Technical Cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania
The highly mechanised mining of gold and copper ores creates only very few employment opportunities
Source: BGR
Located at the western edge of the Sahara, The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is very sparsely populated. Only 3.5 million inhabitants live in an area as big as Germany and France together. Over the past decades the country has experienced major political instability and a profound structural population change. In the 1950s, 75 % of the population still lived as nomads and there were only very few bigger settlements. Due not least to the recurrent drought disasters in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s, most of the nomads were forced to give up their traditional live style and settled down in the cities. Currently, almost one third of the population lives in the capital city of Nouakchott, whereas the proportion of nomads has fallen to under 10 %.
Large swathes of the country consist of desert and cannot be used for agriculture. Less than 1 % of the land is arable. As manufacturing industry is almost non-existent, there is a lack of employment opportunities to secure the livelihoods of the population. Nevertheless, Mauritania has a wealth of natural resources, particularly in the fisheries and mining sector. Mauritania’s waters have some of the most abundant fish stocks in the world and the country is currently Africa’s second leading exporter of iron ore and also exports gold and copper. Foreign exchange earnings from fisheries and iron ore exports are providing the country with a steady income.
Despite being rich in natural resources and a robust economic growth, Mauritania’s poverty rate remains high, particularly in rural areas. More than 40 % of the population live below the national poverty line and about 20 % live on less than US$1.25 per day. Hence, the growth which is being driven to a large extent by the mining sector has not yet been transformed into inclusive, pro-poor growth.
In this context, the German government, through its Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is funding the development cooperation program “Support to the Mining Sector in Mauritania”, which is jointly implemented by BGR and GIZ. It aims at strengthening the capacities of the Mauritanian authorities to govern the mining sector in a more sustainable way. BGR supports the Mauritanian authorities to create favorable conditions for a more diversified mining sector. The focus is on non-metallic raw materials (e.g. construction materials, phosphate), which offer untapped but promising potentials for the establishment of value-chains and the creation of jobs within Mauritania.
Ongoing Project:
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