Success Stories

Since 2018, Joseph Kone has worked as the technical director at the Saye Community Health Center, situated in the Macina health district of the Ségou Region. Over the years, he observed a concerning underutilization of health services by the residents of Nienemado village.

In the Konio health area, situated in the Dandougou Fakala municipality, a significant positive change has taken place thanks to the community's effort in financing local healthcare.

Child nutrition is a major underlying cause of morbidity and mortality in Mali. However, the USAID funded New Partnerships Initiative EXPAND Child Survival activity that started implementing in the regions of Koulikoro and Kayes, in November 2022 looks to change that fact for children in the region. In the district of Ouéléssébougou, one of the first activities was mapping the Community Action Group for Nutrition, identifying the groups that were functional, and revitalizing those that were inactive. The community groups are composed of health agents and mothers and are instrumental in identifying malnourished children at an early stage so their cases can be treated before they develop severe malnutrition.

Access to healthcare services in Mali is limited due to financial barriers. The USAID-funded Keneya Sinsi Wale (Health Systems Strengthening, Governance, and Financing) activity supports local public-private partnerships to reduce financial barriers and guarantee more Malian citizens access to healthcare.

In addition to supporting agricultural production, Feed the Future Mali Sene Yiriwa – South (Prosperous Agriculture) helps Malian farmers' organizations in their agricultural product processing. Through the project’s support, the Jekafo cooperative in Finkolo Ganadougou Commune of Sikasso Region has more than doubled the market value of its flagship product, rice.

Following an inter-community conflict in 2012, the Mahadougou village residents stopped going to the Zanferebougou community health center for health care services. The conflict arose after the town council and the community health association (ASACO) demanded the closing of a rural maternity hospital in Mahadougou, which did not meet the country's health policy standards.

In central Mali, boys are often unaware of the toll that societal demands make on girls – like doing household chores and early marriage. Through USAID/Mali’s Girls’ Leadership and Empowerment through Education activity (USAID GLEE), a mentoring program that focused on life skills, girls are exposed to information that will help them balance those demands. While the program was originally designed to benefit only girls, the boys at the school expressed an interest in participating because according to them they were curious and believe it would help them to be better husbands one day.

In Mali, maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world and malaria is a leading cause of death, disproportionately affecting young children and pregnant women. Access to quality-assured medical products is critical to reversing these trends and saving lives. Mali has taken important steps in recent years to ensure the quality of medical products circulating in country, including recalling products that were found to be substandard or falsified (SF), enforcing recalls, and closely monitoring progress to fortify the regulatory systems that oversee the importation of medical products.

At 67 years old, Soungoura Sogoba has dedicated more than a decade of her life helping women deliver their babies as a traditional birth attendant in the village of Samakélé-Bogoro, in the San health district of Mali. Despite having access to antenatal care at a health center in the area, many pregnant women give birth at home. Sogoba delivers around 90% of home births in the village.

Since 1984, Sidiki Badian, a businessman from Koutiala, Mali, has sold cereal products for a living—a job he inherited from his father who was also a grain salesman. At first, his business model consisted of buying cereal during rural market days and reselling it for a profit in cities. He found opportunities to expand when he began collaborating with international development organizations in 2004.