Overview
Mali is a vast, geographically landlocked country in West Africa with over 25 million people. Despite its rich historical legacy and cultural diversity, the country is experiencing a serious multidimensional crisis facing significant economic and social challenges.
Mali has undergone major upheavals following two coups d’État (on 23 August 2020, and 24 May 2021) which have deeply altered the State apparatus as well as the regional political settings with the exit from ECOWAS and the creation of the AES together with Mali and Niger.
Mali’s economy is one of the least developed and heavily reliant on exporting natural resources like gold and cotton exportations. Economic growth is limited, with a rate of 4%, which falls short of what is needed to keep pace with the country’s demographic expansion and while the Mali’s economy is vulnerable to external shocks.
Political and security crises have weakened Mali's economy, government, and social services. Conflicts involving Islamist terrorists and separatist armed groups, along with climate change impacts, have caused serious humanitarian issues. Many people are displaced within the country, and there is an increasing number of refugees.
The problems in Mali have the potential to spill over into neighbouring countries of the Gulf of Guinea, worsening regional challenges such as forced displacement, irregular migration, and security threats.
Our partnership
In the context of Mali’s complex setting, the EU has remained engaged in providing direct support to the population, young people and socio-economic development, through an integrated territorial approach, focusing its interventions in the South of the country.
Political interaction between the EU and the transitional authorities is still ongoing and the dialogue at technical level with the partner administrations on current cooperation projects has remained open.
Team Europe in Mali brings together the EU, and EU Member States (Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands,), alongside partners such as Switzerland.
For 2021-2024, the EU committed €151 million in grant funding to Mali around two priorities: growth and green economy and human development and youth.
For 2025-2027, Mali will benefit from the funds allocated to countries under complex settings dedicated to the central Sahel countries. Indicatively, future actions will aim at improving access to basic social services; building economic and social resilience; strengthening social cohesion, civic participation and prevention of violent extremism; and adapting to climate change.
Mali also benefits from several regional and thematic programmes, including Civil society and Human rights and Democracy support programmes.
EU-Mali partnership documents can be found in the 'Related documents' section below.
Our key initiatives
- Growth and green economy
The EU supports resilient green economy by promoting sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, clean energy, and local entrepreneurship. Key actions include:
- Enhancing sustainable natural resource management through agroforestry and improved water resource use.
- Expanding access to agricultural innovations and climate-resilient agricultural practices.
- Strengthening crop resilience and improving nutritional security in the face of climate change.
- Advancing the Great Green Wall initiative to restore degraded land and bolster climate resilience.
- Supporting the pastoral economy’s capacity to support food security and livelihoods.
- Developing Mali’s hydroelectric energy as well as its off-grid rural electrification.
- Integrating surface and groundwater management in the Senegal River and Senegalo-Mauritanian aquifer basins.
- Protecting biodiversity through initiatives like the Mali Elephant Project.
- Supporting the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy by engaging the private sector and academic world.
- Empowering women and youth in business as leveraging the diaspora’s role in entrepreneurship and job creation.
- Human capital and youth
The EU works to foster human capital by improving education, vocational training, health, nutrition and youth participation. Key areas of support include:
- Enhancing Malian citizens’ access to quality education and vocational trainings, including for the most vulnerable children and adolescents.
- Supporting the training of teachers and making sure school canteens can provide meals for students.
- Supporting higher education mobility and standards through Erasmus+, academic partnerships and African continental frameworks.
- Increasing the mobility of students across Africa and harmonising quality assurance and accreditation of African higher education.
- Strengthening the youth’s ability to act as economic, social, cultural, and political leaders and participants, especially at the EU-AU and inter-African levels.
- Preventing malnutrition, boosting food security, and developing sustainable jobs.
- Enhancing the drinking water and improving sanitation.
- Governance and social inclusion
The EU promotes inclusive governance, civil society participation, and human rights protection. Key actions include:
- Strengthening civil society organisations’ capacity to engage in policy-making and promote social cohesion.
- Enhancing access to justice, protection of human rights defenders, and support for vulnerable groups including women and displaced people.
- Advancing intercultural dialogue and reconciliation through culture, museum partnerships, and creative audiovisual content.
- Migration, forced displacement, and an integrated territorial South
The EU contributes to management and prevention of mitigation and force displacement aw well as to social cohesion and peace within the borderland areas. Key actions include:
- Collecting data on migration and forced displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Supporting migrants’ protection, return and reintegration from Sub-Saharan Africa in Mali.
- With regional partners strengthening security and border management, prevent irregular migration, smuggling and human trafficking, and to protect women and youth.
- Providing Protection, assistance and durable solutions for the reintegration of the forcibly displaced populations.
- Supporting peaceful and resilience borderlands (Ghana, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal).