Promise and progress for anticipatory action in Mauritania

Promise and progress for anticipatory action in Mauritania

Fertile land is rare in Mauritania. Hosting a large part of the Sahara desert, it is the fourth most vulnerable country to drought. In a nation largely dependent on rainfed agriculture, droughts exacerbate food insecurity and compound people’s existing vulnerabilities. With droughts increasing in frequency and severity across West and Central Africa, there is an urgent need to act before crises strike – a shift embodied by the growing adoption of anticipatory action across the region, including Mauritania.

A commitment to institutionalizing anticipatory action

Mauritania’s progress towards establishing anticipatory action is a story of national commitment and determined reform. After an initial pilot project by the Mauritanian Red Crescent, this approach gained momentum in 2024 when Mauritania was part of a multi-year, multi-country project, led by the World Food Programme (WFP) and financed by the government of Austria, which aimed to strengthen the capacity of government institutions to implement anticipatory action. Another critical step came in 2025, when Mauritania committed to making anticipatory action a pillar of its national system for disaster risk management.

There has also been progress towards establishing the coordination mechanisms needed to embed this approach in the country. Through sustained advocacy and technical collaboration, the Technical Working Group on Anticipatory Action was established and formally anchored to the Food Security Commission (Commissariat à la Sécurité Alimentaire/CSA) within the National Food and Nutritional Crisis Response Mechanism (Dispositif de prévention et de réponse aux Crises Alimentaires et Nutritionnelles/DCAN). This facilitates cooperation and harmonization among relevant government agencies and other crisis-respondent actors by bringing them under one structure.

This institutionalization process, led by CSA and other relevant ministries, has already delivered several landmark commitments. For example, DCAN’s founding decree has been revised to include a dedicated chapter on anticipatory action. Other planned reforms include a review of the National Response Plan that will integrate the principles of anticipatory action. These reforms represent a fundamental shift towards government ownership of anticipatory action and will help to ensure its sustainability.

While CSA and DCAN play leading roles in embedding anticipatory action within national disaster-response mechanisms, the National Meteorological Office (Office National de la Météorologie/ONM) provides the technical expertise needed for forecasting and triggering mechanisms. A memorandum of understanding between WFP and ONM, signed in 2025, has already borne fruit in the form of annual action plans and targeted capacity building. For example, a large batch of equipment was offered to ONM to strengthen its forecasting and hazard-visualization capabilities. With support from technical partners including the Columbia Climate School and AGRHYMET, ONM has also improved its seasonal and intra-seasonal forecasting and strengthened its role in disseminating climate information to at-risk populations.

Other actions to support national actors in Mauritania include the deployment of WFP staff to support the redevelopment of ONM’s website, the drafting of meteorological bulletins, and activities to improve ONM’s communications and information sharing. WFP also donated IT materials including computers, a projector and a high-definition TV to ONM’s monitoring room. And in February 2026, Columbia University provided technical support for a training course developed and delivered by AGRHYMET.

 These ongoing collaborations between national and international actors are helping to ensure that anticipatory action is not seen simply as something ‘nice to have’, but as an integral element of national strategies, policies and plans for disaster risk management.

Validating Mauritania’s Anticipatory Action Plan

At a high-level workshop in September 2025, after months of close collaboration with technical partners, the Mauritanian government validated WFP’s Anticipatory Action Plan. This sets clear thresholds for a drought scenario that, once reached, will trigger the funds needed to disseminate early warnings and transfer anticipatory cash to vulnerable communities, as identified through the National Social Registry, in the most at-risk regions of Assaba and Guidimakha.

The development and validation of the Anticipatory Action Plan were supported by ongoing technical assistance from WFP, which strengthened the links between climate forecasts, trigger thresholds and operational response mechanisms. The plan is fully aligned with national priorities and uses existing social-protection and emergency-response systems, thus ensuring that anticipatory action is not just a project, but a sustainable, government-led initiative that fits into the wider national landscape for disaster risk management. It is currently serving as a starting point for ongoing efforts to design a multistakeholder plan for drought, to be financed by the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

The workshop also saw the designation of focal points from each relevant ministry, which will strengthen cross-sectoral coordination and ownership, and ensure the robust follow-up of activities within the government and by partners.

Regional leadership and learning

While Mauritania’s progress is rooted in national leadership, regional collaboration around anticipatory action has provided important opportunities for growth and innovation. In July 2025, Mauritania participated in the West Africa Regional Workshop on Anticipatory Action in Dakar, Senegal, joining over 50 representatives from governments, UN agencies, and technical bodies. This event was a catalyst for peer learning, allowing delegates from Mauritania to exchange practical experiences with countries across the Sahel, and to reflect on both successes and challenges in integrating anticipatory action into disaster risk management.

Building on this momentum, ONM, the Columbia Climate School, AGRHYMET and WFP hosted a technical workshop in Nouakchott in October 2025, bringing together meteorological experts from six Sahelian countries and regional organizations to further reinforce coordinated regional capacities to turn seasonal forecasts into operational decisions. Over five days, participants strengthened drought-forecasting capacities, aligned impact-based triggers for anticipatory action, and developed practical tools for decision-makers.

These regional exchanges have not only enriched Mauritania’s own approach to anticipatory action, but also reinforced the sense of a shared purpose across the region. This has contributed to building a broader community of practice, one capable of turning science into action and supporting more effective, harmonized responses to climate risks across the Sahel.

Looking ahead

Mauritania’s achievements in 2025 – particularly the launch of institutional and policy reforms, strengthened coordination across ministries, and the operationalization of the Anticipatory Action Planfor Drought – demonstrate meaningful progress towards more robust and adaptive national systems for anticipatory action. These combine technical improvements with a growing commitment to proactive risk management. International donors are now picking up on this engagement, making funds available to scale up this work, as witnessed by recent commitments from donors including the UN’s CERF, which plans to further support anticipatory action for drought in 2026.

As Mauritania builds on these foundations, WFP will continue to support the government to scale up the initiatives and consolidate the gains made, further develop national capacities, and share practical lessons with others in the region.