Mali

Agriculture – mainly in the form of subsistence production – represents 80 percent of employment. However, land degradation, lack of fertilizers, post-harvest losses due to poor storage and processing capacity, and limited access to markets contribute to smallholder farmers suffering from higher-than-average poverty rates.

Malnutrition in its various forms exacts a high human and economic. Stunting affects 30.4 percent of children under 5. One in eight primary school-aged children do not attend school; of those enrolled in schools, only one-third are girls. The Cost of Hunger study carried out in 2018 estimated the annual loss in economic productivity due to malnutrition at US$ 145 million, equivalent to a reduction of 4.06 percent in the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Over two years, the number of internally displaced persons in Mali has quadrupled - from 50,000 in March 2018 to nearly 240,000 in March 2020 - due to violence and conflict. While the majority of the displaced rely on farming for their survival, satellite imagery analysis conducted by WFP in November 2019 revealed a decrease in agricultural activities in several areas affected by insecurity. As a result of conflict and instability, more than 4.3 million people required humanitarian assistance in 2020.

Every year since the 2012 crisis, 3.6 million people (18 percent of the population) on average, experience food insecurity, including 600,000 people severely affected. Food insecurity varies from one region to another with the north and central regions (Gao, Mopti, Timbuktu) particularly affected.

The World Food Programme (WFP) in Mali maintains the capacity to respond to emergency needs while it increases its focus on developing government capacity to prepare for and respond to emergencies and fostering enhanced resilience. In accordance with WFP’s Global COVID-19 Response Plan and the Government’s national plan to respond to the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic, WFP is continuing to ensure provision of life-saving food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance, supporting the humanitarian and health responses at the national level, and helping the Government to strengthen national capacity to monitor and analyse vulnerability and risk.

WFP has adjusted all distributions and operational procedures to ensure strict alignment with the Government's COVID-19 preventive measures, prioritising the health and safety of staff, partners and the people the organisation serves.