Mali

In Mali, HI runs projects to help strengthen the resilience of populations affected by conflicts, promote and support sustainable and inclusive development and support inclusive education initiatives.

A truck drives along a road with an HI flag on its hood.

Actions in process

In a very worrying security context, HI supports victims of the conflict and defends the rights to health, education and vocational inclusion of people with disabilities.

The programme is currently implementing both humanitarian and development activities in the regions of Sikasso, Bamako, Mopti, Timbuktu and Gao. Our services are wide-ranging, and include functional and physical rehabilitation, mental health and psychosocial support, explosive ordnance risk education and assistance to the victims of armed conflict. Our teams work closely with Malian healthcare professionals to help develop accessible, high-quality healthcare services in a country where there is a desperate shortage of professionals, particularly in the north.

They also work with young children with multiple disabilities and malnutrition, providing them with comprehensive care and helping communities to set up stimulation activities. The programme also deploys mental health and psychosocial support activities to accompany populations severely affected by violence, forced displacement and multiple forms of abuse. Our teams train community relays to raise awareness of protection and psychosocial support and to identify people in need of specific support.

To enable all children to have access to education, HI is strengthening the capacities and providing training to education staff to help them include children with disabilities in their classrooms, as well as carrying out awareness-raising activities in the communities. In addition, HI is working to include psychosocial support activities within the educational environment to support children with mental health needs.

The programme is also working to develop vocational inclusion for young people and supporting microfinance projects. In a context where food insecurity threatens many people, Teams are developing livelihoods for poor households to ensure they have a stable income to cover their needs. HI also supports local initiatives and encourages the development of village savings and credit associations, which are levers for empowering communities, and is helping to rekindle exchanges and dialogue within villages and between local leaders and citizens.

HI also works in the field of logistics, supporting other humanitarian actors. Our teams have developed field expertise that enables them to transport goods to the most hard-to-reach regions. This service is also made available to other NGOs. Furthermore, HI supports the development of local skills, by training drivers and warehouse staff in humanitarian and inclusion issues and by raising awareness to the risks posed by explosive devices.

Finally, HI is active throughout the country in the field of inclusive humanitarian action. As one of the only actors working in this field, HI ensures that the needs of vulnerable populations and people with disabilities are considered and taken into account in the projects carried out by its partners and other NGOs.

Areas of intervention

Situation of the country

In recent years, Mali has been affected by droughts, political crises and armed conflict, which have led to massive population displacements and weakened its institutions.

In January 2012, the country was plunged into an armed conflict that resulted in the proliferation of small arms and explosive remnants of war in populated areas. The Algiers Agreement signed in June 2015 was intended to restore peace and security to North Mali. This agreement provides for the disarmament of armed groups and greater powers for the regions. Since the beginning of 2018, however, central Mali has been the theatre of armed conflict between radical groups. And since 2020, the peace agreement has been challenged by a part of Malian public opinion. Strong opposition to its application regularly causes tension between the various parties.

The Algiers Agreement Monitoring Committee, chaired by Algeria, met in September 2022 to try to resolve the obstacles to its implementation. However, the peace agreement continues to meet with strong resistance from some quarters. This pressure has led the Coordination des Mouvements de l'Azawad (CMA) to withdraw from the workings of the Committee and from the constitutional referendum process. On several occasions, the CMA has denounced violations of the agreement and attacks on its positions by the Malian air force. This has rekindled tensions between the signatory parties in the context of the withdrawal of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali, intended to mark the handover of all its bases to the Malian armed forces by December 2023.As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by a coup d’état in August 2020 and the economic and banking sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the first half of 2022, the country went from strong economic growth of 5.1% of real GDP in 2019 to a recession in 2020, when real GDP dropped by 2%. Today, Mali’s economy is still overly dependent on the primary sector, which employs 68% of the working population. The exchange rate of around 21.5% remains high.

People with disabilities are often victims of discrimination and have little or no access to healthcare, education, social services and employment.
Through the 2023 United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali, humanitarian partners are seeking 751.4 million dollars to assist 5.7 million people.

Number of HI staff members: 201

Date programme opened: 1993