“AfricaTivistes CitizenLab Mauritania” is the new hub for innovation and production of digital content that young Mauritanians launched on February 20, 2023 in Nouakchott in the presence of actors from civil society, the press and institutional representatives..
Like many countries in the regionactive youth in Mauritania launched Monday, February 20, 2023 in Nouakchott, “AfricaTivistes CitizenLab Mauritania”, a citizen space whose ambition is to support, accompany and equip civil society actors, through training, development of digital tools and support for innovation and creation.
It must be said that the “AfricaTivistes Mauritania” project is made up of a dynamic team, with coordination, a technical team and a communication team, all carried by 17 young people known for their commitment and activism.
Official opening
The launch of this new virtual space for expression and action took place in the form of a seminar on the theme “digital technology at the service of citizen engagement and participation in Mauritania “. It was in the presence of the vice-president of AfricaTivistes based in Dakar, Cyriac Gbogou, the president of the Syndicates of Mauritanian journalists, Ahmed Taleb Ould Maaloum, the honorary consul of the Netherlands, Nabil Hajjar, and several actors of the society civil and media.
Mauritania must go digital
Opening the work of the seminar, Cyriac Gbogou acknowledged that ” many efforts have been noted at the level of democratic practice with the participation of civil society “. He also pointed out that ” the time has come to add digital to these achievements “. According to him, Mauritania must take advantage of the digital revolution and that AfricaTivistes will make its contribution.
For Cyriac Gbogou, this digital platform is ” a force for proposing innovative solutions, but also a force for contribution through capitalization, co-construction and collaboration for better involvement and effective participation of the various actors ».
Quoting former President Mokhtar Ould Daddah who said that ” the Mauritania of tomorrow will be what its youth will make of it “, he declared that the dream of “AfricaTivistes CitizenLab Mauritania” is to create a citizen factory, at the request of its youth and its civil society.
For his part, Nabil Hajjar welcomed this initiative before inviting young people to invest in the construction of a real citizenship in the service of the country and its population.
Two discussion panels and a round table punctuated the day, which ended with a declaration known as the “Nouakchott Declaration for Citizen Engagement”.
Panels de discussion
The first panel focused on the theme “digital democracy: what role for the media », moderated by Khally Diallo, journalist and activist, Dahaba Diagana, civil society actor. It was followed by a video presentation of CitizenLab Mauritania in local languages.
The second panel focused on “ access to information: where does Mauritania stand? “. The panelists worked on the legal framework, recalling the laws in force in the field of digital technology and the information society.
A round table under the theme sharing experiences: the challenges of citizen engagement in Africa came to close the day, followed by the reading of the so-called Nouakchott declaration.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the Internet penetration rate remains low in Mauritania, 37.5%, while 64.5% of the population is not connected. Statistics speak of 1.73 million Internet users in Mauritania and 1 million social network users, or 20.7% of the population.
Sheikh Aïdara