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The rationale for giving civil society a prominent place in development actions is presumably that associations will be able to mobilise resources and ensure popular participation in a way government structures are poorly equipped to do. In practice, however, the interface between the state and civil society in Mali today is characterised by inequity, dependency and lack of accountability. Ideally, the state should favour the rise of a strong civil society that has analytical skills and opinions of its own, in order to reinforce democratic rule and greater performance in poverty reduction. If the state wants civil society to do better in identifying needs at the grassroots level and take them to whom it may concern among decision-makers, it must help civil society organisations to become more organised and have equitable access to resources and technical assistance. In turn, civil society organisations must work within the framework defined by the state, comply with their assigned roles and be accountable. The key to more productive partnership in poverty reduction is the development of mutual trust and respect of democratic rules among the state and its partners in the civil society.
Political democracy versus tradition
Current gender relations leave little power to women to voice their choices, gain access to socio-economic opportunities and set goals for personal fulfilment. This seems to be ignored by the authorities who are pushing hard the agenda of decentralisation, focusing on participation and equity in access to community resources. The emphasis is on democratisation, but the excessive power of the elderly is not questioned. The need for a revision of gender relations in the household and in the public sphere is not recognized. Current debates on a revised “Code du mariage et de la famille” clearly show that neither men nor women are ready for a substantial change in women’s position. Powerful Islamic lobbies and men in administrative positions are key actors in this process, and they are making sure that challenging ideas are not included in the draft to be presented to parliament. Representatives of the Ministry for Women and Children Welfare and the caucus of women’s NGOs are fighting, but not winning, the war against regressive forces in this matter.
Promotion of democracy is declared to be a central goal for the present government. Democratic values and practice to be worthy of the name would include not only freedom of expression and association as well as free and fair elections, but also some notions of equality in citizens’ rights and obligations. But the various societies that constitute Mali are profoundly inegalitarian. As in neighbouring countries, there is little debate about the deep-rooted changes that are necessary for a genuine process of democratisation and decentralisation to take place. The position of women is but one example. It is difficult to see how a true democracy can develop when half of the population does not fully enjoy the basic human rights they are entitled to.
Literature on Mali
Bertrand, Monique, La question foncière dans les villes du Mali: marchés et patrimoines. Paris: Karthala, 1994.
Bertrand, Monique, Transition malienne, décentralisation, gestion communale bamakoise. Paris: Pole de Recherche pour l’Organisation et la Diffusion de l’Information Géographique, 1999.
Davies, Susanna, Adaptable livelihoods: Coping with food insecurity in the Malian Sahel. London: Macmillan, 1996.
Enfants et femmes au Mali, l’UNICEF. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
Imperato, Pascal James, Historical dictionary of Mali, 3 ed. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow, 1996.
Ki-Zerbo, Jacqueline and Rose Bastide, Acteurs de l’intégration économique ouest-africaine: le cas des femmes. Bamako: Centre Djoliba, 1994.
Konaré Ba, Adam, Dictionnaire des femmes célèbres du Mali: précédé d’un analyse sur le rôle et l’image de la femme dans l’histoire du Mali. Bamako: Editions Jamana, 1993.
L’insertion urbaine à Bamako, Eds. Ouédrago O. Dieudonné and Victor Piché. Paris: Karthala, 1995.
Maïga, Mohammed Tiessa-Farma, Le Mali: de la sécheresse à la rebellion nomade: chronique et analyse d’un double phénomène du contre-développement en Afrique sahèlienne. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997.
N’Diaye, Bokar, Les castes au Mali. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1995.
Sandbroo, Richard, “Transitions without consolidation: Democratization in six African cases. In Third world quarterly, 17:1, 1996.
Sarr, Souleymane et al., Le dialogue Etat – secteur informel au Mali. Paris: UNESCO, Institut International de Planification de l’éducation, 1999.
