International Service

West Africa - Mali

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Country information

Mali is a vast landlocked country, with 65% of its territory in the Northern arid Sahara and semi-arid Sahelian zones, and 35% in the Southern dry and humid savannah zones. The distribution and intensity of rain varies a great deal, with more rain the closer to the Equator.

Mali shares its borders with Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Guinea. Mali has a population of about 11,4 million, 90.6% of whom live below the poverty line of $2 per day. The population is currently growing at a rate of about 2.97% while at the same time the percentage of the population with HIV/AIDS is also increasing with the most recent estimate standing at 1.7%. About 10% of the population is nomadic and 90% either semi nomadic or sedentary. The large majority of Malians live in rural areas and primarily depend both directly and indirectly on local natural resources for their livelihoods.

Human Development Report, UNDP 2002

Indicators	Mali	UK
Life expectancy (years)	51.5	77.7
Under 5 year mortality rate (per 1000)	142	6
Maternal Mortality (per 100.000)	580	7
Births per woman	7	1.7
Adult male literacy (%)	48.9	...
Adult female literacy (%)	34.4	...
Urban Population (% of total)	30.2	89.5
People under poverty limit 1$/day (% of total)	72.8	...
Undernourished People (% of total)	28	...
Annual per capita GDP (US$)	797	23,509
Human Development Index (of 173)	164	13

Mali has a number of different ethnic groups, many of which are subdivided into social castes based on role and hierarchy.

From an economic point of view Mali’s sheer size presents a number of problems in terms of infrastructure and communications for example. About 80% of the working population are primarily engaged in farming and/or fishing for a living, while the limited industrial activity is mainly focused on the processing of primary commodities. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to fluctuations in the world prices of cotton and gold which are its main exports.

The transition to democratic government in Mali has not been easy. In 1991, a popular uprising brought down the military dictator Moussa Traoré, followed in 1992 with the election of Alpha Oumar Konaré as President supported by an elected, civilian parliament.
Legislative and presidential elections in 1997 were problematic, with many opposition groups boycotting the process. However, in April/May 2002 new presidential elections to replace Konaré after at the end of his two-term limit were held with the full participation of all opposition groups. Though there were a number of irregularities in the first and second rounds, the results, election of the former transitional president Amadou Toumani Touré, were broadly accepted by all political parties. The opposition has also remained engaged throughout the June/July 2002 legislative elections, whose provisional results give a plurality, but not majority, to ADEMA, the former ruling party.
The government decentralisation programme, which has endured many postponements and political blockages, is on track to bring increased decision-making responsibility to locally elected government and bringing essential decisions closer to the communities most affected by their outcomes.

IS work in Mali

International service has been placing development workers with local partner organisations in Mali since 1978. International service in Mali has between 10 and 15 development workers in the field at any one time.

The main priorities of the IS Mali programme are organisational development and capacity building as a means to support the development of civil society, which is necessary if the aims of decentralisation and participatory democracy are to be met.
Currently the majority of our development workers in Mali are involved in helping local NGO’s improve their capacity and enable them respond better to the needs of different groups, for instance through more effective situation analysis, planning, objective setting and monitoring and evaluation of development activities/processes. In many cases, the Development Workers also assist the partners in obtaining funding for their activities.
We also support a number of organisations working to improve and secure the sustainability the livelihood of people, with activities on natural resources management, vocational training, savings and credit, and income generation.

IS Field Office in Mali

International Service
Postal Address: Hamdallaye ACI 2000
Street Address: Rue 539 Porte 380
B.P. 2119 - Bamako - MALI
Tel : 00 (223) 229 24 05
Fax : 00 (223) 229 77 65

Field Director: Fred Cabore
Mobile: +(223) 640 26 43
Email: fredcabore@is-mali.net

Child Programme Coordinator:
Amelie Hollebecque
Email: amelieh@ismali.net

Disability Programme Coordinator:
Laurence Sylla
Email: Laurence.sylla@is-mali.net

Comic Relief Programme Coordinator:
Lami Tchabebou
Email: tchalami@is-mali.net

Administrator: Nana Toure
Email: ntoure@is-mali.net

Partners in Mali

IS works with the following Malian partner organisations:

ADAC (Association pour le Developpement et l’Appui Communautaire)
Association for Community Development and Support
Kadiolo, Sikasso region - HIV infected and affected adults and children
ADAC mission is to seek to improve living conditions in local communities through reinforcing their technical, economic and organisational capacities with activities such as training, information, literacy and access to financial resources.

IS works with ADAC on their HIV test centre and community organisation working with HIV infected people, testing, preventive and campaigning activities, treatment and counselling activities.

