Mali, Sustainable Development through improved Local Governance

SDLG Mali aims for local authorities to be able to address drivers of conflict in a nonviolent and inclusive manner. Specific objectives are:

1. More inclusive, responsive and accountable local governance with regards to water management and land administration
2. More effective and inclusive leadership of local governments and their associations;
3. More empowered societal groups.
4. Improved coordination of intergovernmental policies on conflict prevention and management.

Approach

The programme partners with four intercommunal frameworks who work together to address conflicts related to natural resource management in the regions of Sikasso, Bougouni and Koulikoro. The approach is based on a bottom-up participative and inclusive process. That means that objectives, support and activities are tailored to each intercollectivité, but they all focus on inclusive governance and conflict prevention mechanisms to maximise intercollectivités as a real tool in Mali to promote peaceful and inclusive societies through natural resource management.

Results

With each of the four intercommunal frameworks, SDLG has developed capacity enhancement plans which are tailored to each intercommunal framework’s needs and objectives. A Training of Trainer approach created a pool of trainers in each region to roll-out trainings on inclusive governance and conflict management. A first result from the workshops on the capacity enhancement plans and the trainings has been that bringing together these local authorities and different stakeholders allowed for conflict situations to be identified, ignite dialogue and to work on common solutions.