Mauritania

Results in this brief are from an analysis of the 2019-2021 Demographic and Health Survey. Information on methodology is in the main text of the report and in the method briefs. Additional results are available in Results Tables on the DDI website.

In Mauritania, the share of adults aged 15 and older with any functional difficulty stands at 24.8%. As shown in Table 1, it varies from a low of 17.4% in Hodh Gharbi to a high of 40.3% in Adrar. In all regions, seeing is the most common type of functional difficulty; communication and self-care are the least common.

Region	Any	Seeing	Hearing	Mobility	Cognition	Self-Care	Communication
Adrar	40.3	31.1	11.5	9.5	11.9	3.2	3.2
Assaba	22.3	18.0	7.0	7.3	6.5	3.4	3.9
Brakna	27.5	21.0	8.3	12.9	7.4	4.0	5.5
Dakhlet Nouadhibou	27.4	25.0	3.2	1.8	0.8	0.8	1.2
Gorgol	24.8	17.3	4.5	12.2	6.2	2.9	2.7
Guidimagha	18.5	13.4	5.2	6.6	5.1	2.3	2.3
Hodh Echargui	26.7	19.1	7.1	9.1	10.3	2.6	3.4
Hodh Gharbi	17.4	13.8	3.4	4.4	3.2	1.2	1.3
Nouakchott Nord	28.4	23.7	5.5	5.8	3.9	1.7	2.3
Nouakchott Ouest	19.5	14.8	2.9	5.0	2.0	1.5	1.2
Nouakchott Sud	25.0	20.2	6.4	5.8	4.8	2.5	2.6
Tagant	30.2	23.8	7.2	7.4	6.0	1.9	1.8
Tiris Zemour Et Inchiri	34.7	24.3	6.7	11.0	9.0	3.3	4.1
Trarza	23.2	19.5	5.2	5.8	3.4	2.3	2.6
National	24.8	19.4	5.8	7.4	5.5	2.4	2.8

Notes: ‘Any’ is the share of adults with any level of difficulty (some difficulty, a lot of difficulty or unable to do in one or more functional domains. For instance, ‘Seeing’ is the share of adults with difficulty in seeing of any level. Shares for the six domains do not add up to the share of any difficulty as some individuals may have functional difficulties in more than one domain. Source: Own calculations based on Mauritania DHS data.

Multidimensional Poverty

Multidimensional poverty captures an individual’s experience of multiple deprivations (e.g. low educational attainment, having inadequate living conditions). In Mauritania, the shares of persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty who are multidimensionally poor stands at 85.2%. This is higher than those of persons with some difficulty and no difficulty, which stand at 71.2% and 71.3%, respectively.

Thus, there is a disability gap in multidimensional poverty between persons with at least a lot of difficulty and some or no difficulty (about 14 percentage points). In other words, persons in Mauritania with at least a lot of functional difficulty more frequently experience multiple deprivations than those with some or no difficulties. As illustrated in Figure 1/Table 2, multidimensional poverty is common in all regions among adults with functional difficulties.

Figure 1: Mauritania: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

5.2.a: Figure 1a: Adults with no difficulty

Figure 1a maps the share of adults with no difficulty at the regional level in Mauritania

Figure 1b: Adults with some difficulty

Figure 1b maps the share of adults with some difficulty at the regional level in Mauritania

Figure 1c: Adults with at least a lot of difficulty

Figure 1c maps the share of adults with at least a lot of difficulty at the regional level in Mauritania

Legend of Figure 1 This is the legend for different categories of the multidimensional poverty headcount from a low of 30 to 39.9% to a high of 90% and above.

Source: Own calculations based on Mauritania DHS data (2019-2021). The notes of Table 1 apply.

Table 2 (supporting figure 1): Mauritania: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Region	No difficulty	Some difficulty	At least a lot of difficulty
Adrar	63.8	72.0	85.9
Assaba	83.2	88.8	97.5
Brakna	79.3	83.7	95.3
Dakhlet Nouadhibou	36.3	36.7	42.5
Gorgol	87.2	88.9	92.2
Guidimagha	89.0	91.7	95.7
Hodh Echargui	91.2	92.9	97.7
Hodh Gharbi	87.4	86.4	94.2
Nouakchott Nord	47.1	48.6	75.5
Nouakchott Ouest	53.3	43.9	66.4
Nouakchott Sud	52.6	54.1	68.2
Tagant	79.6	76.5	91.0
Tiris Zemour Et Inchiri	46.8	57.4	82.8
Trarza	70.2	79.2	87.2
National	71.3	71.2	85.2