Mali
A multisectoral approach is needed to build resilience in Mali, which is highly vulnerable to climate change and suffers from ongoing conflict and insecurity.
Overview
Mali faces a variety of recurring shocks resulting from poverty, conflict and climate variability and change. Decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, especially in conflict-affected areas in the north and central regions. Increasing and protracted conflict combined with contested governance makes these regions particularly vulnerable to food insecurity.
Risk Environment
Mali is a landlocked country deeply dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Increasing climate variability — particularly droughts, flooding and crop pests — continues to threaten food security and livelihoods. In recent years, persistent insecurity and increasing intercommunal conflict in the north and central regions have contributed to acute food insecurity and constrained humanitarian access. Escalations in violence have increased internal displacement, disrupted markets and challenged populations’ ability to meet basic needs.
Resilience Approaches
Strengthening resilience in Mali entails improving economic opportunities; human capital; nutrition; agricultural practices; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, access to financial services, and access to accurate, timely climate data helps build household resilience to shocks.
The Government of Mali’s National Resilience Priorities/Priorités Résilience Pays (NRP/PRP-AGIR) retrace the gaps and weaknesses in the existing policies, strategies and programs to meet the specific needs of the most vulnerable populations and to strengthen their resilience to food and nutrition insecurity. These priorities are an important opportunity and framework for building and measuring resilience.
The NRP/PRP-AGIR priorities are articulated around four pillars:
- Restore, enhance and secure livelihoods and improve social protection of communities and vulnerable households.
- Enhance the nutrition of vulnerable households.
- Strengthen sustainable agricultural and food productivity, incomes of the most vulnerable and their access to food.
- Strengthen food security governance and nutrition.
Opportunities for Strengthening Resilience
Studies in Mali show that diversifying into non-climate-sensitive livelihoods and receiving remittances are important to reducing poverty, improving diet diversity, and ultimately increasing resilience.
Asset ownership, access to formal safety nets, exposure to information and education of adult household members also help strengthen resilience. However, in Mali, access to information and financial services is fairly low. Addressing these gaps represents an opportunity to have an important impact on household resilience.
Increasing asset ownership, stronger formal and informal safety nets, reducing intercommunity conflict, disaster risk reduction, increasing access to basic social services and reinforcing adaptive capacities would also contribute to building resilience.
Related Resources
Applying the Innovation Adoption Measurement Approach
07 Apr 2021 - USAID Mali Climate Change Adaptation Activity and USAID Reforestation Project, Chemonics
The Innovation Adoption Measurement Approach identifies recommendations for improving practices that strengthen resilience.
Climate risk profile: Mali
12 Feb 2021 - ATLAS - Adaptation Thought Leadership and Assessments
This profile provides an overview of climate risks in Mali, including how climate change will potentially impact four key sectors in the country: water, agriculture, human health, and ecosystems. The brief also...
Resilience analysis in Mali 2009/2010
27 Aug 2019 - FAO
This report identifies the key pillars of resilience and related contributing factors at household level in Mali using the FAO Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) model. The study...
The 2012 crisis in Mali and its implications on resilience and food security
27 Aug 2019 - FAO
This analysis highlights that household resilience deteriorates as a result of: reduced adaptive capacity; a decrease in productive and non-productive assets; and an increase in exposure to shocks.