Mali

The conflict in Mali at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 shook the country's reputation as a solid, stable democracy. At the same time, however, it also showed that the municipalities are democratically legitimate institutions contributing to the country's stability given the fact that they have continued to function and still offer public services.

Mali's government is therefore relying on a process of increased decentralisation and handing more powers over to the regions. This should promote dialogue and reconciliation among groups of the population and help it overcome the country's crisis.

With co-financing by the Fonds National d’Appui aux Collectivités Territoriales (FNACT), KfW Development Bank is helping cover the social and economic infrastructure needs of all 761 Malian regional authorities. FNACT entails the funding of the investments included in the community development plans. Examples of institutions receiving funding are schools well as health units, town halls and their respective facilities, as well as markets.

Moreover, KfW is financing the construction of a classroom with boarding facilities for the Malian administrative school Centre de Formation des Collectivités Territoriales (CFCT), which will serve to educate Mali's municipal officials.

Water holds the key to Mali's agricultural success. Using simple irrigation techniques, 2.2 million hectares of land could be used for cultivation. To date, just 380,000 hectares have been put to use. In the foothills of the Sahara to the north, the water from the Inner Niger Delta is pumped into rice fields using motorised pumps. The perimeters are marked by canals, thus enabling them to be irrigated in a controlled manner. Retention dams ensure that the river water in flooded areas can be used effectively. Small dams accumulate rain water on the rocky plateau of the Dogon region. The soil is stabilised with forestation. To the south, a rainier region of Mali, where farmers cultivate crops to meet the entire country's needs, larger dams help boost production. New project components such as the development of fish farms should also help expand the range of products.

The success can be measured: productivity on rehabilitated, newly developed surfaces has nearly doubled from an average of 3.5 to now 6 tonnes per barrel. The incomes of families are climbing significantly. Agriculture is ensuring the supply of food especially in remote regions and creating jobs, thereby playing an important role in the preservation of peace. This is especially the case given that the projects are carried out in a way that is sensitive to the conflicts there and enjoy support beyond ethnic and religious rifts.

Project example - Small Irrigation Systems  (PDF, 91 KB, non-accessible)

Places lacking in clean water are often riddled with poverty and disease. Diarrhoea and malaria are the main causes of death in children in Mali, where 20 % of all children don't make it to their fifth birthday. Women and girls, whose job it has traditionally been to fetch water, sometimes have to cover vast distances to the next watering hole, all the while carrying heavy loads.

In some of the cities of the Kayes region in the west of the country, a solar-powered electric pump now does the work for them. New wells feed several standpipes to the middle of the town and near to their houses through supply units and pipelines stretching several kilometres. People now have enough clean drinking water, even in times of 40°C in the shade. KfW Development Bank plans to finance another 60 to 70 of these kinds of supply systems in the next few years, primarily in rural regions and small towns.

The result will be new supply systems with wells, a mains system, solar-powered pumps and storage capacities. Public standpipes will be set up as a first step, followed later by private connections for individual houses and farm communities. The new wells will convey water from deep layers below ground directly to the residential areas. The supply of water alone, however, is not enough to solve the hygiene problems seen in Mali's cities. On behalf of the German government KfW is therefore also financing public latrines at these locations, for example in schools and hospital wards. Campaigns aimed at educating people on hygiene should encourage them to help fight infectious diseases themselves.