The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved, on June 27, 2024 in Abidjan, a $17 million grant to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania to implement the Project for the Promotion of Gender-Sensitive Agricultural Value Chains and Women’s Entrepreneurship in Support of the Agricultural Transformation Support Program in Mauritania (PCVASGEF-PATAM).
This was announced in an ADB press release issued on Tuesday.
The text indicates that the support comes from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and aims to increase productivity and add value to agricultural products, in order to boost women’s incomes and support the promotion of entrepreneurship among women and girls.
« This project is an important lever for agricultural transformation in Mauritania. It will boost women’s empowerment, productivity, vegetable production and packaging. It will promote the creation of local vegetable production hubs and basins throughout the year, thus avoiding production disruptions at national level », explained Malinne Blomberg, the Bank’s Country Manager for Mauritania.
The project’s main achievements include structural and resilient schemes, and the development of market garden areas for women and 4,500 hectares of improved flood recession basins.
There are also plans to build and equip twelve integrated platforms (multi-purpose centers for the promotion of women’s activities connected to the Internet) and two vegetable packaging and storage units, as well as six local vegetable markets.
The program includes promotion of women’s entrepreneurial culture and capacity-building for players in the market-gardening value chain, support for the organization and structuring of women’s organizations (some 205 women’s market-gardening cooperatives), and the establishment of twelve agricultural savings and credit cooperatives.
Fourteen communes in the Brakna and Trarza regions, considered to be among the most vulnerable in the country, will be covered by the project.
The project will directly affect around 22,200 households and indirectly around 90,000 people, thereby improving food security and strengthening the resilience of households, particularly the vulnerable bangs (women and young people), by setting up innovative and efficient irrigation systems, promoting the use of solar energy, agricultural transformation, access to markets and upmarket value chains.
The African Development Bank Group’s active portfolio for Mauritania currently includes twenty operations for net financial commitments of $422 million. #OMA #OrganisationMarocAfrikaCulturesetDéveloppement #NajibKettani #Economy #Mauritania #ADB #PromotionDeChainesDeValeurAgricoles #EntreprenariatFeminin
