Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen represent, according to Arab and international reports, the three poorest Arab countries in terms of development, especi ally on the level of development of the capacities of women. These countries have the following social, economic and cultural characteristics:

* First, they are countries dependent on agriculture and in which rural life has great importance – although the number of residents in urban centers in one of these countries out number rural inhabitants – because of the broad openness of these centers on rural and nomadic culture : rural areas in Mauritania 47% in Sudan 64%, in Yemen 71%.

* Second, these countries are, at the demographic level, young and rapidly growing : Mauritania 2,8% (2007), Yemen 3% (2010) and Sudan 2,6% (2011).

* Third, the poverty rate in these countries is high : Mauritania 46,7% (2004), Yemen 75% (2006) and Sudan 46,5% (2011), and this high rate of poverty is even higher in rural areas than in cities.

* Fourth, communities subject of the study suffer of clear illiteracy which disrupts the development process and hinders access to the activity of the various organizations providing social services : Mauritania 41,9% (2004), Yemen 45,3% (2004) and Sudan 45,3 (2004).

* Fifth, Yemen, Mauritania and Sudan area characterized culturally, by the spread of harmful food and physical-related habits involving particularly women, increasing violations of the latter’s rights and stripping them of their humanity and transforming them into a subject for all types of exploitation by males : example circumcision, forced fattening and early marriage.

* Sixth, studied communities are characterized by ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity and sectarian or separatist wars that disrupt development and reduce the chances of women and their children to access necessary social care.

(Publication is in hard copy at CAWTAR)

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