Vaa, Mariken, Sally E. Findley and Assitan Diallo, “The gift economy: A study of women migrants’ survival strategies in a low-income Bamako neighborhood”. In LABOUR, Capital and Society, 22:2, 1989.
Research and analysis on Africa
Mali: The Position of Women and a Dual Commitment
By: Assitan Diallo (PhD), Cabinet d'Assistance pour le Développement Participatif, Bamako, Mali and Mariken Vaa , Programme co-ordinator of the NAI research programme
Mali is a land-locked country in West Africa, with a population of approximately 10 million. Its territory was conquered by the French in the 1880s and became part of French West Africa under the name of French Sudan. At independence in 1960, the country’s new leaders renamed the country Mali, from the Malinke kingdom which at its peak in the fourteenth century extended from Senegal in the west to Gao in the east. The principal ethnic groups are the Bambara, the Fulani, the Soninke, the Songhaï, the Malinke, the Tuareg, the Senoufo and the Dogon.
Subsistence agriculture still accounts for more than half of the GNP. Live-stock raising is the principal economic activity in the north. More than half of the country is desert, and recurrent droughts have severely affected both peasant farming and pastoralism. Cotton is an important cash crop in the south, where rainfall is more secure. Mali is the second largest producer of cotton in Africa, following Egypt. Cattle and gold are the other main export earners.
The country was long one of the least urbanised in Africa. As recently as in 1980, only 18 per cent of the population lived in cities. But both the capital, Bamako, and some secondary cities have grown rapidly. In 1997, the urban population was estimated at 28 per cent, with an annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent. Bamako has, according to the 1998 census, more than one million inhabitants. Other urban centres are Gao, Kayes, Kidal, Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, and Tomboctou.
The three republics
The first Malian republic lasted from 1960 to 1968. Mali was then a one party state led by Modibo Keita, who tried to introduce a planned economy and state-led industrialisation. He was ousted by a military coup led by the then lieutenant Moussa Traoré, beginning a period of military rule with Traoré as president. He launched the Second Republic with a new constitution in 1974. The government was still heavily influenced by the military, and only Traoré’s party was allowed. The 1980s saw student protests and teacher strikes. In 1990, human rights groups and other civilian associations demanded democratisation and the introduction of a multi-party system. The ruling party, however, did not allow the formation of more political parties. In March 1991, after five days of near-anarchy in the major cities, the security forces led by Lt. Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré, arrested the president and his cabinet.
Touré formed a transitional government, “Le Comité de Transition pour le Salut du Peuple”, where civilian opposition groups were represented. A national conference was held in July-August 1991, where a new constitution was drafted. Election for municipal councils, for a new national assembly and for the presidency were held in 1992. Alpha Konare of the ADEMA (Alliance pour la Democratie au Mali) was elected president for the Third Republic, and he was re-elected in 1997. As a consequence of a comprehensive decentralisation reform, where the territory was divided into 702 municipalities, municipal elections where held throughout the country in 1998 and 1999.
The present government is committed to democratisation, decentralisation, liberalisation of the economy and the rule of law. But it is also committed to the promotion of what is referred to as “Malian Culture”—where core values are not always democratic. How stable the Third Republic of Mali is remains to be seen. For its first years, instability was the norm rather than the exception. Proliferation of parties, boycott of elections by some of the opposition parties, student protests, Tuareg rebellion in the north during most of the 1990s are some of the indicators that the regime has until recently been rather fragile.
The position of women
In Mali, gender roles were until recently well-defined and firmly embedded in a tradition of female subordination. Stratification by age and gender is still strong, and traditional norms of segregation and power differentials dominate gender relations. A Malian woman is first and foremost valued in her roles of spouse and mother. Socialisation into these family roles starts early; five year old girls are expected to help with housework and look after younger siblings. Among most ethnic groups, husband and wife have traditionally separate economies. This, however, does not ensure women’s economic independence, since it is also believed that they themselves are the “property” of their husbands. All these considerations would lead us to believe that women, in Mali, are powerless in the domestic arena and have limited access to resources.
