban fringes, over 35 percent of the urban population lives in neighborhoods consisting of precarious dwellings and in shantytowns. This rate is as high as 47 percent of urban households if one counts only the country’s seven main towns. Although poverty is much less pronounced in urban areas overall, it nonetheless represents nearly a quarter of the poverty in the country and accounts for a considerable fraction of the population living in extreme poverty.

Pronounced differences exist also among the various centers. These differences point up the existence of a disadvantaged, marginalized group within the urban population that lives in under-equipped neighborhoods, without skills or jobs, under precarious housing and hygienic conditions. 

The development of new economic opportunities for poor households requires a supply-side approach centered on the development of their assets. The poor must be able to develop the conditions of their employment themselves. Four major constraints must be overcome to increase labor productivity and create viable jobs in poor urban areas: 

Secure land tenure: The precariousness of the settlement of poor people in the Kebbas and Gazras constitutes a major obstacle to improved housing, better stabilization of populations, ongoing schooling of children and the creation of stable economic activities. 

Financing: The absence of accessible financing systems prevents access to the start-up capital needed to initiate activities. It is also a major barrier to the functioning of such activities, given the need for revolving funds, especially for handicrafts. The development of decentralized financing systems may be a solution to this problem. Microfinancing institutions are recent in Mauritania, however: there are barely a dozen approved ones and they are mainly concentrated in Nouakchott and in a few cities of the interior. In addition, some current MFIs insist that their operations generate a financial return, which is difficult to reconcile with support targeted to the poorest segments of the urban population. 

Inadequate qualification and the weakness of technology transfer: The vast majority of small urban operators from poor households have no training. Even in the modern handicrafts sector, a minority of employers (30 percent) have professional or technical training and most workers are completely unskilled. From this standpoint, young people are a particularly vulnerable population segment : over 66 percent lack any formal training and 27 percent leave the educational system with no diplomas. Support services and operators are still too scarce to provide appropriate accompanying measures to help disseminate and diversify urban micro-and small enterprises. 

Access to essential services: In poor neighborhoods, the development of economic activity is hampered by the lack of infrastructures (such as water, electricity, roads, viable land titles, trash removal) and an important lack of social services (such as education, health, information, etc.). A global approach should be implemented with a view to spatial, economic and social integration. 

Expansion of highly labor-intensive activities in the context of new urban infrastructure programs should help make these neighborhoods viable while they at the same time create jobs and temporary incomes.

Obstacles to poverty reduction 

The geophysical environment 
Mauritania is a huge and generally under-populated country in which communications are difficult, and this has both an economic impact (in the form of factor costs) and a social impact (in the form of high costs to achieve universal access to basic services.) 

In addition, Mauritania remains the Sahelian country most affected by drought and desertification. Repeated cycles of drought, and natural resource deterioration that they entail, have had a profound structural effect on the population’s productive capacities. Vegetation and forest resources are sparse, and water resources, both surface and underground, are either limited or difficult to reach. 

Finally, with the exception of mining and fisheries resources, the country is relatively under-endowed in directly exploitable natural resources. 

Debt 
Until the Cologne initiative, the external debt burden seemed a constraint difficult to overcome and one therefore likely to compromise the country’s development and any process of rapid poverty reduction. Between 1980 and 1998, outstanding external debt went from US$714 million to US$1,962 million, corresponding to an increase of 5.5 percent per year and a 2.7 percent increase of per capita indebtedness (in dollar terms). At the end of the period, debt represented 202 percent of GDP value and debt service continued to sap public finances heavily. 

The HIPC initiative therefore represents high stakes. Mauritania’s eligibility for the enhanced debt reduction initiative for Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) opens up new prospects. Debt reduction would involve the sum of US$1,120 million, or 40 percent of the country’s annual debt obligation. Disbursements will be linked to the continuation of reforms in the context of implementation of the PRSP. This debt relief makes it possible to ease budgetary constraints and help substantially to limit the external debt burden. The effective use of funds under the HIPC initiative is expected to result in rapid poverty reduction. 

Demographic factors 
Demographic constraints weigh on the country’s development at two levels. First, continued high birth rates (i.e., an annual average rate of 45.4 percent and fertility index of 5.4) results in high population growth (2.9 percent per year on average). Given the current age distribution, the Mauritania population should practically double between 1996 and 2020. Between 2000 and 2015, it is expected to grow from 2.6 to 4.1 million. In addition, data from the 1990 and 1996 EPCV surveys indicate a link between household size and the incidence of poverty. Indeed, the incidence of poverty among households has 
diminished more (i.e., by 10 points) than that for individuals (which has dropped 6 points). 

The volume of migratory movements is a second essential parameter. The pace of migration towards the capital remains steady, and this results in population growth in Nouakchott on the order of 5 percent per year. These two factors are important constraints, given their impact on per capita income trends and on the growth of demand for social services, particularly in urban areas. This trend has also helped aggravate environmental problems. 

The Administration’s managerial capacity 
The weakness of the administrative apparatus has greatly limited the direct and indirect impacts of public policies upon poverty reduction. This interaction between poverty and public administrative capacity can be observed at various levels. 

The weakness of the capacity to manage economic and sectoral policies, because of its effects on the macro-economic framework and on the environment in which producers operate, results in slow, and sometimes inadequate, implementation of measures intended to ease the constraints affecting the poor (e.g., market organization, prices, etc.). 

