To strengthen the national adaptive social safety net system and to improve access to targeted social transfers for poor and vulnerable households.

The project has four components:

1. Updating and enhancing the Social Registry. This component will be implemented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It will focus on a full update of
   the Social Registry and refugee inclusion (sub-component 1.1) and will support its usage for operational and strategic purposes (sub-component 1.2).
   1. Sub-component 1.1: Updating the Social Registry. The objective of this sub-component is to update the Social Registry throughout Mauritania, including the endto-end process (methodology for determining quotas, community targeting mechanism, data collection, and verification stage).
   2. Sub-component 1.2: Promoting usage of the Social Registry. The objective of this sub-component is to enhance usage of the social registry both at operational level (targeting for social programs) and strategic level (forward planning). To this end, three activities are being proposed: (i) the introduction of a household identification card for the Social Registry; (ii) the strengthening of communication and outreach; and (iii) the promotion of Social Registry usage for coordination and strategic planning.
2. Enhancing the inclusion of Poor and Vulnerable Households. This component will be implemented under the responsibility of the Tadamoun Agency and aims to tackle several constraints that hamper the socio-economic inclusion of the poorest and most vulnerable. More specifically, its objective is: (i) to support the expansion of the Tekavoul program to reach a total of 45,000 households in extreme poverty (Subcomponent 2.1); (ii) to develop an economic inclusion scheme for households exiting the Tekavoul program (Subcomponent 2.2); and (iii) to support households in enrolling in the Civil Registry (Subcomponent 2.3).
   1. Sub-component 2.1: Strengthening and extending the Tekavoul Program. The core objective of this sub-component will be to expand the number of beneficiaries of the Tekavoul program from 30,000 to 45,000 households. The transfers will be paid to the household member with primary responsibility for the children’s health, nutrition and education. (In most cases, the recipient will be the mother of the household’s children). 41.30. The Tekavoul program will expand into the Hodh Chargui Wilaya with resources from the RSW to support the integration of eligible Malian refugees from Bassikonou.
   2. Sub-component 2.2: Re-certification and development of a graduation strategy for Tekavoul. This sub-component will support the design of a re-certification strategy, as well as graduation strategy for Tekavoul. The households that meet the program selection criteria will be re-enrolled for a new 5-year cycle of support, and those that are found to be no longer eligible should be taken out of the program. The number of households that will exit the program is difficult to anticipate. It could be substantial for various reasons, partly due to recertification that finds them no longer eligible as the Tekavoul program may have supported them to escape extreme poverty. In the early months of the proposed project, a comprehensive graduation strategy will also be developed that clarifies how these various processes will be operationalized.
   3. Sub-component 2.3: Facilitating civil registration. The sub-component will explore ways to facilitate enrolment in the Civil Registry. The most relevant approach from an operational perspective would be a collaborative agreement between ANRPTS (the national agency in charge of the Civil Registry) and the Tadamoun agency. The possible upcoming Identification for Development (ID4D) diagnostic will provide a strong basis to define ways to design this activity.
3. Strengthening the shock-responsive system for households vulnerable to climate-shocks. This component will be implemented by the Food Security Office (FSO – Commissariat à la Sécurité Alimentaire). It aims to strengthen the design and implementation of a shock responsive system to support vulnerable households to cope with shocks causing food and nutritional insecurity. More specifically, the objective of this component is to: (i) support an early warning system and a response coordination framework (sub-component 3.1); (ii) to implement the Almaouna program for vulnerable households (Subcomponent 3.2); (iii) and to design and implement a financing strategy for food insecurity associated to climate-related shocks (Subcomponent 3.3).
   1. Sub-component 3.1: Early Warning System and framework for coordinating a shock-response. The sub-component will aim to strengthen the capacity of the Food Security Observatory (OSA - one of the FSO Directions) in its mandate to build the early warning system (EWS) for climate-related hazards associated to food and nutritional insecurity. To this end, the proposed project will support the following three activities: (i) development and integration of the food insecurity prediction model; (ii) support for primary data collection and information dissemination; and (iii) strengthening of the OSA’s technical capacities. In addition, this subcomponent will also support the establishment of a shock-response coordination framework.
   2. Sub-component 3.2: Implementation of the shock-responsive safety net program Almaouna. The proposed project will also support the implementation of the shock-responsive safety net program Almaouna. The number of vulnerable households that will be supported by Almaouna each year will depend on the severity of food insecurity and will be determined based on the outcomes of the Early Warning System being developed. The geographical focus will also depend on the areas affected, as well as the coordination with the other humanitarian actors (mainly WFP and NGO’s). The proposed project will explore options for the integration of refugees into the Almaouna program. The objective would be to integrate refugees in the same way as the host populations if the department of Bassikonou is affected.
   3. Sub-component 3.3: Designing and implementing a financing strategy for food and nutrition insecurity associated to climate-related shocks. This sub-component will support both a financing strategy and the development of a contingency fund. The former will entail the development of a Policy Note, which will support current dialogue with the GoM on setting up a strategic financing framework. In addition, this sub-component will assess the potential interest and feasibility of creating a contingency fund managed by the Government to finance the humanitarian and emergency response efforts to reduce the potential impact of extreme climate-related events. The development of the Fund will leverage lessons learned and experiences already in place in other countries in the region. This activity will be closely aligned with other efforts led by donors (African Risk Capacity, African Development Bank, WFP among others).
4. Project Coordination and Management. This component will support activities related to the management of the Project. To this end, it will support a Project fiduciary coordination team. This team will be located within the Tadamoun Agency and will support the project to ensure it is fully operational and efficiently implemented and conforms with the Financing Agreement, project document and the implementation manuals (Administrative, Procurement and Accounting Manual, Social Registry Manual, Tekavoul and Almaouna Programs Manuals).

World Bank:
Benedicte Leroy De La Briere, Matthieu Boris Lefebvre
Lead Economist

Borrower:
Islamic Republic of Mauritania
Zeidane Moulaye El Hacen
MEF Social Advisor
moulayeelhacen94@yahoo.fr

Implementing Agency:
Tadamoun Agency
M'HAIMID Mohamedou
Chargé de Mission
mohamedou.mhaimid.2015@gmail.com 

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