Welcome to the USAID Mali Web Site!
This year, 2011, marks the 50th Anniversary of USAID’s partnership with the Government of Mali (GRM) and its people. It is a time to celebrate the progress that has been achieved through our 5-decade long partnership. But it is also an opportunity to reflect on the challenges that remain to further improve the lives of the Malian people and on ways to make our joint efforts more powerful in achieving long term, transformative development.
Since holding its first democratic election in 1992, Mali has become one of the most enlightened democracies in Africa. In 2012, Mali is expected to hold its fifth generation of presidential and legislative elections. Mali is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa with an average gross domestic product growth rate of 5.4% annually over the past decade. The efforts of the GOM, the U.S. Government (USG), and other development partners have resulted in a drop in under-five mortality from 251 to 191 deaths per 1,000 live births in ten years (1995 to 2006), and a decline in maternal mortality from 582 to 464 deaths per 100,000 live births in five years (2001 to 2006). Access to education has increased four-fold since the early 1990s with gains in girls’ enrollment particularly strong; efforts continue to improve the quality of instruction.
USAID is proud to have contributed to this progress. The dramatic expansion and decentralization of primary schools became possible in part because of USAID’s program to support thousands of new schools that built a community schools system. Today we are working with the Ministry of Education to make sure those schools are teaching children how to read through successful implementation of a reformed primary school curriculum. USAID funded the Central Veterinary Laboratory in 1977, an institution that continues today to help Malian herders fight bovine disease. USAID has helped increase improved millet and sorghum seed, we have supported the price deregulation of rice, and we are strengthening key institutions such as the Institute d’Economie Rural (IER) through a Presidential-level program to transform agriculture production and nutrition levels in three regions of Mali in the coming years.
USAID supported the reduction in child and maternal mortality by strengthening Mali’s health care system and training personnel year after year. Under the Leyland Initiative in 1996, USAID launched internet in Mali and promoted an ISP market, connecting Malian knowledge and information institutions to the world. To improve information in rural areas, USAID helped create community owned and operated radio stations, with stations not just all over the southern part of Mali but also Kidal, Gao, and Timbouctou. USAID’s early support to numerous civil society organizations, and to the professional development of hundreds of individuals who now govern wisely and justly has led to the cadre of effective organizations and government officials that are driving Mali forward in meeting its own development goals.
Mali still faces many challenges: a population explosion that is making Mali a country of 24 year olds and under; low literacy rates on a par with countries that have been in crisis for decades; an agriculture sector that provides predominately a subsistence existence. Insecurity, primarily in the northern regions, has destroyed Mali’s tourism industry, which only a few years ago was the third or fourth largest source of revenue for the country. However, Mali is also changing. Its cities are booming with activity and expectation of a better life; some say Bamako is the fastest growing city in Sub-Saharan Africa. The youth explosion is an opportunity if youth’s skills and dynamism can be better tapped within society and the economy. New investors—from the Malian diaspora, South/South partners such as India, Brazil, South Africa are increasing their presence.
As a response to this future potential, USAID with the GRM has just launched a new set of initiatives to address tomorrow’s realities. Feed the Future is committed to transforming Mali’s basic agriculture sector—millet, sorghum, rice, livestock—into a source of income for a new generation of rural entrepreneurs. The Global Health Initiative will move Mali out of health crisis by building a nation-wide system of quality health care—priced to meet Malian reality—that can improve health today and in the long term. The Out of School Youth program is creating a new future for young Malians facing a competitive global market, providing basic literacy and life skills that enable over 12,000 young people to be models for their peers in being qualified for jobs or creating their own. Interactive radio instruction is proving very effective in improving reading in primary schools. We are working with our own and international experts in addressing the challenges that climatic change will bring to Mali, its economy, and its society- water being the dominant concern. Moreover, recognizing Mali’s leadership in decentralizing government services to the local level, we are weaving local involvement and responsibility in to all our major activities.
USAID as a global agency is undergoing reform to achieve longer term and broader effectiveness. In line with the Paris Declaration principles, and with the will of the American people, we are moving more responsibility for direction, for implementation, for judging effectiveness, to Malians themselves.
This website is one part of our commitment to communicate more openly and freely, to engage with Malians from farmer to leadership, so that we can ensure that the next decades lead to a partnership of friendship, not dependence, among strong and independent countries.
Last Updated on: February 23, 2012