Yet, women seem to have succeeded in gaining some de facto power. With an increasing level of education, more women hold high administrative and political positions than two decades ago. Despite a prevailing “unfriendly” social context, women manage to get involved in a variety of activities outside their home. They are industrious workers who make ends meet at home when men have hard times meeting their responsibilities. Malian women operate skilfully around normative barriers controlling their mobility, autonomy and decision-making. They have and use different types of power in varying circumstances and at different stages of their life cycle. Earlier, old age ensured legitimate power in some spheres. Today, urbanisation and access to higher education are additional factors for women’s empowerment. Recurrent economic crises have forced women into a variety of activities, and both grass-root associations and more formal non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for women proliferate. In the aftermath of the military regime, women are more than ever fighting discrimination, and claiming their rights in decision-making.
The activity rate is higher among women than men, reflecting women’s omnipresence in the informal economy, their important role in agriculture and the high degree of diversification in their income generating activities. Increasing poverty is one of the underlying factors behind this awakening of Malian women.
The fight against poverty
According to the World Bank Africa Database, Mali had a GNP per capita of only USD 269 in 1997. Lately, the economy has improved, with an annual growth of 5–6 per cent of the GNP in 1995–1998. But the majority of the population still lives in poverty. Structural adjustment policies, which Mali has pursued since 1981 and the devaluation of the CFA Franc in 1994 have hit the urban population particularly hard.
In 1998, the Government of Mali adopted an ambitious “National strategy for the fight against poverty”. Prior to the adoption of this strategy, there was a long process of reviewing and synthesising existing poverty assessments and compilation of new ones, and evaluation of recent poverty alleviation interventions throughout the country. The national strategy identifies eight strategic lines for the fight against poverty:
Mali is a land-locked country in West Africa, with a population of approximately 10 million. Its territory was conquered by the French in the 1880s and became part of French West Africa under the name of French Sudan. At independence in 1960, the country’s new leaders renamed the country Mali, from the Malinke kingdom which at its peak in the fourteenth century extended from Senegal in the west to Gao in the east. The principal ethnic groups are the Bambara, the Fulani, the Soninke, the Songhaï, the Malinke, the Tuareg, the Senoufo and the Dogon.
Subsistence agriculture still accounts for more than half of the GNP. Live-stock raising is the principal economic activity in the north. More than half of the country is desert, and recurrent droughts have severely affected both peasant farming and pastoralism. Cotton is an important cash crop in the south, where rainfall is more secure. Mali is the second largest producer of cotton in Africa, following Egypt. Cattle and gold are the other main export earners.
The country was long one of the least urbanised in Africa. As recently as in 1980, only 18 per cent of the population lived in cities. But both the capital, Bamako, and some secondary cities have grown rapidly. In 1997, the urban population was estimated at 28 per cent, with an annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent. Bamako has, according to the 1998 census, more than one million inhabitants. Other urban centres are Gao, Kayes, Kidal, Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, and Tomboctou.
The three republics
The first Malian republic lasted from 1960 to 1968. Mali was then a one party state led by Modibo Keita, who tried to introduce a planned economy and state-led industrialisation. He was ousted by a military coup led by the then lieutenant Moussa Traoré, beginning a period of military rule with Traoré as president. He launched the Second Republic with a new constitution in 1974. The government was still heavily influenced by the military, and only Traoré’s party was allowed. The 1980s saw student protests and teacher strikes. In 1990, human rights groups and other civilian associations demanded democratisation and the introduction of a multi-party system. The ruling party, however, did not allow the formation of more political parties. In March 1991, after five days of near-anarchy in the major cities, the security forces led by Lt. Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré, arrested the president and his cabinet.
