Resilience in Mauritania: How do people survive in a desert?
A UN volunteer’s journey to visit WFP resilience activities in the south-east of the country
A Mauritanian proverb goes, “No amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future.”
In Mauritania, where just under one quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, there are many things to be worried about. Climate change, environmental degradation, water scarcity, the prolonged lean season between planting and harvest — which can last up to six months, leaving people without anything to eat — COVID-19 and a refugee influx from neighbouring Mali: in today’s Mauritania, elevated risk and long-term vulnerability threaten to reverse development advances and make people more vulnerable to cyclical food insecurity.
Sitting by the window on my first flight with the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) en route to Bassikounou, in the south-eastern part of the country, all I could see was the vast Sahara Desert. As I got off the aeroplane during a stop-over in Kiffa, the heatwave blew my face. The sand was playing with the wind. There was no sunshade. And it was about 45 degrees Celsius. The question on my mind was, how can people survive — and thrive — in a desert?
Transforming the desert
The World Food Programme (WFP)’s Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) programmes are part of the answer. These initiatives — in which people receive cash to meet their needs as they work on the construction or rehabilitation of community assets — help strengthen the capacity of communities to cope with negative effects of climate change, transforming hectares of desertic land for productive use and training people in effective agricultural practices based on soil conditions.
In Bassikounou area, WFP and UNICEF implement jointly activities that promote resilience in the face of a punishing climate. Interventions — ranging from school feeding for local primary schools, to nutrition for breastfeeding women and children, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and many more — differ from site to site, but they all share a similar raison d’être, including challenging climate conditions and food insecurity, especially during the lean season.
“Until recently, my family could not make ends meet and my kids were hungry,” said Seleckhe Sawk, a small business owner and mother of four in the village of Elberiye Debaye. She is one of the 25,874 participants in WFP’s resilience programmes in Mauritania. “But our whole life changed after we got involved in the construction of dykes; I became a woman with construction skills,” she added. “Thanks to the cash I received from WFP, I could also start my own small business, selling sugar and rice at a small village market. The money I earn helps my family.”
The construction of dykes will benefit the whole community as it will allow for better control of water runoff for domesticated animals and agricultural use in the long term.
Behind the scenes
One thing that I was always interested in was visiting the WFP warehouse — the backbone of WFP operations.
In the Bassikounou warehouse, row upon row of food sacks and boxes sit on top of pallets to avoid humidity from the ground. Here, WFP stores specialized nutritious food to combat malnutrition, nutrient enhancement food, rice, salt and COVID 19 prevention kits. These items are destined mostly to Malian refugees in Mbera camp, as well as to communities participating in the resilience programme, school canteens and people affected by malnutrition.
Working hand in hand
A very important element of resilience work in this area — which came clearly through during my visit — was how different humanitarian organization work together towards a common strategy to strengthen people’s livelihoods. This is promoting stronger social cohesion in a context where the presence of refugees places further strains on already scarce natural resources, and is reducing pressure on nature, creating a win-win situation for all involved.
“Our activities are complementary to one another,” says Abou Diuelt from local partner NGO ARDM (Association de Recherches pour le Développement en Mauritanie) who works with WFP on the Food Assistance for Asset programme. “For example, our asset-creation activities encourage an enabling environment for increased self-reliance and at the same time for nutrition. We seek synergies between livelihood activities and nutrition, so as to maximize the impact of our collective resilience work.”
So that is how people can survive — and thrive — in a desert. It’s about complementary activities, decided through community-based participatory planning, that tackle different facets of a problem. Taking action, not worrying, is what can change the future.
Story and photos: WFP/Miho Mitobe, Marcus Prior, and Keiry Saar
