Mauritania

In-Country Activities
- Citizenship Campaign
- Institute and Training of Trainers
- Leadership Workshops
- Curriculum development in Arabic
- Curriculum development in French

Our Partner

L'Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille (AFCF) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with over 5,000 members. The primary mission of AFCF is to promote human rights and to defend the rights of women and children; bring about support for women in precarious situations, particularly those who are the head of the household; create a network of associations who fight for the improvement of living conditions of women heads of household and their children; and contribute to the emergence of an active solidarity amongst women of different social classes and fight for equality amongst men and women.

AFCF aims to promote the legal, social, and economic empowerment of women in general and particularly of those in rural locations. The organization advocates for the improvement of the 2001 Personal Status Law and strives to ensure that protections under the current law are accessible to women in Mauritania. AFCF supports the participation of female heads of households in action for social change through training activities and provides services to and women in difficulty.

AFCF is currently active in Nouakchott, in Assaba, the Brakna, the Gorgol, the Guidimakha, Dakhlet Nouadhibou, Rosso, Inchiri, Atar, Tagant and the two hodhs.

AFCF is a member of the NGO collective of Mauritania and the Childhood of Mauritania network, and is an accredited organization with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Women's Status at a Glance

Country Overview

Government type: Republic
Total population: 2.9 million
Population under age 15: 43.1%
GDP per capita: $1,776 (purchasing power parity)
Life expectancy: 52.7 years
Ethnic groups: mixed Maur/black 40%, Moor 30%, black 30%
Religions: Muslim 100%
Internet users: 4 per 1,000 people

Education and Health

Adult literacy rate
Female rate: 43.4%
Male rate: 59.5%
Maternal mortality rate: 1,000 per 100,000 live births
Total fertility rate: 5.8 births per woman

Political Participation

Year women received right to
Vote: 1961
Stand for election: 1961
Seats in parliament held by women
Lower house: 3.7% of total
Upper house: 5.4% of total
Women in govt. at ministerial level: 9.1% of total
Quotas: 20% at the parliamentary and municipal levels

Stories and Reports

AFCF Convenes National Institute for Women's Leadership in Mauritania

A group of 15 women leaders from Mauritanian NGOs, each from different wilayas (provinces), met in Nouakchott from 15-20 May for the Mauritanian National Institute for Women's Leadership.

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Mauritania’s Push to Reach 20% Quota for Women in 2006-07 Elections

March 2007: After over 20 years of authoritarian rule, Mauritania held presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections in 2006 and 2007. Stating that excluding women from the economic and political process was “a waste” for a developing country (Middle East Media Research Institute), former President Ely Ould Mohamed Vall instituted a quota of 20% for female candidates in the parliamentary and municipal elections.

One month prior to the November 2006 elections, WLP Mauritania/Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille (AFCF) trained 40 women in leadership and political participation in preparation for the elections.

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Snapshot of Leadership Workshops in 2005

Here are some examples of leadership training workshops that took place in 2005. These stories offer a sampling of the different themes present in WLP's leadership workshops.


Leadership Workshop in Mbouda, Cameroon, December 12-14, 2005
Thirty-two women and two men, predominantly engaged in small-scale subsistence farming, attended the workshop. They identified strategies for tackling the challenges they face in agricultural production, and decided to raise awareness in their communities about the rights of peasant farmers.


Leadership Workshop in Kaédi, Mauritania, November 9-11, 2005
Thirty leaders of women's rights organizations from each department of Kaédi, the capital of the remote Gorgol region, attended the workshop. Participants identified the need for stronger bonds of solidarity between women's organizations operating in the same region, and committed to forming a network, to be coordinated by WLP's Mauritanian partner.

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Maghreb Regional Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers

Participants at the Maghreb Regional Institute Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) convened the Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women’s Leadership and Training of Trainers from December 11-14, 2004 in Marrakech, Morocco. The goal of the Institute was to empower women in the Maghreb region to actively participate as effective leaders and advocates in the decision-making processes that affect their personal, family, community, and national condition, and to develop their facilitation skills in training grassroots women to be leaders working towards gender equity and human rights for all citizens. Twenty-six women’s rights activists and leaders of women’s groups from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia participated in the Institute. The Institute was one of the first training and networking forums that brought women activists and trainers together from across the region.

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