Bilateral meeting with His Excellency Mohamed Ould Bilal Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritania

Nouakchott - The FAO Director-General met today in Nouakchott with His Excellency, Mohamed Ould Bilal, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritania.

The Prime Minister welcomed the Director-General and thanked him for the support extended to Mauritania over the years, and for the visit to his country. He further congratulated him on his re-election for a second term and reaffirmed Mauritania’s commitment to further support him in his mandate as the Director-General of FAO during this term.

The Director-General thanked the Prime Minister for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to him and his team. He expressed his appreciation for the long and successful cooperation between FAO and Mauritania, which started in 1968. He further thanked the Prime Minister and Mauritania for hosting the Secretariat for the SAHEL Region. The Director-General reiterated FAO’s commitment to strengthening cooperation, in particular towards agrifood systems transformation.

The Prime Minister thanked the Director-General conveyed his appreciation for FAO’s work in the country, especially in rural areas and with smallholder farmers, and reaffirmed Mauritania’s commitment to host the Africa Regional Ministerial Conference in 2026.

The Prime Minister highlighted the government’s commitment to diversification of agricultural products and requested support for modernization and digitalization of agriculture. He informed that the government was currently engaged in a land reform process to ensure equitable land acquisition, access and development, and requested FAO’s support in this regard.

He further thanked the Director-General for FAO’s support for the implementation of national wheat and rice growing projects, which were assisting Mauritania to reach self-sufficiency and become an exporter of agricultural products, and to scale up production.

Both agreed that agricultural modernization was key to achieve agrifood systems transformation and that the government needed to develop enabling policy frameworks, establish partnerships with the private sector, and effective government leadership at all levels. The pair agreed that Mauritania should embrace key FAO initiatives like the Hand-in-Hand, the One Country One Priority Product and the 1000 Digital Villages, to support its agrifood system transformation.