Mali

The political and security context in Mali was challenging throughout 2022. In January, following the decision of the transitional authorities to extend the duration of the political transition, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed economic sanctions on Mali. The sanctions were lifted in July after the adoption of a new electoral calendar which provides for the holding of presidential elections in February 2024. The security situation in the country remained complex and volatile, especially in the three border areas of the Liptako-Gourma region.

Integrated response

Despite these challenges, UNDP continued the implementation of its rule of law and conflict prevention programme, the “Programme of support for the stabilization of Mali by strengthening the rule of law” (PROSMED). The programme will run until 2025, within the framework of the UN Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP), in partnership with UN Women and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA).

PROSMED links its support to security and justice sectors with conflict prevention, the fight against corruption and prevention of violent extremism (PVE). In 2022, the programme expanded its interventions to several areas in the South and is now present in 11 out of 20 regions of Mali. A second perception study designed to assess the impact of the programme confirmed PROSMED’s positive impact since inception in 2020. People’s trust in the security forces increased by 13 percent, the levels of satisfaction with the services provided by the security and justice actors increased by 40 percent and 5 percent respectively, and the number of people perceiving the same actors as prone to corruption decreased by 30 percent.

Innovation

In 2022, PROSMED invested more efforts in strengthening the accountability of security and justice actors. The capacity and efficiency of the Ministry of Justice inspectorate were improved through the development of a digital inspection reporting tool and through support to conduct five missions to inspect courts and prisons. To improve accessibility of security and justice actors, PROSMED initiated the securing, rehabilitation and/or construction of 23 security and 13 justice premises. These infrastructures will be finalized in 2023, allowing the deployment of new security and justice personnel. Two new police stations were already inaugurated and 80 police officers deployed in 2022.

Human rights

In addition, more than 1,000 security and justice actors (30 percent women) deployed in the areas targeted by the programme received training improving the efficiency of the criminal chain. These trainings focused on several themes that were identified during the needs assessments carried out in 2020-2021, such as investigation planning, legal proceedings, respect for human rights and ethics (for security actors), management of jurisdictions, statistics, judicial registry, human rights in detention, and accountability (for justice actors).

In order to restore the population's trust in security actors, the programme continued supporting the establishment of a community policing approach and the functioning of 22 security advisory committees. These committees, chaired by mayors, serve as a dialogue framework between communities and security forces to ensure that security responses are based on community needs. In 2022, in partnership with the security advisory committees, PROSMED supported 75 awareness-raising and confidence-building activities between communities and security forces and the installation of 475 solar streetlights in six areas of Central Mali to improve streetlighting and mitigate security risks.

PROSMED supported the development of an anti-corruption national strategy that was finalized in December 2022, and the operationalization of the new national anti-corruption court. A civil society network was established to monitor trials with a focus on corruption cases and human rights violations. A mobile application and a web-platform were developed to enable reporting of corruption cases and human rights violations. In 2022, more than 500 such reports were received and transferred to relevant judicial and inspectorate services.

Finally, PROSMED strengthened the effectiveness and inclusiveness of traditional conflict management mechanisms. In Central Mali, where the presence of formal security and justice actors is limited, these mechanisms play a crucial role. With PROSMED’s support, 174 additional land commissions were established (in total, 509 land commissions have been established by the programme) to manage land disputes. Over 4,200 formal and informal actors involved in land management were trained and almost 950,000 community members were sensitized on conflict prevention and the functioning of land commissions. Since their establishment in 2021, these commissions settled at least 120 conflicts and contributed to the increase in women's access to land by 12 percent.

In 2023, UNDP, in partnership with MINUSMA and UN Women, will continue implementing the PROSMED programme. Once the new security and justice premises are ready, with new security and justice personnel deployed, the programme will expand its activities to improve people’s access to justice.