AEDM (Agence Evangélique de Développement du Mali)
Mali Development Evangelical Agency
Sévaré, Mopti region - Children and disabled people
NGO working on education, food security and hydraulic/sanitary conditions in the Mopti region. The work with IS will focus on human rights issues for children and disabled people.

AJA -Association Jeunesse Action (Youth Action Association)
Bamako - Young disadvantaged people
AJA is an NGO which was established in 1993 and specialises in promoting employment training and creation for the urban young unemployed. AJA is a long term partner for IS and its main activities are skills training and awareness programmes in employment generation and micro-enterprise. IS will support AJA in marketing and business education/training.
http://aja-mali.africa-web.org/
http://www.ajamali.org/

Caritas
Malian main cities, especially Bamako - street boys and girls
National NGO member of the Church international network of charities, focusing in supporting the poor communities in many different areas. The ‘Street children Programme’ is focussing on disadvantaged children’s rights, protection and support. IS will work with the street girls day care centre to support management, counselling and M&E of their activities.

Enda Tiers Monde
Mopti - Disadvantaged children and youth, coranic children
International NGO based in Senegal working with poor communities in an empowerment approach. They are very well known in Mali for their work with street children, disadvantaged young people. Cooperation with IS is on child’s right and Income Generating Activities within the coranic schools.
http://www.enda.sn/endamali/indexml.htm

IEP (Institut d’Education Populaire)
Popular Education Institut
Kati, Koulikoro region - Children and youth/education
National NGO focused on education that developed innovative approaches and curriculum and lobbies to improve the quality of education for all Malians. IEP set up a community school in Kati as a model of their approach. IS will support IEP in their effort to include disabled children into their school through providing specialised modules and supporting raising awareness on inclusive education.

J&D (Jeunesse et Développement)
Bamako based and in Togo and Burkina Faso - Disadvantaged Youth
NGO, established in 1993, who works to empower young people to develop their potential and play an active role in development. In addition to their work with urban youth, J&D works with local partners in 15 villages in the South of Mali to promote an integrated approach to community health, women’s initiatives, civic education and literacy. J&D has also been at the forefront of introducing and supporting the Reflect approach to social change in francophone West Africa.

Partnership with IS is focused on Youth-centred income generating activities, lobbying and networking activities through a Comic Relief funded project and a DW placement in capacity building.
http://www.promali.org/jeudev/fran/index.htm

Jigi (means "Hope" in Bambara)
Niono, Segou region - HIV infected and affected youth
National NGO who aims to support Malian communities in economic, health, democratic area. The Niono antenna manages an HIV testing centre and youth centred awareness training and activities as well as provision of testing and treatment. IS supports the centre in their communication strategy in order to improve the achievement of their awareness raising activities.
http://ongjigi.org/

FEMAPH
(Fédération Malienne des Associations de Personnes Handicapées)
Malian Federation of Disabled People Associations
Bamako based -Disabled people of all ages
National head organisation for disabled people who aims to improve the disabled people participation and integration in the Malian society. They are running their own credit saving bank to allow disabled to start of their projects and thereby increase their income. IS supports the Savings and credit organisation through a capacity builder DW.
http://www.femaph.org.ml/

UMAV (Union Malienne des Aveugles)
Blind People Malian Union
Bamako - Blind people
National head organisation for blind and visually impaired people. They run an inclusive school for blind and visually impaired children in Bamako and Gao; a production unit and an optic workshop. IS supports the production unit in business management and marketing in order to contribute to blind people employment.
http://www.umav.org/

GAAS Mali (Groupe d'Animation Action au Sahel)
Leadership-Action Group in Sahel
Bandiagara, Mopti region - Children and youth
National NGO works with rural communities with a participative approach in order to ensure a sustainable development. Their main areas of work are on rural economy and human resources (education and health). They are currently working on US government financed project against child trafficking and improved educational access. IS supports the project team and the organisation in lobbying and skills transfer.

Unicef/DRPEEF Unicef/Direction Regionale de la Promotion de l'enfant et de la famille (regional office for the promotion of child and family)
Segou - Children, youth and their rights
State agency on the promotion and protection of woman, children and the family,
child protection division in Segou and UNICEF, UN Agency are working together to improve child protection in Mali. One of their means to achieve this goal is the setting up of a data collection base on the situation of children in difficulties. IS will support them in building capacity in management of this database.

Yagtu (“Association for women promotion” in Dogon language)
Bandiagara, Mopti region - Women and children
NGO based in the Dogon Country working on women empowerment. They have a grassroots based approach and intervene in agriculture, sustainable livelihoods, Reproductive health and good governance. IS will support Yagtu in their reproductive health activities in building their organisational capacity.

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