Mauritania - Support for protracted relief programme (food security) in Guidimakha Wilaya

Context

Mauritania is characterised by chronic food insecurity, which now affects more than a quarter of the population, with 14.5% of the population suffering from food insecurity all year round. This figure doubles during the pre-harvest period.

The low food intake and lack of variety in the diet, combined with poor hygiene practices and inadequate access to water, sanitation and healthcare services, are at the root of the population’s nutrition insecurity.

Women and children are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition, which has a dramatic impact on morbidity and mortality, as well as on children’s physical and cognitive development. Chronic malnutrition in infants aged 6–59 months averaged 25% over the same period.

The Mauritanian Government has made combatting food insecurity and undernutrition a priority in order to improve maternal and infant health, and to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable populations.

With support from the Principality of Monaco, this proposed intervention seeks to provide funding for WFP food assistance programmes in the in Guidimakha Wilaya (governorate) for a period of three years.

More specifically, the contribution will enable the following activities to be supported: treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6–59 months at CRENAM supplementary feeding centres, family awareness campaigns on health and nutrition issues, and building national capacities in operational management of food assistance.

Project owner

World Food Programme (WFP).

Main objective

To reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of famine, with a particular focus on children aged 6–59 months in Guidimakha Wilaya in Mauritania.

Specific objectives

• To provide food assistance to targeted beneficiaries suffering from malnutrition
• To build the capacities of national organisations and local actors at the community level to treat acute nutrition by providing training for CRENAM and NGO staff

Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries: 
7,494 children under five who will benefit from the distribution of nutritional supplements and staff from the Food Security Commission and the Ministry of Health, at the regional level, implementation partners, members of management committees at the community level. 

Indirect beneficiaries: 
families whose children benefit from the WFP’s protracted relief and recovery programme in Guidimakha Wilaya.