Good practice

La cuota de escaños reservados para mujeres en el Parlamento y los consejos municipales de Mauritania

Mauritania · Nouakchott · See the Mauritania profile

Desde 2006, Mauritania exige una cuota del 20% de mujeres en las listas de los partidos, además de escaños reservados en la Asamblea Nacional (reforma de 2012). La representación femenina pasó de casi cero a 20-33% según las elecciones, aunque una revisión de 2013 halló una aplicación inconsistente de la ley de escaños reservados.

21 %

Mujeres en la Asamblea Nacional, primeras elecciones bajo la cuota (2006)

25.2 %

Mujeres en la Asamblea Nacional (2014)

23.3 %

Mujeres en la Asamblea Nacional (2023)

La cuota de escaños reservados para mujeres en el Parlamento y los consejos municipales de Mauritania

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization / Secrétariat d'État chargé de la Condition Féminine
Period: 2006-present
Keywords: political participation, electoral quotas, women in parliament, governance

Context

Mauritania introdujo una cuota del 20% de mujeres candidatas mediante la Ordenanza 2006-029, reforzada en 2012 por leyes que crearon 20 escaños reservados a mujeres en la Asamblea Nacional y que exigieron la alternancia en las listas, con un ajuste adicional en 2018.

Results

Las mujeres obtuvieron aproximadamente el 21% de los escaños de la Asamblea Nacional y el 30.3% de los escaños municipales en las primeras elecciones celebradas bajo esta ley (2006), aumentando al 22.1% (2010-2013), al 25.2% (2014), al 33% de los escaños combinados de la Asamblea/Senado en 2018, y al 23.3% (41 de 176 escaños) en las elecciones unicamerales de 2023.

Conclusions

El Trans-Saharan Elections Project informó de que las disposiciones de 2012 sobre escaños reservados 'no se habían aplicado a fecha de septiembre de 2013', lo que refleja una resistencia inicial por parte de los partidos políticos; la representación en las alcaldías sigue siendo mucho menor y se recoge de forma inconsistente entre las distintas fuentes.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-11
Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization / Secrétariat d'État chargé de la Condition Féminine — accessed 2026-07-11
International IDEA Gender Quotas Database — accessed 2026-07-11
Trans-Saharan Elections Project (Univ. of Florida) — accessed 2026-07-11
MEWC 2018 Election Monitoring — accessed 2026-07-11

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 85/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 22% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

Reserved-seat list quotas are a well-established policy tool used across the region (IDEA's Gender Quotas Database), though no direct replication of Mauritania's specific design is documented.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Women's National Assembly representation rose from negligible before 2006 to 20-33% across subsequent elections (IDEA, TSEP, MEWC).

Effectiveness1/1

The quota met or exceeded its 20% floor in most cycles (e.g., 30.3% municipal seats in 2006; 33% combined seats in 2018), even though the 2012 reserved-seat provisions were reported as unenforced as of 2013.

Efficiency0/1

No cost or budget-efficiency data for administering the quota was found in available sources.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Outcomes are tracked systematically across five election cycles (2006, 2010-2013, 2014, 2018, 2023) by IDEA and TSEP.

Sustainability1/1

The framework has been maintained and amended for almost two decades (2006, 2012, 2018) and applied through the 2023 election.

Achievement / evidence1/1

Three independent sources (IDEA, TSEP, MEWC) corroborate quantified gains in women's seat share across six election cycles.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

The quota is jointly administered by the electoral authority and the women's affairs secretariat, embedding it in standing government machinery rather than a one-off initiative.

Curator validation1/1

Findings were cross-checked across three independent sources on different domains (IDEA, University of Florida TSEP, MEWC) before inclusion.

Cite this

Evidoria. La cuota de escaños reservados para mujeres en el Parlamento y los consejos municipales de Mauritania. Persistent ID: 6036cedf-0a67-4b9c-b49f-078476da9001.

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