Mauritania - Resilience and Productive Safety Nets Program (MRPSNP)

Overview & Synopsis

The objective of the Resilience and Productive Safety Nets Program (MRPSNP) is to strengthen the efficiency, timeliness, and productive focus of the adaptive social protection system for poor and vulnerable households, including refugees and host communities. The Government of Mauritania has, since 2015, made important strides in establishing an adaptive social protection (ASP) system, reaching an emerging state of development today. The National Social Protection Strategy (Stratégie Nationale de Protection Sociale, SNPS), approved in July 2025, reinforces the Government’s commitment to social protection. Mauritania’s ASP system comprises core delivery tools, including the Social Registry, the national social safety net program Tekavoul, and the shock-response system. The Government’s commitment to ASP is evidenced by an increasing share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dedicated to sectoral spending, from 0.46 percent in 2020 to 1.19 percent in 2022–23. The social registry and the Tekavoul program have achieved national coverage, ensuring the inclusion of poor and vulnerable households in all neighborhoods and villages. While the ASP system is already established and largely functional, it requires targeted investments to continue building government capacity and optimizing its impact. The Mauritania Resilience and Productive Safety Nets Program (MRPSNP) will support the Government to address the binding constraints that limit the functionality and impact of the ASP system, building on the Government’s strong ownership and consolidating the gains made over the past decade with the support of two Investment Project Finance (IPF) operations. cross the system, several critical gaps limit the impact and inclusiveness of Mauritania's adaptive social protection (ASP) system. The social registry and program-specific management information systems are not interoperable, and household data, including for newly arrived refugees, are not regularly updated, weakening targeting accuracy. Manual payment procedures limit transparency and delay transfers, and weak budgeting and disbursement processes further undermine timeliness for both regular and shock-responsive programs. The shock response system is additionally constrained by unreliable early warning data. At the program level, Tekavoul has operated without a formal entry and exit mechanism since its launch, resulting in non-poor households retaining benefits while extremely poor households, including newly arrived refugees, remain excluded. Tekavoul will introduce its first entry and exit mechanism in 2026, and economic inclusion accompanying measures need to be extended more systematically. Since the system already operates at national scale, improvements for nationals focus primarily on efficiency; for refugees, the agenda additionally requires expanding program coverage and ensuring that all social protection mechanisms are durable and institutionally inclusive.