Mali Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Mali snapshot
Appeal highlights
- Mali is experiencing a multidimensional crisis that is driven by conflict, sociopolitical instability, climate change and the impact of the war in Ukraine. Around 12.9 million people are affected. Of these, 7.5 million people – one in three Malians – need humanitarian assistance. Grave violations of children’s rights continue, while displacement remains a major concern with 422,620 people internally displaced.
- UNICEF will implement an integrated, coordinated and gender-sensitive response that contributes to building peaceful and inclusive communities while strengthening the linkages between humanitarian action, development and peace. Interventions are designed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and communities.
- In 2023, UNICEF is requesting US$114.8 million to reach 2.9 million people in Mali, including 2.5 million children, with critical humanitarian assistance. Sectors requiring the most funding are nutrition, child protection, education and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
Key planned results for 2023
200,000 children vaccinated against measles
206,700 children with severe wasting admitted for treatment
372,700 children/caregivers accessing community-based mental health and psychosocial support
482,000 people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
Funding requirements for 2023
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
Mali is facing multiple crises: insecurity in the central and northern parts of the country that has strong subnational ramifications (especially in the Liptako Gourma region); intercommunal conflicts; sociopolitical instability; adverse weather events linked to climate change; the protracted effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; and the impact of the war in Ukraine. Altogether, 12.9 million people in Mali are affected. The 2022 rainy season was marked by heavy rains in several localities, causing crop losses, the disruption of agricultural livelihoods and the destruction of productive assets. The humanitarian situation has deteriorated, and 7.5 million people need assistance, including 3.9 million women, 5.1 million children and 1.1 million people with disabilities. As a result of ongoing attacks against civilians, the number of people who are internally displaced has steadily increased and now totals 422,620 people (54 per cent women and 63 per cent children). Hostilities often result in grave violations of child rights, including killing and maiming and recruitment and use by armed groups. There is a high risk of gender-based violence. Throughout the country, 1.6 million children need protection. Attacks and threats on education infrastructure, initially limited to the central and northern regions, have now expanded to the southern part of the country, affecting 1,766 schools, 500,000 children and 10,000 teachers in insecure regions. In the northern and central regions, more than 96 per cent of internally displaced people live in areas where access to water is below the national average. Mali has one of the highest mortality rates due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa.
Global acute malnutrition prevalence exceeds 10 per cent in several areas; more than 275,700 children under 5 years of age are suffering from severe wasting; and food insecurity affects 3.6 million people. The country faces recurrent disease outbreaks, including measles and polio. In Mali, 4.4 million people need access to basic health services. Increasing constraints on humanitarian access are a major concern, especially in areas lacking essential social services and infrastructure.
Mali ranks 186 out of 191 countries on the Human Development Index, and 49.7 per cent of households live below the income poverty line. Gender inequalities also impact the realization of child rights and hinder access to essential services. The political situation in Mali remains unstable, with changes of power observed in 2020 and 2021, and this instability could undermine the government's ability to provide essential social services, and also cause delays in the humanitarian response.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF will focus on strengthening the linkages between humanitarian action, development and social cohesion to build inclusive and resilient communities and systems. UNICEF will emphasize community engagement, risk communication and the participation of women and girls; scale up accountability to affected populations; expand gender-, youth- and disability-responsive programming; and strengthen the principle of ‘do no harm’.
UNICEF will provide technical assistance to authorities to strengthen emergency preparedness and response system at the national and sub-national levels.
UNICEF will build on its comparative advantage in localization to foster linkages with national social protection systems by ensuring a child-sensitive approach and strengthening of coordination and governance systems. Financial support will facilitate families‘ access to goods and services that meet the basic needs of children, in line with Grand Bargain commitments.
UNICEF will lead the WASH, education and nutrition clusters and the child protection area of responsibility to ensure an integrated and coordinated response while strengthening conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive and child-centered policies and local development plans.
Through an integrated package of services, UNICEF will address both acute and chronic malnutrition through early detection of wasting and provision of quality nutrition care to severely wasted children. To reduce malnutrition in the long-term, UNICEF’s response aims to increase the proportion of infants aged 0-5 months who are exclusively breastfed to 46 per cent and the proportion of children aged 6-23 months who are receiving the minimum dietary diversity to 24 per cent (by 2025).
UNICEF will continue to support national immunization campaigns, outbreak response and essential maternal, neonatal and child health services. Systems strengthening will include the provision of equipment, medicines and commodities. Infection prevention and control interventions will be implemented in communities and facilities, and crisis-affected people will gain access to safe water and adequate sanitation.
UNICEF and partners will undertake activities for gender-based violence risk mitigation and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse in all sectors. Children experiencing psychosocial distress, children released from armed groups, unaccompanied and separated children, and survivors of gender-based violence will be reached with services including mental health and psychosocial support, family reunification and socioeconomic reintegration. Strengthening the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on grave violations of child rights will enhance evidence-based advocacy and response.
The most vulnerable children will gain access to quality education, in protective, safe and clean learning environment, including through conflict and disaster risk reduction and alternative education activities.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Mali; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
