Maghama Area Program

Maghama is a rural community located toward the southeastern end of Mauritania and near to Senegal. Its majority Muslim population is comprised of three ethnic groups and numbers about 20,000. Farming, fishing and small trade are the leading economic activities.

There is a fairly well-developed water network but access remains highly uneven with more than 50 per cent of wells being non-functional. Similarly, there is some infrastructure for other services including health and education. But the latter, for example, is experiencing persistent deterioration in its quality and suffers from a lack of confidence in the system by the community.

Climate change has negatively affected the region with rising temperatures during dry season, flooding during rainy season and desertification. As a result, there has been a decline in agricultural production while at the same time prices for traditional cereals have soared and local products have become scarcer. Already poor households have been further weakened.

Going forward, there are civil society organizations in Maghama that can be instrumental in meeting the community’s challenges. These include cooperatives formed around market gardening, sewing and malnutrition. There is also a parents’ association and some disaster management committees among other organizations.

Maghama’s priorities for development include education, livelihood, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Most school structures are dilapidated and there are few trained teachers. Families are having difficulty earning enough income from farming to put enough food on the table and pay school fees and other expenses. The water situation is comparatively better, but many households do not have access to the network or, if they do, the sources are in a state of disrepair.

Education
Poor school facilities and a lack of trained teachers are the main challenges facing the community’s children. Blackboards, furniture and school supplies are largely absent. The school-age population calls for 61 teachers, but there are only 36 available and more than half of these lack the required training. Parents have tended to resign themselves to this state of affairs. Together, these factors act as a driver of low enrolment rates and high dropout rates, especially among girls who face the additional pressures of early marriage..

Livelihood
Climate change has negatively impacted the ability of families to provide for their children. Crop yields have fallen as a result of declining soil fertility and a drop in rainfall. This in turn keeps household income low. Cooperatives that could drive economic growth are hampered by lack of access to credit and agricultural technicians. One of the key related health effects among children is malnutrition, which stands at about 11 per cent while severe malnutrition sits at 1.6.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
The potential for accessing water is high due to the proximity of the Senegal River and a network of wadis and ponds. However, getting to that supply with any regularity is an obstacle as water infrastructure remains undeveloped or in disrepair. More than 50 per cent of wells are non-functional. A water supply system does exist, but it serves only the main town of Maghama, leaving the surrounding villages without access. As a result, women and children continue to be tasked with collecting water daily with carts and cans. In the same vein, schools are poorly provisioned with sanitation infrastructure.   

Local leaders, organizations, children and families in Maghama have collaborated with World Vision and together, we have created a plan to move forward in addressing the community’s challenges within the following areas.

Education
To help more children develop the skills to reach their full potential, World Vision will:

• Work to scale up community development centres, which are a type of preschool education.
• Set up reading camps in partner schools.
• Support training programs to increase the skills of teachers.
• Supply schools with textbooks and equipment.

Livelihood
To help families increase their household incomes and capacity to provide for their children, World Vision will:

• Support programs to create savings groups that can mobilize local savings and enable credit distribution without the need for external financing.
• Support households with crop production, including fencing, other horticultural equipment and quality seeds.
• Train farmers on innovative agricultural production techniques.

Local leaders, organizations, children and families in Oda Bultum have collaborated with World Vision and together, we have created a plan to move forward in addressing the community’s challenges within the following areas.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
To help improve the community’s overall health, World Vision will:

• Build and supply all childhood development centres with running water.
• Extend the existing water network to reach currently unserved villages.
• Train and equip local artisans (masons, plumbers, soap makers, etc.) to build, maintain and repair water infrastructure and to market their products.
• Create, train and equip waste management committees to handle household waste.