Press Release

Launching of "Food for Progress,"
worth more than one billion ouguiya

Joseph LeBaron, Ambassador of the United States at Nouakchott, presided this morning with Mr. Abdellahi O. Ahmed Damou, Commissioner of Food Security, at El Mina at a ceremony to launch the   aid program "Food for Progress."

This program, providing 1,031,000,000 UM, will finance projects to fight food insecurity and poverty throughout Mauritania.  The program will help the poorest people to initiate projects in agriculture, health, water, revenue generation, rural infrastructure, and protection of the environment.

The American Embassy and the Commission, in collaboration with international non-governmental organizations and government agencies, will oversee the execution of this vast program, with strict respect for transparency in its management.

Nouakchott,  April 6, 2006