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21 September 2021
Employment and professional integration Inclusive finance and economy Training and professional integration Mauritania

New interlocutors for better integration of young people in the job market in Mauritania

Since 2019, GRET and its partners have been training support advisers to facilitate socio-professional integration of young people in Mauritania, taking account of their professional aspirations and the socio-economic environment.

While more than half of the population in Mauritania is under 20, increasing settling rates, demographic growth and migration are resulting in the arrival of 25,000 to 30,000 young people on the job market every year. This number is huge, and the official economy cannot absorb it.

According to a survey conducted by the National Office of Statistics, almost half of the labour force was working in the informal sector in 2017, and this sector was struggling to absorb increasing demand for employment in the country. In order to respond to these challenges, and particularly to improve conditions of access to employment for young people and women, the Safire programme has been conducted since 2019 by a consortium made up of GRET and Caritas in the wilayas of Brakna, Trarza, and Gorgol, and in the municipalities of Riyad and Dra Naïm in Nouakchott.

Working as closely as possible with young people…

In order to respond to needs as precisely as possible, the programme teams trained advisers to provide overall support to young people. This support includes consideration not only of professional aspirations, but it also takes their socio-economic environment into account for comprehensive integration. In the cities of Nouakchott, Rosso, Aleg and Boghé, five training and professional integration advisers are supporting approximately 800 young women and men.

The advisers will work at job counters set up by the Techghil Agency as part of the promotion of employment for young people by the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training. At the inauguration of the Rosso job counter on 8 June 2021, Minister Taleb Ould Sid Ahmed encouraged the various teams  and reiterated his confidence in the Safire programme.

Inauguration of the job counter in Rosso © GRET

In parallel to their work at the job counters, the advisers travel to meet young people in dedicated spaces and collaborate closely with youth inspectors. This collaboration with State structures is part of an approach to support their mission in terms of employment intermediation. “It was crucial that advisers work as closely as possible with the young people so that the latter can get to know about the advice service. This enables other types of skills to be identified, such as team spirit or creativity”, says Roger Lankoandé, project manager at GRET, in charge of coordinating the GRET-Caritas consortium for the Safire programme.

… taking a social and vocational approach

The programme advisers were briefed on the social and vocational dimension of their mission. In particular, they were equipped to conduct interviews and social surveys, support formulation of the project, and monitor the young people’s projects with appropriate materials.

The tools made available by the Safire programme, such as the guidebook for local training-integration advisers and factsheets on identification, interviews, courses and monitoring, made it possible to strengthen our skills to formalise the professional integration projects of our target audience: vulnerable young people”, says Alioune Ba, training-integration adviser at Caritas Mauritania. The ultimate objective is to give young people every possible chance of succeeding in their socio-professional integration by ensuring the necessary social conditions and support are in place.

A young woman meeting a training-integration adviser at Caritas Mauritania © GRET

The SAFIRE programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by 14 NGOs, including GRET and Caritas, aims to respond to multisectoral issues such as employment for young people, entrepreneurship and food security in Mauritania. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of GRET and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the EU.

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