A path shared for 27 years - IFAD

“I can’t believe my eyes! Those were my first words when I arrived in Niafunké
early in 2007, over 15 years after my first visits. In the early 1990s, I was
working in the Diré area about 85 km from Niafunké. We had been told to get
supplies at Niafunké but there was practically nothing to buy there. The town
looked abandoned and the whole region was dying. In 2007, I saw a thriving,
bustling town that had many shops with all sorts of
“Most of the families who’d left the goods; women selling a wide range of staple foods,
vegetables and prepared dishes in the weekly
zone had returned and there was a
market; solid buildings and tree-lined streets.
steady flow of newcomers attracted People told me the change had begun in the
by the flourishing local economy.” late-1980s, when the IFAD project arrived to help
local farmers clear the channels linking their lakes
to the river and build water works to regulate water flows. Farmers started
growing enough to eat and many even had some to sell. Women as well as
men had new sources of income – more cash to spend – and tradespeople
came to set up businesses in the town. Trade with other parts of Mali had
increased thanks to a new road and ferry link. Most of the families who
had left the zone had returned and there was a steady flow of newcomers
attracted by the flourishing local economy. The change was amazing.“
Bakary Sékou Coulibaly, Coordinator, Cell for policy dialogue on rural poverty,
in charge of monitoring IFAD projects in Mali
“The project’s economic development actions were financed by two IFAD loans
for rehabilitating croplands around the temporary lakes created each year by the
flood cycle of the River Niger. The second loan was associated with a grant
for social development from the Joint Programme. The grant was to help
build a network of basic social services (primary health centres, schools,
safe water, latrines) managed by local committees. This called for a strong
emphasis on training and capacity-building. The grant also financed smallscale
irrigation using diesel pumps. Implementation of the grant-financed
activities fell badly behind schedule, mainly because the project staff were
specialized in agriculture not social services development. We completed
the full programme thanks to our partnership with national and local
institutions. Our very positive results motivated the cofinancing, by
IFAD and the Joint Programme, of two other projects in North Mali.”
Périn Saint Ange, IFAD Country Portfolio Manager for Mali, 2000-2005
“Everything in that region was difficult: the isolation, the remoteness,
the weather and the mentalities. People were too preoccupied with just
surviving to think about the long-term aims we were promoting. The
project changed all that. A huge increase in agricultural production was
associated with a huge change in mentalities.”
Abdel Kader Djénépo, project staff, Zone Lacustre Development Project (PDZL) and
Northern Regions Investment and Rural Development Project (PIDRN)
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Screenshots from the video on the
Zone Lacustre Development Project, Mali
(see attached DVD).