Similar to sub-Saharan countries, Mauritania has a predominantly young population, with more than 70% of the population being under 35 years old (RGPH2013). However, the overall assessment of the youth situation shows a high incidence of precariousness and exposure to risky behaviors.

Given the threats and opportunities underlying this particular demographic situation, youth is at the heart of the commitments of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, as outlined in the priority program for the next five years. The national program places particular emphasis on the emancipation and socio-economic integration of young people through training, mentoring, self-employment, and decent employment.

In its general policy statement (2020), the current government reaffirmed its intention to give special importance to the empowerment of youth and women in its action plan for the period 2019-2024.

Thus, the issue of youth is central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and remains among the priority areas of the Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity Strategy (SCAPP), the main policy guidance document in Mauritania covering the period 2016-2030.

Moreover, the various initiatives undertaken by the government demonstrate a perfect awareness on the part of the national authorities of the importance of the youth issue. This is supported by the implementation of the following foundational actions:

• Adoption of the new national employment strategy and mobilization of resources around its action plan;
• Launch of youth-focused programs in the fields of entrepreneurship (My Project-My Future) and volunteerism (Watanouna);
• Initial consultations with young people conducted by the Minister to identify aspirations and assess the existing offer;
• Review of previous youth policies to draw lessons and ensure the impact of new public orientations.

To better accomplish its missions in the field of youth promotion, the Ministry in charge of youth, in collaboration with UNESCO, has initiated steps to establish a National Youth Strategy (NYS) that aims to be inclusive and participatory, addressing all the expectations of young people in terms of socio-economic inclusion, participation, and protection.

The initial technical assistance enabled the development of a draft national strategy that takes into account youth priorities, alignment with cross-sectoral policies, and commitments around the SDGs. A second assistance supported the launch of a national consultation process to ensure effective validation of priorities, programming approach, and monitoring and evaluation framework.

The institutional change with the transfer of the Youth sector to a new ministry prompted an adaptation while ensuring continuity given the priority of youth on the national agenda; indeed, the developed strategy is in perfect alignment with the President’s Expanded Priority Program.

To this end, as part of the support to maintain a participatory approach during the finalization of the NYS and to build an action plan for the first 2 years, as well as to establish a youth representation system compliant with international standards, the Ministry has sought the continuous support of its main partner, namely UNESCO.

This mission concerns the penultimate stage of the planned support, involving the facilitation of international expertise to update the developed strategy in line with the best global experiences.

In this mission Tammey was requested to develop tools on the standards to be followed in the preparation of the NYS, then revise the strategy with input from several stakeholders and develop a final and revised version of the NYS.