Touré formed a transitional government, “Le Comité de Transition pour le Salut du Peuple”, where civilian opposition groups were represented. A national conference was held in July-August 1991, where a new constitution was drafted. Election for municipal councils, for a new national assembly and for the presidency were held in 1992. Alpha Konare of the ADEMA (Alliance pour la Democratie au Mali) was elected president for the Third Republic, and he was re-elected in 1997. As a consequence of a comprehensive decentralisation reform, where the territory was divided into 702 municipalities, municipal elections where held throughout the country in 1998 and 1999.
The present government is committed to democratisation, decentralisation, liberalisation of the economy and the rule of law. But it is also committed to the promotion of what is referred to as “Malian Culture”—where core values are not always democratic. How stable the Third Republic of Mali is remains to be seen. For its first years, instability was the norm rather than the exception. Proliferation of parties, boycott of elections by some of the opposition parties, student protests, Tuareg rebellion in the north during most of the 1990s are some of the indicators that the regime has until recently been rather fragile.
The position of women
In Mali, gender roles were until recently well-defined and firmly embedded in a tradition of female subordination. Stratification by age and gender is still strong, and traditional norms of segregation and power differentials dominate gender relations. A Malian woman is first and foremost valued in her roles of spouse and mother. Socialisation into these family roles starts early; five year old girls are expected to help with housework and look after younger siblings. Among most ethnic groups, husband and wife have traditionally separate economies. This, however, does not ensure women’s economic independence, since it is also believed that they themselves are the “property” of their husbands. All these considerations would lead us to believe that women, in Mali, are powerless in the domestic arena and have limited access to resources.
Yet, women seem to have succeeded in gaining some de facto power. With an increasing level of education, more women hold high administrative and political positions than two decades ago. Despite a prevailing “unfriendly” social context, women manage to get involved in a variety of activities outside their home. They are industrious workers who make ends meet at home when men have hard times meeting their responsibilities. Malian women operate skilfully around normative barriers controlling their mobility, autonomy and decision-making. They have and use different types of power in varying circumstances and at different stages of their life cycle. Earlier, old age ensured legitimate power in some spheres. Today, urbanisation and access to higher education are additional factors for women’s empowerment. Recurrent economic crises have forced women into a variety of activities, and both grass-root associations and more formal non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for women proliferate. In the aftermath of the military regime, women are more than ever fighting discrimination, and claiming their rights in decision-making.
The activity rate is higher among women than men, reflecting women’s omnipresence in the informal economy, their important role in agriculture and the high degree of diversification in their income generating activities. Increasing poverty is one of the underlying factors behind this awakening of Malian women.
The fight against poverty
According to the World Bank Africa Database, Mali had a GNP per capita of only USD 269 in 1997. Lately, the economy has improved, with an annual growth of 5–6 per cent of the GNP in 1995–1998. But the majority of the population still lives in poverty. Structural adjustment policies, which Mali has pursued since 1981 and the devaluation of the CFA Franc in 1994 have hit the urban population particularly hard.
In 1998, the Government of Mali adopted an ambitious “National strategy for the fight against poverty”. Prior to the adoption of this strategy, there was a long process of reviewing and synthesising existing poverty assessments and compilation of new ones, and evaluation of recent poverty alleviation interventions throughout the country. The national strategy identifies eight strategic lines for the fight against poverty:
- Improving the economic, political, juridical, social and cultural environment to benefit the poor.
- Promoting income-generating activities, particularly self-employment for the poor.
- Improving the access of the poor to financial services and to other production factors.
- Promoting the development and improving the performance of the agro-food supply chains in which the poor are concentrated.
- Improving the access of the poor to education and training.
- Promoting the access of the poor to basic health care, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation.
- Improving housing conditions for the poor.
- Providing effective coordination of the strategy for the fight against poverty. Since the promotion of women, together with environmental protection, is declared to be cross-cutting, changes in the position of women are not specified as a coherent field of action for the fight against poverty.
