Mauritania - Islamic Development Bank

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3. Other Donors Involvement in Mauritania 48. Following the return to constitutional rule in Mauritania in 2009, the donor community has re-affirmed its commitment and support for the on-going development program (PRSP II 2006-2010) and its planned extension (PRSP III 2011-2015). The donor meeting in Brussels in June 22-23, 2010 re-confirmed this sentiment. The involvement of the main donors in support of PRSP II (ongoing) and PRSP III is outlined in Table 8 in terms of main priority areas and amounts pledged or committed. V. ELEMENTS OF IDB GROUP PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY 1. Strategic Framework for the Mauritania MCPS 49. The main MCPS mission, following a field visit to a rural area near the town of Rosso, and extensive consultation with development partners raised the following important questions: • Why is the economy stuck in a trap with twothirds of the population living in poverty after 50 years of receiving high and sustained rents from natural resource extraction? • Why was there a complete failure of the last PRSP action plan? • Why rice production in irrigated areas is apparently uneconomic despite immense and dedicated effort by the Government and donors spread over a dozen years? • Why is there an absence of investment in manufacturing despite a clearly talented entrepreneurial class limited to the provision of services? • Why is there an absence of a linkage between the high tech capital-intensive investments in deep-sea fisheries, iron ore, copper, oil and gold extraction and the rest of the traditional economy -- the normal route for capacity and skill development in most developing countries? • Why are we having serious implementation problems with our projects? 50. It was clear that our earlier framework relying largely on the small size of the economy, external shocks, and political instability–factors common to many LDMCs less endowed with resources than Mauritania and arguably doing better -- could not provide satisfactory answers to these questions. 51. As a result, the mission decided to shift to the use of a new strategic framework, which depends on structural factors to provide a more credible insight to many of the above questions. This revised framework, outlined above in Section II, depends on the use of a unique “dual economy” economic structure in which a subsistence economy co-exists not with a modern economy (the norm in most of our member countries) but a natural resource based enclave economy and with which it has limited linkages. Further, dollar rents from the enclave economy undermine the viability of investments in the subsistence economy through exchange rate appreciation -- the well-known “Dutch disease” effect. Clearly, other factors contribute to the problems facing Mauritania such as political instability, the small size of the economy and the century’s told tradition of herding and coastal fishing rather than agriculture. However, on their own these factors cannot adequately explain the current reality in Mauritania. 52. Consistent with the above-mentioned structural constraints, this MCPS is based on three pillars and one crosscutting theme, to focus on the need to better manage economic rents from natural resource extraction and by adding-value to extracted resources and strengthening the links between the enclave and the subsistence economies. These pillars are (i) human development, with a focus on health; (ii) rural development and food security; and (iii) enhancing and diversifying the modern economy, while the cross-cutting theme focus on capacity building which affects all sectors in Mauritania supported by a financing envelope of about US$ 700 million provided by the IDB Group. The pillars of IDB Group support and are fully aligned with Mauritania’s strategic pillars in PRSP and anchored in the Vision 1440H aspiration of helping MCPS for Mauritania, 2011-2015 15
transform the human development landscape of the Muslim world and restoring its dignity. 53. The MCPS process of extensive consultations between IDB Group staff, the GoM, domestic stakeholders, and development partners underpins the proposed partnership strategy. These consultations have not only resulted in the diagnosis of the key structural constraints facing the economy but also an understanding on the areas of IDB Group intervention in the medium term, taking into account IDB Group’s mandate and comparative advantage and the roles of the other development partners. The MCPS framework also provides for a Results Matrix that should help the GoM and IDB Group staff monitor progress in the implementation of the MCPS across the range of interventions. 2. Pillar I: Enhancing Human Development Through Health 2.1 Current Situation 54. Human Development is central to Mauritania’s long-term future. As reflected in its poor rank (154 out of 182) in the multidimensional Human Development Index in 2009, Mauritania faces challenges in many areas including education, lack of skills, health and malnutrition arising from poverty. The IDB Group will focus its efforts over 2011-2015 to help address the constraints Mauritania faces in three dimensions where the challenges are most acute — health (under this pillar), malnutrition through reduction in poverty and improvement in food security (under the second pillar) and capacity building as a cross sector theme. 55. An increase in the allocation of funds to the health sector in Mauritania from about 0.6% of GDP in 2000 to 3.8% in 2010, has led to improvement in access to health facilities but it is still insufficient to provide a basic level of essential services. The increases in resources have helped but are still below the level of US$13 per capita, considered universally as the minimum level of expenditure necessary to ensure a basic level of essential services. 56. The increased resources have helped to improve access to health services in urban and 16 rural areas but regional disparities remain. In urban areas, about 97% percent of urban population now lives within five kilometers of primary health services. The situation in rural areas has improved but on average only 45% of the population has access to primary health service within five kilometers. The rural average masks much more differences in access between urban and poor rural areas. 57. In addition, the donor community has been providing substantial support to help Mauritania fight communicable diseases including HIV/ AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the country has made progress in this area. Because of these efforts, it appears that MDG 6, related to these diseases, may be achievable. 58. However, child and maternal mortality remain at alarming levels (figures 11 – 12) due to widely perceived malfunctions of the health system and the associated lack of effective sector wide policy. MCPS for Mauritania, 2011-2015
Page 2: MCPS for Mauritania, 2011-2015 ISLA
Page 6 and 7: CURRENCY US$1 = 283.500 UM Euro 1 =
Page 8: Country Department (Coordinator) AC
Page 12 and 13: As part of its new Vision, the IDB
Page 14 and 15: I. INTRODUCTION 1. As part of its n
Page 16 and 17: construction) accounted for 48% of
Page 18 and 19: Reduce child mortality TABLE 1: Mil
Page 20 and 21: the vulnerability created by the de
Page 22 and 23: gold, copper, oil and deep-sea fish
Page 24 and 25: Box 1: Lessons Learnt from the Impl
Page 26 and 27: TABLE 7: High Growth Scenario 2010
Page 30 and 31: • The current rate of progress of
Page 32 and 33: strategy giving priority to strengt
Page 34 and 35: Integrated Rural Development progra
Page 36 and 37: Figure 13: Survey of Constraints Fa
Page 38 and 39: (e) the conservation of the environ
Page 40 and 41: 3. The flexibility to finance other
Page 42 and 43: Human Development (Primary Healthca
Page 44 and 45: ANNEXES MCPS for Mauritania, 2011-2
Page 46 and 47: MAURITANIA AT A GLANCE Selected Mac
Page 48 and 49: PILLAR 2 -- RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND F
Page 50 and 51: PILLAR 2 -- RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND F
Page 52 and 53: PILLAR 3 -- ENHANCING AND DIVERSIFY
Page 54 and 55: Cross-cutting Theme: CAPACITY BUILD
Page 56 and 57: Cross-cutting Theme: CAPACITY BUILD

Mauritania - Islamic Development Bank

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