Refugee Returnee Project

In 1989, president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya expelled black Mauritanians to neighboring Senegal due to ethnic clashes with Arab Moors. After Taya was finally overthrown in a 2006 coup, newly elected president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi invited all Mauritanian refugees back into the country. Today, many refugees remain in Senegal, still worried about ethnic tensions if they were to return. Since the country already struggles to provide basic goods and services to the population, the refugees are skeptical as to how the country can accommodate their return.  

Counterpart works closely with local communities to attract the refugees, welcome them back into their country and provide them with the necessary skills and resources to create sustainable future for themselves. Funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the United States Department of State (BPRM), the Refugee Returnee Project in Mauritania provides land, seeds, equipment and training to establish agricultural livelihoods for over 300 refugees returning to Mauritania.

Counterpart uses a community-based approach that works with local authorities and community members to obtain and divide land for agriculture production. Each returning family receives land for flood recession agriculture, rain fed agriculture, and irrigated perimeter for rice production. Counterpart also provides agricultural inputs, technical assistance and cash-for-work. The families receive seeds, tractor rental, fencing, motor pumps, garden materials, technical training and cash for work to produce yearly cereal requirements.

At the same time, Counterpart works closely with women's cooperatives to increase community-based income generating activities via commercialization of vegetable production, rice de-husking and village mills. Trainings on business and income generation management are offered for the Village Development Committee and women's cooperatives. For those communities that participate in rice production, Counterpart provides a rice de-husker to the women's cooperative under the care of a returnee member. ANAIR, the national refugee assistance agency, provides village mills to each community as well. Both machines not only provide service to the community, but also income for the returnee families and the women's cooperative.

Recent Highlights:

• Participating families have received access to over 150 acres of land to secure yearly grain requirements for their household. Crops that will be harvested during the program are: sorghum, millet, corn, rice, cow-pea beans, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, carrots and onions. From rain-fed agriculture alone, families have recently harvested an average of 295 kg of sorghum and millet for the year. This amount will likely double with flood recession and rice harvests.

Photos © Counterpart International