Welcome to the USAID Mali Web Site!
6 July 2005
by Alexander Newton - USAID
Welcome to the USAID/Mali website. Since 1961 when
USAID started its first program in Mali, the Mission has been working
collaboratively with the Government of Mali to help improve the
lives of Malians. The bad news is that health conditions and the
level of educational attainment remain very low, and approximately
two-thirds of the people live on the equivalent of US$1 or less.
For these reasons, Mali continues to be one of the five least developed
countries in the world according to the UN’s “Human Development
Index”.
The good news is that a lot of things have been going right
for Mali, all of which give signs that the lives of many citizens
are slowly beginning to improve. Since holding its first democratic
election in 1992, Mali has become one of the most enlightened democracies
in all of Africa and for years has been rated “free” by Freedom
House. In 2004, due largely to USAID assistance, women were significantly
represented on the ballot for the first time in history. The press
is free, and the number of radio stations, with USAID assistance,
has grown over the past 13 years from three to 160, covering 85%
of the population. And thanks to USAID’s on-going program supporting
community learning centers, more and more of them are now deriving
much of their news from the internet and deseminating useful information
on health, HIV/AIDS prevention, civic news, conflict resolution,
etc. The HIV/AIDS infection rate remains below 2%, almost certainly
due in part to the assistance of USAID, the leading donor in this
critical area.
On the economic front, the economy has been growing
at a rate of about 5% annually for a number of years, in large part
due to enlightened policies encouraged by USAID, such as the dismantling
of many large state enterprises starting years ago. As a result,
Mali is now the leading cotton producer in Africa and has become
essentially self-sufficient in food production. New rice varieties
developed with USAID assistance have doubled yields; this along
with increased irrigation currently supported by USAID have enabled
the country to begin exporting small amounts of rice. Under USAID’s
Mali Trade and Mali Finance projects, we are working with small
entrepreneurs and the government to develop exports markets in new
areas such as mangoes where exports have doubled.
Largely because
of the tremendous strides the country has made toward ruling justly,
promoting economic freedom and investing in its people, Mali was
selected as a Millennium Challenge Account eligible country in 2004.
In short, Mali is on the right track and, as a result, is considerably
more stable than some of its neighbors. USAID can take pride in
helping this process along. As the new Director for USAID/Mali,
I assure you that we will continue our passionate fight against
the injustice of extreme poverty. I also hope you find this website
useful, and if there are ways that we can make it more useful to
you, please let us know.
Alex Newton
Mission Director USAID/Mali
last updated: monday, february 25 2008