MAURITANIA/ COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

A rural development program in Mauritania is putting decision making in villagers' hands and allowing them to invest in their communities. The program is leading to improved infrastructure and better lives for thousands of countryside residents. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:57
• Production Date: 26 January 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FINANCING
• Geographic Subject: MAURITANIA
• MAMS Id: U110126f

Description

STORY: MAURITANIA / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
TRT: 1.57
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: WOLOF/ FRENCH/ NATS

DATELINE: NOVEMBER 2010, NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA

Shotlist

1. Med shot, store interior, vendor and customer
2. Close up, customer’s face
3. Close up, vendor weighing produce
4. Med shot, customer
5. Med shot, vendor pouring oil
6. Close up, oil pouring into bag
7. Close up, hands counting money
8. Med shot, Zeinebou and other women lying down on mat
9. Close up, Zeinebou’s face and pan down to baby
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Zeinabou Gueye, Villager:
“The store is very important, if we didn’t have it, we would have to go far, and things are more expensive. Now we stay in our village, and it costs less.”
11.Med shot, exterior, store
12. Med shot, interior of store
13. Med shot, family outside on mat eating
14. Close up, man eating
15. Close up, water pump
16. Med shot, pump and zoom out on water pouring into field
17. Med shot, villagers standing and pan down to close of pump
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Yacoub Diakhite,Fass Resident:
“I am in charge of the pump and this for me is a great responsibility and makes me want to do even more for the village.”
19. Wide shot, kids playing
20. Med shot, man looking out of window
21. Med shot, kids running down street
22. Med shot, irrigation channel and pan up to women farmers
23. Med shot, woman farmer
24. Close up, woman hoeing
25. SOUNDBITE (Wolof) Mariam Diakhite, Villager:
“Now we are even cultivating rice and this has and this has helped us diversify our activities.”
26.Wide shot, field and farmers, pan

Storyline

This small food store comes as a big relief to residents of Fass, a small village in southern Mauritania. Fass villagers used to travel up to five kilometers to get basic foods such as oil, sugar and flour.

That was too far and too expensive, say residents like Zeinabou Gueye- a 22-year-old mother of two.

SOUNDBITE (French) Zeinabou Gueye, Villager:

“The store is very important, if we didn’t have it, we would have to go far, and things are more expensive. Now we stay in our village, and it costs less.”

The building of the village store was made possible through Mauritania’s Community-Based Rural Development Project.
The project puts decision making in the hands of villagers, and provides the financing to back those decisions.

In addition to the new store, Fass villagers decided as a group they needed this water pump to better irrigate their fields. The Community project paid for it, and put responsibility for the pump’s maintenance in village hands.

SOUNDBITE (French) Yacoub Diakhite,Fass Resident:

“I am in charge of the pump and this for me is a great responsibility and makes me want to do even more for the village.”

More than 850 villages across Mauritania have financed improvements through the Community-based project, benefiting approximately 600,000 rural inhabitants.

In addition to infrastructure and machinery, villages have tapped project funds to buy fertilizers and new kinds of seeds for new kinds of crops.