Project code: 201265289-A02

Description: Despite growing per capita income (2011: USD 1944), Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world. Ranked 161 out of 187 in the Human Development Index 2014, Mauritania lags behind the development level of the region. According to the Office of the President, 42% of the Mauritanian population was still living below the poverty line (< USD 1.25 per day) in 2010 and according to information from the World Bank, the youth unemployment rate is 48% for men and 38% for women. At the same time, there is a high demand for qualified experts in the rapidly growing sectors such as industry/mining, building construction and new technologies (e.g. in the mobile phone sector). Due to the lack of skilled workers, however, some of the large companies have to train themselves or are forced to resort to foreign skilled workers because the required know-how is lacking on the domestic labour market. Small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the informal sector, do not have the financial and organisational capacity to invest in the very cost-intensive qualification of employees and are therefore dependent on the qualification provided by vocational schools. However, vocational training institutions do not adequately fulfil the task of training and upgrading a sufficient number of qualified skilled workers for the labour market and thus contribute to employment, economic growth and innovation development (core problem: lack of skilled workers). The FC project "Promotion of Vocational Training in Mauritania" supports the Mauritanian vocational training sector. It is based both on the relevant political guidelines of the Mauritanian Government regarding vocational training, which provide for a concentration on the areas of capacity development, quality and demand orientation in the coming years, and on the sector strategy of the BMZ. The objective of the FC module is to increase the number of labour market relevant qualified graduates in the FC-supported vocational schools. At impact level, the FC measure is intended to contribute to improving the employment and income opportunities of the Mauritanian population. To achieve the above objectives, three components are being financed under the first phase of the project. Firstly, five schools were selected together with the Mauritanian executing agency to benefit from rehabilitation, expansion, equipment and performance contracts. Secondly, vocational training projects with a pilot character for initial and further training in the formal or informal sector are financed on the basis of applications. The applications for financing are submitted by sector-specific employers' associations. Thirdly, a fund will be set up to enable the financing of further training of vocational school apprentices in Germany and abroad.