The rationale for giving civil society a prominent place in development actions is presumably that associations will be able to mobilise resources and ensure popular participation in a way government structures are poorly equipped to do. In practice, however, the interface between the state and civil society in Mali today is characterised by inequity, dependency and lack of accountability. Ideally, the state should favour the rise of a strong civil society that has analytical skills and opinions of its own, in order to reinforce democratic rule and greater performance in poverty reduction. If the state wants civil society to do better in identifying needs at the grassroots level and take them to whom it may concern among decision-makers, it must help civil society organisations to become more organised and have equitable access to resources and technical assistance. In turn, civil society organisations must work within the framework defined by the state, comply with their assigned roles and be accountable. The key to more productive partnership in poverty reduction is the development of mutual trust and respect of democratic rules among the state and its partners in the civil society.
Political democracy versus tradition
Current gender relations leave little power to women to voice their choices, gain access to socio-economic opportunities and set goals for personal fulfilment. This seems to be ignored by the authorities who are pushing hard the agenda of decentralisation, focusing on participation and equity in access to community resources. The emphasis is on democratisation, but the excessive power of the elderly is not questioned. The need for a revision of gender relations in the household and in the public sphere is not recognized. Current debates on a revised “Code du mariage et de la famille” clearly show that neither men nor women are ready for a substantial change in women’s position. Powerful Islamic lobbies and men in administrative positions are key actors in this process, and they are making sure that challenging ideas are not included in the draft to be presented to parliament. Representatives of the Ministry for Women and Children Welfare and the caucus of women’s NGOs are fighting, but not winning, the war against regressive forces in this matter.
Promotion of democracy is declared to be a central goal for the present government. Democratic values and practice to be worthy of the name would include not only freedom of expression and association as well as free and fair elections, but also some notions of equality in citizens’ rights and obligations. But the various societies that constitute Mali are profoundly inegalitarian. As in neighbouring countries, there is little debate about the deep-rooted changes that are necessary for a genuine process of democratisation and decentralisation to take place. The position of women is but one example. It is difficult to see how a true democracy can develop when half of the population does not fully enjoy the basic human rights they are entitled to.
Literature on Mali
Bertrand, Monique, La question foncière dans les villes du Mali: marchés et patrimoines. Paris: Karthala, 1994.
Bertrand, Monique, Transition malienne, décentralisation, gestion communale bamakoise. Paris: Pole de Recherche pour l’Organisation et la Diffusion de l’Information Géographique, 1999.
Davies, Susanna, Adaptable livelihoods: Coping with food insecurity in the Malian Sahel. London: Macmillan, 1996.
Enfants et femmes au Mali, l’UNICEF. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
Imperato, Pascal James, Historical dictionary of Mali, 3 ed. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow, 1996.
Ki-Zerbo, Jacqueline and Rose Bastide, Acteurs de l’intégration économique ouest-africaine: le cas des femmes. Bamako: Centre Djoliba, 1994.
Konaré Ba, Adam, Dictionnaire des femmes célèbres du Mali: précédé d’un analyse sur le rôle et l’image de la femme dans l’histoire du Mali. Bamako: Editions Jamana, 1993.
L’insertion urbaine à Bamako, Eds. Ouédrago O. Dieudonné and Victor Piché. Paris: Karthala, 1995.
Maïga, Mohammed Tiessa-Farma, Le Mali: de la sécheresse à la rebellion nomade: chronique et analyse d’un double phénomène du contre-développement en Afrique sahèlienne. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997.
N’Diaye, Bokar, Les castes au Mali. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1995.
Sandbroo, Richard, “Transitions without consolidation: Democratization in six African cases. In Third world quarterly, 17:1, 1996.
Sarr, Souleymane et al., Le dialogue Etat – secteur informel au Mali. Paris: UNESCO, Institut International de Planification de l’éducation, 1999.
Vaa, Mariken, Sally E. Findley and Assitan Diallo, “The gift economy: A study of women migrants’ survival strategies in a low-income Bamako neighborhood”. In LABOUR, Capital and Society, 22:2, 1989.