In addition, the current level of capacity for strategic planning and programming/monitoring of public expenditures does not allow for optimal resource allocation. Furthermore, neither the macro-economic impact of development projects, nor their effects on incomes and jobs in the zones concerned, are accurately assessed. As for social programs, the absence of school and health facility maps makes it difficult to make rational allocation choices and to coordinate various external aid programs. 

Civil servants’ salaries and working conditions, as well as the organization of administrative services and the mediocre performance of training programs, result in a civil service of low quality. Diagnostics performed on the education and health sectors in particular have abundantly demonstrated that the public administration, although it has been able to respond partially, in quantitative terms, to the demand for essential social services, has not been able to improve the quality of its services significantly. Shortcomings in human resource management – especially as regards recruitment, assignment and personnel monitoring – have helped perpetuate great regional disparities, usually to the detriment of poorer zones. 

Weaknesses in the statistical data system influence the efficacy of poverty reduction policies. On the one hand, surveys do not yet yield precise data about poverty, which makes it difficult to target interventions. On the other hand, the way in which information production and processing is organized causes the primary social and administrative data to be unreliable and prevents the effective exploitation of available data (e.g., census figures, poverty surveys, etc.). 

Finally, the public administration remains insufficiently open to users and to the problems of those they administer. Regionalized services are generally under-equipped with human and material resources. In addition, the decentralization reform undertaken since 1986, although it has caused a local representative elite to emerge, has not yet led to the establishment of strong local collectivities whose interventions can rely on effective community feedback and support. 

In this sense, the modernization of the Administration, the strengthening of its human resource capacities and the consolidation of decentralization are factors upon which the poverty alleviation strategy’s success will depend to a great extent. 

The capacities of civil society 
A stronger civil society is a necessary condition for the success of the poverty alleviation strategy. In Mauritania, the civil society movement is recent and insufficiently structured. The result is that the great majority of non-governmental organizations face various constraints (such as a lack of professionalism, inadequate financial and outreach resources, etc.) that limit their capacity to implement poverty alleviation programs and to fully play their role of outreach to populations.

Fighting poverty

The long term strategic vision 
The analysis of the poverty situation in Mauritania has shown the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon and the tangle of causes at its origin. The poverty reduction strategy uses this fact as its point of departure. It integrates the national experience in its entirety and takes into account lessons learned in other countries that have achieved quick results in poverty reduction. The vision upon which the strategy is based holds that only an integrated policy that tackles all the determinants of poverty simultaneously can have a rapid and sustainable impact on poverty reduction. 

The strategy’s long term objectives are the following: (i) to reduce the proportion of Mauritanians living below the poverty threshold to under 27 percent by the year 2010 and below 17 percent by 2015; (ii) to achieve, before 2015, the social development objectives defined on the basis of recommendations emerging from various world summit meetings; and (iii) reduce social and spatial disparities

The poverty reduction strategy is built upon four main themes that are mutually supporting and that converge towards the attainment of the desired objectives. 

The first theme is aimed at accelerating economic growth, which is the basis for any reduction in poverty, to improve the economy’s competitiveness and reduce its dependence upon exogenous factors. This theme will contribute to poverty reduction in two ways: (i) through its direct and indirect (i.e., its spillover effects) on job creation and new revenues; and (ii) through its impact on the Government’s budget revenues, which will in turn be able to be used to support sectors that benefit the poor directly. Due to the specialization of the Mauritanian economy, which is concentrated on sectors with few spillover effects, the second effect is likely to be more important in the short term. 

The second theme is concerned with developing the growth potential and productivity of the poor. The idea is to promote sectors that benefit the poor directly, as well as the zones in which they are concentrated. This theme, which relies upon the implementation of public investment programs, will help reduce inequities and improve the resource base of the poor. 

The third theme is aimed at developing human resources and access to essential infrastructures. This theme is the one that, over the long term, will have the most perceptible effect on poverty, through its impact on productivity and improved living conditions for the poor. Access to education and health, in particular, reduces the vulnerability of the poor considerably. 

Finally, the fourth theme aims to promote true institutional development based upon good governance and on full participation of all parties involved in poverty alleviation. 

Areas of priority intervention of the PRSP 
The objectives of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) are based on the prospects for economic growth, budget and balance-of-payment issues and on the priorities of the sectoral development programs. The main objectives selected for the period following implementation of the 2001-2004 action plan are: (i) to ensure an average annual rate of growth of 6 percent over the period; and (ii) to bring the incidence of poverty down to 39 percent and that of extreme poverty to under 22 percent. 

The analysis of poverty in Mauritania has led to the identification of five priority areas under the PRSP for 2001-2004: (i) rural development, for which the objective is to reduce the incidence of poverty to under 53 percent; (ii) urban development of neighborhoods located on the fringes of large cites and the main secondary towns; (iii) education, for which the main goals are to achieve universal schooling (by 2004) and to boost the retention rate to over 65 percent; (iv) health, for which the objectives are to reduce the rate of child mortality to under 160 per thousand and to boost to 80 percent the rate of access to health facilities within a distance of 5 km; and (v) water supply, for which the objectives are to achieve 45 percent of connections to water systems. 

Financing and monitoring the PRSP 
The cost of the entire action plan (including balance-of-payments support) is estimated at US$475 million. The cost of the priority measures is estimated at US$282 million, of which about US$108 million will be covered by HIPC resources and US$54 million by budget savings. 

Implementation of the PRSP will be monitored systematically – on the basis of a set of meaningful poverty reduction indicators – and will undergo a mid-term assessment to which all participants in the poverty alleviation effort will contribute.

Source: IMF

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