Canary Islands Government Relaunches Nursing Training Program in Mauritania
The Canary Islands government will re‑launch in 2026 the Training of Trainers and Capacity‑Building Programme for Africa, aimed at improving the response capacity of nursing professionals in Mauritania.
The vice‑councilor of the President’s Cabinet, Octavio Caraballo, visited the Public Health School in Rosso (Mauritania) on Monday to assess advances in nursing care, maternal‑health protocols, and services for both child and adult patients.
Since 2021, the Canary Islands government has financed this “training of trainers” initiative to strengthen staff skills—especially nurses and midwives—by promoting refresher courses and continuous education.
In parallel, other projects have been launched to upgrade the facilities of the training centre, according to an executive note.
“The courses have been a success so far, generating strong interest among health professionals,” Caraballo said, emphasizing the importance of midwife training in Mauritania, a country with maternal mortality far above the regional average and a neonatal mortality rate of 22 per 1,000 live births, largely due to preventable causes.
To date, the programme—coordinated by the Institute of Technology of the Canary Islands—has involved 203 health professionals. Of these, 25 nurses and midwives have traveled to the islands for a training stint, including:
- 13 teachers from the health schools of Nuakchot, Rosso and Nema
- 6 active nursing staff from the hospitals of Nuakchot and Rosso
- 3 active midwives from the Military Hospital of Oukam (Senegal)
- 2 nurses from Bansang General Hospital and Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul (Gambia)
The training is delivered in two formats:
- In‑country training, sending Canary Islands staff from the Insular‑Maternal‑Child University Hospital Complex, the Gran Canaria University Hospital Doctor Negrín, and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) to Mauritania.
- Island‑based training, selecting a group of Mauritanian participants to complete their studies in the Canary Islands, so they can transfer the knowledge back home.
Caraballo also highlighted the contribution of Canary Islands health professionals who join the initiative to boost the competencies of their African counterparts.
Strengthening the Health System
During the years the project has been active, participants have identified training needs in both professional and pedagogical competencies, as well as challenges in delivering care in hospital and community settings.
In the first three years, the focus was on reinforcing the health systems of the Rosso region (and, in the last two years, also Nema). Actions centered on continuous‑education programmes for local teachers and health workers, improving teaching and simulation resources to foster laboratory‑based learning before patient care, and raising the level of medical, technological, and care knowledge in line with scientific advances.
Since 2025, these efforts have positioned the Public Health School of Rosso as a reference centre for ongoing training across Mauritania’s teaching institutions.
Currently, the goal is to train teachers from public health schools and health‑care professionals in the most remote regions of the capital, such as the Public Health School of Nema (ESPN).
Through another Canary Islands cooperation project, a reference library and simulation equipment for medical and nursing procedures have been installed at the Public Health School of Rosso. Caraballo described the impact as “very significant,” noting that it directly improves the quality of training for future nurses, midwives, and other health workers:
“They now have access to rigorous scientific literature, which positively transforms teaching and learning processes at the centre.”