Promote the participation of civil society in economic, political and social and placing it in the front line as a development actor.

PASOC is fully in the spirit of the Cotonou Agreement: it responds both to the will of consolidating democracy and the rule of law. PASOC and encourages the participation of civil society in economic, political and social, and the place on the front line as a development actor.
In 2005, a comprehensive study had demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of Mauritanian civil society and lay the foundations of a suitable program to support these organizations. PASOC proposes a coherent and effective approach to support local players after many years where CSOs have suffered from disordered and often clientelist support.
PASOC addition, the Delegation of the EU has other instruments which allow it to support CSOs. Calls for proposals are launched regularly to finance local initiatives.
In addition, the programming of the EU and the identification of priorities, Mauritanian civil society is consulted regularly.
Objectives and financing

PASOC is a pilot program in Mauritania. The main objectives of this program were to strengthen the capacities of Mauritanian civil society organizations by providing training and grants for their projects. It also aimed to foster a framework of interaction between the Mauritanian government and civil society.
For these accompanying measures, the aim was to enable civil society to play their role as development actors in Mauritania and dialogue partners with the state and international donors.

Funding: The program financing agreement was signed June 20, 2006 giving an overall envelope PASOC of $ 4.5 million or more than 1.5 billion UM.
Main objective: promote the participation of civil society in economic, political and social, and placing it in the front line as a development actor
coherent and effective approach to support and strengthen local actors
Action on the ground: implementation of this program has resulted in a concrete way, on the 2007-2010 period, for a total contribution of more than 403 million UM which benefited 30 projects by 27 Organizations Civil Society (CSOs).

prospect

As a pilot program in Mauritania, PASOC has been successful in many areas. It is a program known to civil society and has helped train, empower many organizations but also to fund their initiatives.

PASOC also allowed to have a detailed knowledge of civil society. This experience will implement a new support program more in line with the Mauritanian realities.
A second phase of the program is in preparation. This second phase will consolidate the achievements of the first program and continue to strengthen the capacity of CSOs in Nouakchott and in the regions. It is also planned to include a support component to the cultural sector in Mauritania.