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Oxfam in Mali

Women from the Fala village Saving for Change group gather for their weekly meeting. Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/Oxfam America

From our staff

Fousseyou Diabate, Cotton Programme Officer, Mali

 I am very proud of Oxfam's success in empowering women in rural areas, particularly the success we have seen in the numbers of women joining farming cooperatives and decision-making bodies. This work enables women to claim their rights and enjoy the same advantages as men. 

Helping to build farming organisations is a big part of Oxfam's work in Mali, and supporting co-operatives - which help people work together, share skills and improve their produce and goods - is part of this. We're involved in plenty of other projects, too - from tackling climate change and distributing food during crises, to helping women get access to land and learn literacy skills.


Full details of what Oxfam is doing in Mali (PDF, 746KB)

Mali crisis

Since fighting broke out in northern Mali in 2012, 430,000 people have fled their homes and 1.2 million are facing growing food shortages.

Mali crisis

In 2010-11 Oxfam helped:

200,000
people in
Mali

You can help

Help improve levels of education and reduce child illness in remote communities in Mali.

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Related reports and papers

Snapshot of Oxfam in Mali

Photo 1/10 photo by: Rebecca Blackwell/Oxfam America

Organic cotton farmer Fanta Sinayogo empties a load of organic fertliser – transported in a cart purchased with the help of a subsidy from Oxfam – onto her cotton field in the village of Sibirila. We work closely with cotton farmers, especially women, to help them increase their income and strengthen their position when selling their produce.

  • Organic cotton farmer Fanta Sinayogo empties a load of organic fertliser – transported in a cart purchased with the help of a subsidy from Oxfam – onto her cotton field in the village of Sibirila. We work closely with cotton farmers, especially women, to help them increase their income and strengthen their position when selling their produce.
  • Fatouma Abdrahamane Maiga draws water from a pump funded by Oxfam Unwrapped. Before this was installed, Fatouma used to collect water from a traditional open well. "That water was reddish and muddy," she explains. "This new water is clear and clean, [it] tastes just so good!" Clean water and sanitation are a major focus of Oxfam's work in Mali.
  • Fatimata Walett Tokha works in a school vegetable garden in the village of Intadeynen. Oxfam supplied the vegetable seeds and helped with the water supply so that the women and children could grow vegetables specifically for school meals. "Many of the children have come a long way to school and knowing they will get something to eat is extremely important to them," explains Fatimata.
  • Education levels in Mali remain low, especially for girls. Here children eat lunch, often their only meal of the day, after school in the village of Intadeynen. Another element of programme includes providing school meals to encourage school attendance.
  • Women from the Oxfam-supported Saving for Change group – dubbed Sabougnuma, or 'good deed' – hand in their weekly savings contributions during a group meeting in Banakoro village. The group makes loans to members to help find ways of generating income, and also contributes towards repairing communal facilities such as water points and wells.

The impact of our work

 I help parents to see that to educate a girl is to educate an entire nation. I fight to get girls into school. I want to see girls doing something with their minds. A few years ago we had two classes and 18 students. Now there are 238 students in the school and 114 are girls.


Balkissa Alassane, an Oxfam supported community worker