Restoring hope in the heart of Mali’s Sahel
As drought and insecurity cause a spike in hunger, the World Food Programme (WFP) is working with communities to build resilience
With its small villages of cut stones, its cliffs and houses, Bandiagara in the Mopti region is the jewel of the Dogon area. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was one of Mali’s prime tourist destinations.
Today, the Mopti region is making news in a different way. Inter-communal conflicts and the exploitation of natural resources have made Mopti the new epicentre of instability and insecurity in the country. The areas of Douentza, Koro, Bankass and Mopti have been hardest hit.
“The lack of job opportunities pushes young men to migrate.”
Crisis has engulfed Mali since 2012. Tourism has collapsed. In 2011, 160,000 European tourists visited the country, compared to 35,700 in 2015. The local economy, which relied heavily on hotels, restaurants, tourist guides and craftsmen, has suffered. People have lost jobs, and many more have lost hope.
“The lack of job opportunities pushes young men to migrate, mainly to the cities of Ségou and Bamako and to Côte d’Ivoire. This deprives the region of its able-bodied people,” explains Ms. Fifi, the founder of a local women’s empowerment organization — Yam Giribolo Tumo (YAGTU).
Protect livelihoods
WFP has been working with communities and YAGTU to help strengthen livelihoods. The projects have focused on restoring degraded lands, the management and conservation of water, and the introduction of efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.
The rocky terrain and the gradual degradation of land means less than 10 percent of the land in the Bandiagara district is arable.
In the village of Koundougou, efforts have already enabled the community to recover more than 20 hectares of land for the cultivation of shallots and sorghum.
The Dogon Plateau area is the second biggest producer of shallots in Mali, second only to the Segou region. Shallots are sold throughout Mali and in neighbouring countries. For poor, rural families, selling the vegetable is a main source of income.
“The young people are busy and they stay in the village.”
WFP also supported the restoration of a rural track of land to facilitate villagers’ access to markets in the area, built a storage warehouse, and invested in a cutting machine and a motorized grinder to process shallots.
“With the dam and the market gardening cones that WFP helped us restore, we switched from a one year shallot production cycle to two or even three annual cycles if the rains are good. The young people are busy and they stay in the village,” says Ms. Tapili, one of the oldest women in the village.
Saving lives this year
Unfortunately, people across the Sahel this year are facing severe challenges. Poor rainfall during last year’s planting season has affected harvests. The situation has been exacerbated by inter-communal conflicts. These factors have contributed to a sharp deterioration of food security in Mali.
During the lean season (June to September), more than one in four Malians will be food insecure. In the Mopti region, the number is 62 percent higher than it was last year. WFP and partners are working together to provide lifesaving help and protect the gains that have already been made through resilience building projects.
WFP will provide food assistance to the most vulnerable households to save them from hunger during the lean season.
Encouraging education
The presence of armed groups also jeopardizes children’s access to education. At present, 474 schools in Mopti are closed — that is more than 60 percent of the total number of schools in the country.
“We would not have students at school if there were no school meals.”
WFP is providing hot meals that have helped stave hunger and keep some children at school.
“We would not have students at school if there were no school meals,” says teacher Ms. Ambo Djiguiba. We would not have girls, but today I have as many girls as boys in my class.”
Through school meals, WFP is also trying to restore hope.
