To support the humanitarian response in the Sahel region, Insecurity Insight is conducting ongoing social media monitoring to understand perceptions and key concerns around the aid response in Mali, with the aim of contributing to the development of aid agencies’ communication strategies in response to community sentiment.
Summary
From July to September 2024, 43 predominantly local aid-related organisations were mentioned in 302 public posts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) in Mali. The international organisations included nine aid or development organisations, three UN organisations, three humanitarian organisations, and one aid donor.
Facebook accounted for 78% of all posts, with the rest sourced from X. Social media accounts linked to aid or civil sector networks remained the most important source of content related to aidrelated agencies, accounting for around 33% of posts, followed by the local edited media, which contributed 28% of posts. These posts reached an estimated 1.7 million people, averaging more than 5,500 views per post, and generated nearly 11,000 engagements.
Between April and June 2024, four negative posts targeting specific aid-related organisations in a public space were identified. However, no written negative posts targeting specific and named aid agencies in the public space were identified in the period July-September. However, three posts expressed negative sentiment about the aid sector in general during this time, without naming any particular aid provider in their criticism.
Between July and September, 32% of the 304 comments (i.e. responses to posts) expressed negative sentiments towards the aid sector. Negative sentiments in the comments pointed to distrust in international organisations, often portraying them as driven by hidden agendas and supporting Western geopolitical interests, with some equating them to imperialist tools seeking to control or destabilise Mali. Common criticisms included the inefficacy of aid, its role in fostering dependency, and perceptions of opportunism on the part of international organisations.
Eight Mali-based accounts, primarily concerned with political and military content, posted negative narratives about aid organisations in the analysed period. Six of them explicitly supported Mali's military. While most accounts had modest followings, they frequently amplified prominent antiNGO narratives, reflecting sustained and harmful engagement with anti-foreign-aid sentiment.