Publication: Beyond Extractives: Unlocking Mauritania’s Potential for a Sustained, Inclusive and Resilient Growth
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2025-11-25
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2025-11-25
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Mauritania’s extractive-led development path has run its course. A comprehensive and actionable set of reforms can unlock job creation and deliver a diversified, resilient, and inclusive growth path to reach Upper Middle-Income Country (UMIC) status by 2050. These are centered on three main pillars: (i) building a robust foundation of physical, human, and natural capital; (ii) creating a predictable regulatory environment; and (iii) fostering a dynamic private sector, that will foster stronger and better job creation by the non-extractive sectors, such as energy, agribusiness, and tourism (Table O.1). Strengthening Mauritania’s foundational infrastructure requires modernizing payment systems, scaling-up investment in early childhood education, boosting women’s workforce participation, and expanding fiscal resources for climate adaptation and mitigation investments. Also, reforms such as establishing and operationalizing an independent anti-corruption agency, revising the 2004 Labor Code to simplify hiring and eliminate gender bias, implementing an electronic land management system, and enforcing the new competition law will help create a stable regulatory environment that supports business and job growth. To support a dynamic private sector, policies should focus on better access to finance, smoother technology transfer, and innovation-friendly environments. This includes investing in STEM, creating efficient credit bureaus and registries, and developing demand-driven skills training systems (TVET).
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“World Bank. 2025. Beyond Extractives: Unlocking Mauritania’s Potential for a Sustained, Inclusive and Resilient Growth. Country Growth and Jobs Report 2025. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/44018 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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