UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative

Please download the PEI Country fact sheet on Mali (PDF)

Basic Facts about Mali

• PEI Mali started in April 2005. It was restructured and scaled up in 2007–2008. The programme is a joint initiative between the Government of Mali, UNDP Mali and PEI Africa. Encouraging results from an independent evaluation led to a reformulation of Phase II in June 2010.
• The current Phase II focuses on capacity building for a better inclusion of poverty-environment linkages in the national development planning processes, particularly in Mali's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).
• The execution of the programme is led by the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation through its National Directorate for Conservation of Nature and the PRSP Unit of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
• Donors include Norway and UNDP Mali. The funds are distributed through UNDP Mali.
• The total budget is as follows: 2005-2006: USD 200,000 (UNEP Norway); 2007-2008: USD 875,480 (UNEP Norway: USD 625,480, UNDP Mali: USD 150,000 and Government of Mali: USD 100,000); 2009: USD 212,000 (balance 2008 UNEP Norway funds: USD 137,000; UNDP Mali: USD 75,000); 2010-2012: USD 1,140, 000 (PEI Africa: USD 640,000 USD; UNDP Mali: USD 300,000; Government of Mali: USD 200,000 (cash) and USD 200,000 (in-kind).

 The context of poverty-environment mainstreaming in Mali

• The Poverty Reduction Strategy is Mali's key national planning instrument. A first PRSP (CSLP: National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction) was developed in 2002. The first strategy did not recognize environment as important key or cross-cutting component and did not highlight any linkages between environment and poverty. A revised PRSP 2 was released in 2006. The CSLP 2 recognizes environment and sustainable management of natural resources as one of the priority areas of intervention for the country. However, the strategy highlights that the mainstreaming of poverty-environmental issues into sectoral policies and development planning processes remains a challenge at all levels (national, regional and local).
• The revision and development of a third PRSP (CSLP 3) was initiated in December 2010. The Government of Mali, encouraged by new data and information provided through PEI Mali, decided to carry out a greening (i.e., environmental mainstreaming) process of the third forthcoming PRSP.

Main activities

• Since 2005, PEI Mali has provided continuous support to the Government in revising and improving various PRSP generations. In 2009, PEI Mali assisted in developing a roadmap for the PRSP greening process. The roadmap was adopted by the Government in 2010. In 2011, PEI Mali supported national authorities to conduct a consistency study assessing the level of integration of poverty-environment linkages into the PRSP 2 in order to help design the framework of a new PRSP 3 (2012-2017). Furthermore, PEI Mali has helped to develop a methodological guide for the greening of development policies in Mali. The guide is an educational tool that explains the process of policy greening in sequential steps. In addition, during the review of the PRSP 2 and the development of the new PRSP 3 , PEI Mali helped identifying and training national experts called "Ambassadors and Champions" from different agencies including the Planning and Statistic Units, Ministry departments, institutes of education and research, and non-governmental organizations, which in turn assisted with the development of the PRSP 3.
• Identification in 2008 of priority intervention sites with particular critical poverty-environment linkages in Mali. As a follow-up, an assessment was conducted in 2009 in 12 districts located in three critically vulnerable areas which served to identity small-scale poverty-environment community projects.
• In 2009, two key studies were finalized and findings widely advocated and disseminated; a pilot integrated ecosystem assessment of the Mopti region and an economic assessment.
• The pilot ecosystem assessment highlighted root causes of environmental degradation in Mali and findings were widely advocated. The study was complemented by comprehensive capacity-building training for key national stakeholders to increase ecosystem assessment skills, held in cooperation with UNEP-WCMC. Throughout 2011, additional workshops and trainings on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment approach were conducted for key local stakeholders from three regions (Kayes, Sikasso, Mopti) to increase technical capacities to ensure a successful implementation of the PRSP greening phase.
• An economic assessment reviewing the monetary costs of environmental degradation and related costs of remediation for Mali highlighted the benefits of investing in sustainable natural resources use and environmental management. In addition, advocacy material showcasing the main findings for key economic sector studies was published.
• In 2009, key national stakeholders participated in a leadership training in Dakar, Senegal. The training aimed at promoting champions at country level in support of PEI activities in Mali.
• In 2009, a set of poverty-environment indicators was developed to improve the national poverty monitoring system (Observatoire du Développement Humain Durable), complemented by a training workshop on poverty-environment indicators for government technical staff in July 2009. The new set of poverty-environment indicators fed the review of CSLP indicators in 2011.
• In 2010, a data base management system was developed. The data management system is arranged in 12 main environmental themes and a web page allows easy access to data users and data providers.
• In 2010, a study of Sustainable Production and Consumption Patterns (SCP) patterns was completed, conducted jointly with UNEP-DTIE. The study carried out a cross-cutting analysis of institutional and governance requirements for successful mainstreaming of SCP into policies and strategies in Mali. As follow-up, in 2011, PEI Mali held three training workshops on mainstreaming SPC and poverty-environment linkages for members of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council and the High Council of Local Authorities in their role as strategic advisors to the Government and for University authorities as trainers and teachers of present and future decision makers.
• Two regional study visits to learn from PRSP greening processes organized. Selected key Malian decision-makers visited Benin in March 2009 to learn from Benin's experience with greening its PRSP. As a result, the Malian delegation committed to adopt the SEA approach for their own PRSP greening exercise. In October 2011, director level representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation, Ministry of Economy and Finance and other planning bodies visited Ghana to study the country's approach how Poverty and Environment mainstreaming has been institutionalized in planning, budget and monitoring processes at national and sector level.
• PEI Mali conducted two Strategic Environmental Assessment studies on agriculture and health (April and May 2011). The studies generated useful new data and have been complemented with capacity-building training sessions for more than 50 key national government officials in charge of sector policies.
• Several awareness activities targeting key national decision-makers were conducted. For example, PEI Mali provided in-depth technical support on development indicators for a UNDP regional symposium on Human Development and the MDGs (November 2010). In 2011, PEI Mali published six short reports summarizing key economic arguments aimed to increase mainstreaming capacities of decision makers for their respective sectors.
• In 2011, a communication strategy in support of poverty-environment mainstreaming was developed. The strategy identifies key actors, targets and messages, including a strong emphasis on media activities.
• In 2010/2011, PEI Mali provided comprehensive support and capacity building on green accounting methodologies and environmental fiscal reform measures through training workshops to key national stakeholders, including the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

