Mauritania’s Commissioner of Food Security and FAO Director-General discuss resilience and rural development paths

14 October 2019, Rome - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met with Mohamed Mahmoud Chrif M’Hamed Bouassriya, Mauritania’s Commissioner for Food Security, to discuss how to continue and reinforce their partnership in the years ahead.

It was the first meeting between the two leaders, each of whom took up their office in August after elections, they discussed key issues where to focus their cooperation.

Bouassriya outlined Mauritania’s new food security policy, which will focus on two main issues: crisis prevention and development of resilience to support the country’s most vulnerable people.

He emphasis his country’s need for ongoing support from FAO in areas of capacity development and enhancing both production - thus food availability -and markets - therefore accessibility.

The Director-General emphasized the importance of policies favoring the agricultural sectors, and for creating appropriate incentives for all those involved in the food-system’s value chain. 

Technological innovation, harnessing science for production and better business models were cited by the Director General as key building blocks for boosting food security and resilience, said continued to suggest that importance of human capital and youth, where he saw the role of  talent pools to support the delivery of positive results.