On 18 September, in Nouakchott, Mr. Yacoub Ould Salem Vall, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Interior, Promotion of Decentralization, and Local Development, in Charge of Decentralization and Local Development, chaired a meeting with donors in the decentralization and local development sector.
The purpose of the meeting was to establish a coordination and consultation mechanism between the various government actors and development partners.
The meeting aimed to improve the coordination, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the actions of the various stakeholders, define their interventions, avoid duplication, dispersion of resources, and regional imbalances, and strengthen the synergy between measures contributing to the implementation of the National Local Development Strategy. It will also promote a culture of performance in regional governance and harmonize the tools and indicators used to monitor and evaluate this governance.
During the meeting, presentations were made by local and international partners. The ministry also presented draft specifications and internal regulations for the proposed system, for further development and approval.
On this occasion, Mr. Yacoub Ould Salem Vall emphasized that His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the President of the Republic, has made decentralization and local development an irreversible strategic choice.
Following the government’s adoption of the National Strategy for Decentralization and Local Development, he was eager to translate this commitment into action by chairing its steering body, the National Council for Decentralization and Local Development. He noted that one of the council’s tasks is to coordinate the actions of the state and other actors in the field of decentralization and local development.
He added that despite the interest of the government and partners in the sector, the results reveal weak or even non-existent coordination between the various stakeholders. He called for the establishment of a platform for reflection, consultation, and dialogue on development issues in the sector of decentralization and local development between the government, national institutions, and technical and financial partners in the sector. He also called for improved coordination, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the work of the various stakeholders to map their interventions and avoid duplication, dispersion of resources, and regional imbalances. He emphasized that the department in charge of decentralization, with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), plans to create a consultation framework for decentralization partners, called the Thematic Group on Decentralization and Local Development (GT2DL).
It is noteworthy that the Ministry Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, with the support of UNDP and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), has recently completed the drafting of a series of texts aimed at reforming the institutional framework for decentralization and local development, in line with the objectives set.
The Minister indicated that these texts will be presented to the next session of the National Council for Decentralization and Local Development for approval.