 Main achievements 

• PEI took a leading role in the design of the overall greening process for the forthcoming PRSP, which was adopted by the Government. PEI also helped developing national expertise for policy greening exercise. The case of the PRSPIII greening process is a real showcase in this regard. PRSP groups have been technically covered 80% by national experts assisted by an ad'hoc international advisory group that PEI Africa put in place to gather international experience and knowledge in favor of the process.
• Finalization of a data base management system remains a key achievement, which will enhance environmental monitoring at country level. The list of indicators identified will be regularly updated, owing to the flexibility of the system.
• Better involvement of government officials from the Economic and Finance sectors, who came to understand that PEI objectives are in line with their core mandate of promoting pro-poor economic growth at the national level.
• Close working relationship between UNDP Environment and Poverty units is now a daily reality, enabling UNDP to mainstream poverty-environment links in their work programme and strategies.
• The development of a national network of champions/ambassadors committed to promote poverty-environment activities and objectives is another element of progress. In 2011, 45 government 'champions' have been very active in various poverty-environment initiatives.

Lessons learned

• Experience from the 3rd PRSP greening process has shown that working with planning and finance ministries is key to have poverty-environment linkages incorporated in planning, budgeting processes.
• The use of an international advisory group is key for PRSP greening processes as it provides vital advice.
• Given the crosscutting character of poverty-environment linkages, government coordination is needed to achieve mainstreaming results. The use of champions from various ministry departments is key.
• Unavailability of poverty-environment data for monitoring progress is a challenge that needs to be adequately faced.
• Qualitative studies of natural resources are useful in many ways, either for generating key data, or improving decision making processes at national level.Institutionalization of tools, of mainly economic instruments is vital for national ownership and the future of PEI.
• Exchange visits are a good motivation to show that it can be done.
• Twining international consultants with national consultants/institutions enhances national capacity and ownership at national level.

Way forward

• Strengthening the poverty component of the programme with focus on gender issues.
• Strengthening of the environmental accounting tool in support to development processes in Mali
• Developing further economic instruments.
• Providing technical support to UNDAF processes in Mali.
• Involvement of parliament, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in PEI activities to improve lawmaking processes, environmental governance and environmental diplomacy.
• Evaluation of the PRSPIII greening process and improving PRSP M & E arrangements.