About the Assessment
YouthPower Learning, at the request of USAID/Mauritania, conducted a Cross-Sectoral Youth Assessment (CSYA). The purpose of the CSYA was to gain a better understanding of the context and status of Mauritanian youth (opportunities and vulnerabilities) and assess models and approaches for implementation of evidence-based programming for adolescents and young people aged 18-35 years to benefit program management and strategic directions for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mauritania.
The CSYA assisted in understanding the opportunities and challenges for supporting youth in Mauritania. The assessment used a Positive Youth Development (PYD) lens and provided recommendations on how USAID can respond to challenges and opportunities to support meaningful programming for youth throughout Mauritania. The CSYA was conducted via in-person and virtual key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and validation session activities in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, Brakna, Assaba, and Tagant.
The assessment employed five primary data collection methods: (a) a literature review, (b) 16 Peer Focus Group Discussions (PFGDs) reaching 146 youth, 17 (c) 30 phone interviews with purposively sampled youth, (d) 28 key informant interviews (KIIs) with stakeholders, and (e) two youth roundtables with 13 youth leaders to triangulate findings from the PFGDs and interviews. The Team discussed challenges with participants related to education, employment, safety and security, vulnerability, exclusion, and discrimination, governance, corruption, and access to information. Based on findings from these activities, the Team provided the following recommendations:
- Support and create youth-centric protective environments
- Increase market-relevant skill sets for youth
- Increase youth opportunities for employment with market-focused, public-private efforts
- Expand youth entrepreneurship opportunities
- Integrate non-clinical mental health approaches into all community-level programming
- Inoculate communities in conflict against infiltration by VEOs
- Implement social and behavior changes strategies
- Meaningfully include youth in program design and implementation
Please find the executive summary and the complete report below.