GWP-Med and UNICEF Mauritania join forces to support the development of an Action Plan for the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) System of Water Resources and WASH in Mauritania

“…The lack of regularly informed monitoring and evaluation system of water resources and water services challenges considerably the decision making process for water management in Mauritania… The Action Plan will be an important document to advocate for funds mobilizations…”, with these statements, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, M. Mohamed Ould Abdallahi Salem Ould Ahmed Doua, opened the joint workshop organised by GWP-Med and UNICEF Mauritania on February, 7th 2018.

Since 2017, GWP-Med is supporting the National Water Resources Center on the elaboration of action plan for the M&E system of water resources in Mauritania (https://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-Mediterranean/WE-ACT/News-List-Page/consolidating-the-monitoring-and-evaluation-system-of-water-resources-in-mauritania/). On the other hand, UNICEF has been supporting the Planning, Monitoring and Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation on the elaboration of an action plan for the M&E system of WASH. Aiming to create synergies and upscale the impacts of their respective support to Mauritania, GWP-Med and UNICEF joined forces to merge the 2 actions plans and build-up a comprehensive National Action Plan for the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) System of Water Resources and WASH for the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation.

The objective of the M&E system is to provide relevant, reliable and regular collected data and information for decisions makers to improve the water resources management and the provision of drinking and sanitation services in Mauritania.

The 10-year action plan covers the years 2018-2027. In addition to the hard component (equipment, measurement devices, etc), the Action Plan includes an important soft component that aims to improve the governance framework for the collection and sharing of data as well as to reinforce the involved stakeholders capacity to ensure the good and regular operation of the monitoring & evaluation system.

The Action Plan was validated during a National Workshop organised on 7 February 2018, in Nouakchott, at the premises of the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation with the participation of key stakeholders representing the different technical departments of the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, the water utilities, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment.

As a next step aiming to mobilise financial resources for the Action Plan, the Mauritanian Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation requested GWP-Med and UNICEF to support the organisation of a donors’ roundtable before mid-2018.