the challenges facing landlocked developing countries: a case study ...

Mali’s domestic transport system, consisting largely of the road network, is considered to be
relatively poor, even by the standards of the region, resulting in inflated transport costs. 24 Its
road density of 0.01 km of road/km 2 remains one of the lowest in Western Africa and is the
lowest amongst all landlocked countries. Moreover, maintenance backlogs and insufficient
resources continue to contribute to further deterioration. Internal delays in transport are
acutely felt in Mali as the economy is agriculturally based. Perishables such as mangoes,
tomatoes, and oranges can often spoil as a result of excessive delays. A recent World Bank
(2002) study estimates that US$7-8m is needed annually for road maintenance. This is
approximately US$3m more than the current expenditure of US$4.6 million a year.
Rail
Mali’s most important rail corridor from Bamako to Dakar is in poor condition. As is
common in the region, recent deteriorations in the rail system have shifted trade towards the
road network: from 1993-1999 the market share of the railway fell by nearly 50%. Both the
rails and the rolling stock are old, and maintenance is inadequate. (Evlo 1995). The
governments of Mali and Senegal, however, have made recent attempts to improve the
efficiency and commercialize the rail system, including an agreement to transfer the rail
services to a private operator.
Ports/Waterways
Mali trades primarily through the ports of Dakar and Abidjan, which are both in good
physical condition. As in the case of Burkina Faso, due to the low trade volume, Mali does
not fully utilize its exclusive port facilities (both warehousing and other physical capabilities)
at Dakar or Abidjan (Evlo 1995). However, for the small amount of trade that does use the
port, there are some complaints about the cargo handling and stowage services at Dakar.
Before the current crisis in Cote d’Ivoire, most of Burkina Faso’s exports left from the port
of Abidjan, since it is geographically closer to the center of Mali’s cotton production, while
most imports entered from Dakar which is considered to have less cumbersome import
customs procedures.
River transport in Mali is minimal since it is highly dependent on the level of rains and
limited to only a few months of the year.
POLITICAL RELATIONS
The primary problems facing Malian transit trade are the ongoing political crises and civil
wars of its neighbors. Each of Mali’s coastal neighbors has been engaged in some form of
violent civil conflict in the last decade, often making transport routes unusable: Togo was
devastated by violent political protests and deep internal conflict in the early 1990s; Algeria
was involved in a macabre civil war for much of the decade; Ghana suffered from significant
ethnic violence in 1993-1994; Sierra Leone’s ten year civil war has just recently come to a
tenuous settlement; Guinea has been stricken by a series of coups and rebel wars; and Liberia
has spent most of the last decade in violent civil wars which have threatened to spillover into
neighboring countries, thus jeopardizing regional stability even further.
24 The World Bank (2002) estimates that transport costs account for 20-30% of the total cost for Mali’s most
essential products.
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