ADB Approves $17 Million Grant for Gender-Responsive Agriculture and Women Entrepreneurship in MauritaniaADB Approves $17 Million Grant for Gender-Responsive Agriculture and Women Entrepreneurship in Mauritania The African Development Bank (ADB) has approved a grant of $17 million to Mauritania for the implementation of the Project for the Promotion of Gender-Responsive Agricultural Value Chains and Women Entrepreneurship (PCVASGEF). This GAFSP-funded project aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase women’s income, and support female entrepreneurship. As part of the Support for Agricultural Transformation in Mauritania program, it focuses on climate change adaptation and inclusion. “The project will empower Mauritanian women in vegetable production and packaging, creating local production centers and irrigation systems for year-round production,” said Malinne Blomberg, ADB’s Country Manager for Mauritania. The project involves creating women-managed horticultural plots, improving drainage basins, and constructing multifunctional centers for women’s employment promotion. It also includes vegetable packaging units, local markets, capacity building, support for women’s cooperatives, and agricultural savings and loan associations. The project will benefit 22,200 households and impact nearly 90,000 people in vulnerable regions, improving food security and resilience through improved irrigation, solar energy use, agricultural transformation, market access, and value chain upgrades. The ADB’s portfolio in Mauritania now includes 20 active projects with net financial liabilities of $422 million.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) has approved a grant of US$17 million to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania for the implementation of the Project for the Promotion of Gender-Responsive Agricultural Value Chains and Women Entrepreneurship (French acronym PCVASGEF).
This project is funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) and aims to increase productivity and add value to agricultural products to increase women’s income and support female entrepreneurship in Mauritania. The project is part of the Support for Agricultural Transformation in Mauritania programme that focuses on climate change adaptation and promoting inclusion.
“This project is an important lever for agricultural transformation in Mauritania. It will help the country’s women sustain their work in the vegetable production and packaging industries. It will create local horticultural production centres and irrigation basins that operate all year round, avoiding disruptions to production at the national level,” explained Malinne Blomberg, the Bank’s Country Manager for Mauritania.
The project will create new horticultural plots managed by women (1,014 hectares, divided into 321 small modular plots of two to four hectares each), as well as 4,500 hectares of improved drainage basins.
More efficient use of agricultural products will be made possible by the construction and equipment of 12 multifunctional, internet-connected centres for the promotion of women’s employment, two vegetable packaging and storage units and six local vegetable markets. The programme aims at stimulating an entrepreneurial culture among women (creation of innovative start-ups, support for young entrepreneurs, training, etc.). It includes capacity building for actors in the horticultural value chain, support for women’s organisations (including 205 horticultural women’s cooperatives) and the creation of 12 agricultural savings and loans associations.
The project will be implemented in 12 districts of the Brakna and Trarza regions, which are among the most vulnerable in Mauritania and where the situation of women is particularly precarious. The project will directly benefit up to 22,200 households and indirectly impact nearly 90,000 people. It will help improve food security and strengthen the resilience of households, especially women and youth, through innovative and efficient irrigation systems, increased use of solar energy, agricultural transformation, access to markets and upgrading of value chains.
The Bank Group’s active portfolio in Mauritania now includes 20 branches with net financial liabilities of $422 million.
