Mali
Mali keeps gaining support for its economic policy

afrol.com, 5 November  - The Government of Oumar Konaré in Mali heads along with its decentralisation and rural development schemes. Now the African Development Bank announces that it will support projects in the poor districts of the Daye, Hamadja and Korioume plains.

Rural development and decentralisation is a must in Mali. It became the Konaré Government's key to the peace and reconciliation process between the impoverished nomadic herdsmen and the equally impoverished sedentary farmers in the beginning of the 1990s. Since the civil war in the north, basically a war about access to natural resources, local governments thus have been handed substantial powers and funding.

On Friday, the African Development Fund (ADF) approved a loan of US$ 10 million to finance a rural development support project of the Daye, Hamadja and Korioume plains in the Sahelian zone of Mali - areas central to the old conflict.

The project objective is to contribute to poverty reduction and welfare improvement of the Daye, Hamadja and Korioume plains population. "It specifically seeks to increase the agricultural production in the three irrigated schemes and ensure sustainability of the introduced activities through the strengthening of management and enduring capacity of the cooperatives," an ADF statement reads. 

The Daye, Hamadja and Korioume plains are struck by extreme poverty, dating back to the severe droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. The large livestock herds that once constituted the wealth of the country were decimated by the droughts. An ever increasing area set aside for sedentary agriculture, deforestation and overgrazing of the remaining areas contributed to a desertification of large land areas, often seen as the direct cause to the fatal droughts. The environmental degradation and poor access to remaining resources again was a direct cause to the armed conflict between herding and farming ethnicities.

A solution became the empowerment of the local societies, and in Mali, even much of the peace process was decentralised. Thus, the project financed by ADF will also involve assistance to "the structuring and equipping of cooperatives, support to the communes and decentralised State services, training activities and specific actions to support women’s socio-economic activities." Also included is a credit system to support local initiative; 3 self-managed village banks and basic infrastructure (9 boreholes, 9 wells, 1 health centre, 2 schools).

Daye, Hamadja and Korioume
Korioume has been the port of Timbuktu since the 1980's, and lies at the shores of the Niger River, 13 km south of this ancient medieval centre of the Sudan. Located at the northern bow of the Niger, it was in middle of the conflict zone between nomads and farmers, all depending on water from the river in this desert-like climate. Agriculture is only possible through irrigation, which again closes the access of the herds to river water and river-fed pasture. One of the outputs of the ADF sponsored project is the rehabilitation of the Korioume irrigated scheme (650 ha).

Daye and Hamadja are poor communities on the edge of the desert, close to the Mauritanian border. There is no electricity, most villages lack wells and health service and women have to walk several hours a day looking for water and fuelwood. "Even in winter, temperatures reach 40 degrees C," a German aid organisation complains. The ADF sponsored project foresees works for strengthening the irrigated schemes of both Daye (390 ha) and Hamadja (620 ha), including the establishment of wells.

Economic reform
Some 65% of Mali's land area is desert or semidesert and the main water resource is the River Niger. About 10% of the population is nomadic and some 80% of the labor force is engaged in farming and fishing. The main commercial crop is cotton, which constitutes almost 50% of Mali's export earnings. Mali thus depends heavily on its meager rural resources.

Mali's sincere dedication to economic reform has promoted development, and the country notes an annual growth rate of 5-6%. In September, thus, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) started providing Mali with debt relief within their so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative framework (HIPC). The banks then specially noted the Malian Government's dedication to "substantial policy reforms aimed at achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction," noting that these policies had given "promising results".

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