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Mali

Mali Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2020 - 2024

Attachments

Overview

Key messages

• WFP provided life-saving and life-changing assistance to 2.4 million people, distributing over 80 million USD and more than 13,000 metric tons of food. This was amid a myriad of challenges, including an unprecedented record of populations in famine-like conditions (IPC 5), access challenges, and contextual changes due to MINUSMA’s withdrawal.

• WFP developed a structured concept of operations (CONOPS) to mitigate risks associated with MINUSMA’s withdrawal. The CONOPS was adopted to guide a coordinated UN system-wide response.

• WFP improved efficiency, as its fund absorption capacity increased by 51 percent this year, resulting in a more effective programme implementation.

Strong commitment during difficult times

Eleven years after the 2012 regime change that plunged Mali into a multidimensional crisis, the United Nations (UN)
Security Council Resolution 2690 terminated the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in June 2023 (effective 31 December 2023), ten years after its establishment. The MINUSMA withdrawal had wide-ranging repercussions in the humanitarian landscape. A myriad of factors exacerbated humanitarian needs, including security upheavals, regional instability, political uncertainty, geopolitical threats, and climate-related events like floods and drought. The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance grew from 7.5 million in 2022 to 8.8 million in 2023, a 17 percent increase [1]. For the first time in Mali, the Cadre Harmonisé of March 2023 [2] estimated that about 2,500 persons in Ménaka were classified as being in IPC 5 (‘catastrophe/famine’) levels of acute food insecurity [3].

Contextual changes in Mali were characterised by access constraints, supply chain challenges, and reduced donor funding. Notwithstanding, WFP leveraged its expertise and operational footprint to deliver life-saving assistance and resilience support to 2.4 million people (54 percent of whom were women). This represented 64 percent of the 3.7 million target (14 percent less than in 2022), and included 318,612 internally displaced persons (IDPs), 10,005 refugees, and 355,291 people with disabilities.

Although WFP secured 85 percent of the funding required [4] and faced slightly higher access constraints than in 2022, the operation was still able to reach a high expenditure level, indicating WFP’s efficiency and ability to operate effectively, even under challenging circumstances. WFP aptly mobilized resources, reprioritised assistance, and reached the most vulnerable members of the population.

WFP worked strategically to target multiple areas simultaneously. These included food security and nutrition needs, resilience activities, and increasing the purchasing power of beneficiaries through cash transfers while strengthening the local economy, and improving food production systems through climate-sensitive approaches. These activities contributed to both Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger (SDG 2) and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
Strategic outcomes 1 and 6 focused on crisis response. WFP provided emergency food assistance, worked on malnutrition prevention and treatment, and provided humanitarian air services, logistics, information and communications technology, and on-demand engineering services to humanitarian actors. Some indicators fell short of target under strategic outcome 1. However, almost all indicators under strategic outcome 6 were met or surpassed, with WFP more than doubling its target quantity of cargo transported and exceeding the number of passengers transported in 2022.

Strategic outcomes 2 through 5 consisted of the integrated resilience package. As such, WFP provided multisectoral assistance allowing for geographic convergence and complementarity of various activities, including partnerships with UN agencies. WFP supported the national school feeding programme, strengthened national social safety nets, prevented malnutrition among the most vulnerable, and contributed to social cohesion through asset creation for communities. It also supported smallholder farmers, strengthened supply chains, and contributed to building the capacity of national and sub-national institutions, while supporting local markets, boosting local economies, and reducing carbon footprint. The school feeding programme reached 29 percent more participants when compared with 2022, while enrolment and retention rates also improved. Additionally, 99 percent of the eligible population were reached by nutrition prevention programmes, while the number of children meeting the classification of a minimum acceptable diet increased by 5 percent over the same period. Recourse to negative coping strategies also generally decreased, compared with 2022. WFP effectively supported the scale-up of Mali’s social protection system as it reached 105 percent of people intended to be assisted, surpassing the target.

In 2023, WFP progressed towards digitising the information of people supported by the organization through registrations in SCOPE, the corporate personal information and transfer management platform. This ensured better management of individuals’ identities and the delivery of assistance, while contributing directly to the Country Office Assurance Plan. WFP registered 1.08 million people in SCOPE, with almost 98 percent of interventions implemented through the platform.

In line with the scale-up of cash-based transfers (CBT), the number of people assisted with this modality reached 2.1 million in 2023, with a total of USD 81 million disbursed (17 percent more than in 2022). Additionally, WFP set the groundwork for the implementation of ‘School Connect’, a digitised data improvement initiative under the school feeding programme for 2024. School Connect will allow for better management, strengthening of internal controls and improvement of risk mitigation measures. Furthermore, WFP introduced the Payment Instrument Tracking (PIT) application which allowed the organization to track and manage payments through their entire lifecycle. This ensured that the people supported by WFP received the intended transfers, and that the correct payments and/or SIM cards were distributed. The use of SCOPE and CBT helped ensure that the right assistance reached the right people - ultimately promoting individuals’ financial inclusion.

WFP led and participated in several clusters and working groups. This facilitated the integration of gender, protection, and conflict sensitivity concepts into all activities. WFP also worked with governmental and non-governmental partners to save and change lives.