Mauritania has made slow progress on gender equality, driven by positive developments in women's equal access to public services and by women's political power and representation. Major challenges remain such as the fact that 30% of human development progress in Mauritania is beset  by the persistence of inequalities. In recent years actions were taken to improve the political and legal environment conducive to the promotion of gender equality, and specific public programmes have been dedicated to strengthening the economic empowerment of women.

The intensification of these efforts will contribute to accelerating the sustainable reduction of poverty and of multiple deprivations (SDG 1), particularly in terms of food security and child nutrition (SDG 2), the education of girls and boys (SDG 4) and improved maternal, child and reproductive health (SDG 3). Reducing inequalities in access to productive resources, assets and know-how is also crucial to support productivity and diversified economic growth (SDG 8).

Mauritania still faces significant job creation challenges.  A total of 87% of workers are not covered by a pension plan, while more than 56% of workers are independent with deficient social security coverage.

The deployment of the social protection-employment accelerator should strengthen the employment intensity of economic growth to sustain a reduction of inequalities (SDG 10), promote universal access to health care (SDG 3) and reduce poverty (SDG 1). Harnessing green employment opportunities through an energy transition (SDG7), climate action (SDG13) and the sustainable management of land resources (SDG 15) are also within reach in a Sahel country subject to the harmful consequences of climatic hazards.

Transport infrastructure is an important lever for economic growth in general, especially given the dynamics of inter-Wilayas trade in a vast country such as Mauritania. Between 2019 and 2021 433 km of paved roads were constructed, and road safety improvement efforts reduced the road accident fatality rate from 44.85 in 2016 to 28.8/1 million inhabitants in 2020.

Efforts will be continued to strengthen productivity support corridors (SDG 8), to open up production areas to enhance food security (SDG 1) and to ensure the connectivity of isolated areas or of their inclusiveness (SDG 10), and to promote improved access to basic services, in particular health (SDG 3) and education (SDG 4). 

Mauritania has identified the establishment of credible, transparent and inclusive institutions as an imperative for its ambition to accelerate growth for shared prosperity. There has been progress in political governance and in creating greater social cohesion.

The country is committed to strengthening the political integration of young people and women, but also to institutionalizing a quality political dialogue, to improving the governance of parties and associations and, finally, to enabling access to information for civil society. National efforts will also emphasize the strengthening of administrative, economic and financial governance to ensure adequate financing of development priorities and to create an environment conducive to private investment.