Mali
In Mali, MOMENTUM partners with the private sector and local organizations—including those in fragile settings—to help women, children, and communities access the essential health products and services they need.
MOMENTUM is partnering with nearly 40 countries to accelerate progress and advance USAID’s work to save lives and improve health outcomes for women, children, families, and communities in all of their diversity. MOMENTUM brings together specialized technical and country expertise through six distinct yet integrated awards with the depth and breadth of experience to spur reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity.
In Mali, MOMENTUM partners with local organizations to improve essential health services for women and children, especially those with limited access to health care services due to conflict and natural disasters in the Gao and Timbuktu regions. We also partner with health systems to provide safe obstetric and gynecological surgeries. Finally, we work with private providers in the Bamako, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Sikasso, and Ségou regions to improve the coverage and quality of private health services.
Helping Malian Women Access Safe Surgeries
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics partners with a range of Malian institutions in Koulikoro and Sikasso to make childbirth safer for women. Our partners include civil society groups, faith- and community-based organizations, private sector organizations, and professional associations, such as the Société d’Anesthésie Réanimation et de Médecine d’Urgence (SARMU Mali). Together, we helped surgical teams safely offer care during the COVID-19 pandemic and we strengthen referral networks for obstetric care, including care for obstetric fistula, a serious childbirth complication that has affected seven out of every 10,000 women of reproductive age in Mali.1 We work with partners to identify women with fistula and connect them with high-quality surgical care and treatment services. We partner with local organizations to update, adopt, and disseminate evidence-based guidelines that make it safer for women to give birth and raise awareness among health district teams of the impact of delayed emergency obstetric care on mothers and babies.
Learn more about MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics’ work to end obstetric fistula and connect screening for gender-based violence with fistula care.
Increasing Access to Family Planning for All
In 2018, only 16 percent of married Malian women between the ages of 15 and 49 used a modern method of contraception.2 The Malian Government has set an ambitious goal to increase the use of modern contraceptives to 40 percent nationwide by 2030.3
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics works with health providers in Koulikoro and Sikasso—with an emphasis on providers in Mali’s rapidly growing private health sector—to help individuals and couples access the information and services they need to make voluntary and informed decisions about family planning.
As part of this effort, we help enhance private providers’ ability to insert and remove long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices, and to perform tubal ligations and vasectomies. We also help private-sector pharmacies and drug shops maintain an adequate stock of supplies for family planning and reproductive health and counsel their clients on the contraceptive methods that best fit their needs.
Reaching Every Malian Mother and Child with Essential Health Care
Mali has one of the highest maternal and child death rates in sub-Saharan Africa.4 To help address this, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience works to improve access to, quality of, and demand for essential health services for women and children at every stage of life. MOMENTUM helps create short, targeted training for health workers at frequent intervals and provides regular opportunities for clinical skills practice. We also work with local health system managers to help them administer health services more efficiently and provide proper oversight.
Nutrition, a critical component of child survival, is also part of MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience’s maternal and child health programs in Mali. We assess local health programs to determine how best to deliver nutrition services for mothers and children, including practices like monitoring child growth, offering folic acid supplements, and promoting diverse diets.
Strengthening Mali’s Routine Immunization Services
In Mali, logistical barriers and safety concerns make it difficult to reach every child with the vaccinations they need. We provide technical assistance to our partners in Mali to reduce the number of under-immunized and zero-dose children—those who have not received a single dose of the vaccines that prevent diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis—through strengthening routine immunization services.
To reach children in fragile contexts with low immunization coverage, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience is adapting the World Health Organization’s Reaching Every District/Reaching Every Child approach to build the capacity of local health systems to address common obstacles to immunization. We also work with partners to implement known effective solutions to increase vaccination coverage. These solutions include online training modules to help health workers identify missed vaccination opportunities and finding ways to integrate immunization within humanitarian efforts.
Read about MOMENTUM’s commitment to immunizing zero-dose children.
Creating a Resilient Health System
Climate change, conflict, and political and economic instability have made it difficult for some Malians to access and receive health care. In the northern regions of Gao and Timbuktu, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience partners with health system actors to prepare for and respond to these challenges. We work with individuals, households, communities, and the health system to bolster their capacities to recover from shocks and stresses that affect health. For example, we organize workshops and provide technical assistance to local governments, health facilities, and community members to create emergency preparedness action plans for health centers.
Read more about MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience’s work in northern Mali.
Improving Quality of Care in the Private Health Sector
In Mali, over 60 percent of all health visits occur at a private facility,5 and one-fifth of all family planning users get their method from a private source.6 However, quality of care, data collection and use practices, product availability, and financing opportunities vary widely across these facilities. MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery works with private facilities in the Bamako, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Ségou, and Sikasso regions to improve the coverage and quality of health services and provides tools and resources to prioritize clients’ preferences and experiences.
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics also collaborates with private partners to strengthen the use and availability of health data in Mali, especially for budgeting, planning, and monitoring quality of care.
Vaccinating Malians Against COVID-19
By March 2023, only 18 percent of Malians had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.7 MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity is working with the Malian Ministry of Health and other international and national partners to implement the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan and vaccinate more Malians against COVID-19. MOMENTUM strengthens Mali’s capacity to manage the supply chain for COVID-19 vaccines, monitors the implementation of vaccination activities, improves the availability and quality of vaccination data, and supports the national COVID-19 working group. MOMENTUM also provides logistical support for the planning and distribution of vaccines from the central level to the regional level. In Gao and Timbuktu, MOMENTUM supports COVID-19 vaccination data entry, analysis, and use, and has established a logistics group to manage vaccines and supplies.
Learn how we worked with partners and Mali’s government to vaccinate people against COVID-19.
MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (MOHSA): General Directorate of Public Health and Hygiene (DGSHP), Regional Directorate of Health (DRS) for Gao and Timbuktu; Association Malienne pour la Survie au Sahel (AMSS); Association Groupe de Reflexion pour les Initiatives de Developpement (GRIDev); Center for Study and Research on Population and Health Information (CERIPS); Bureau d’Etudes de Formation de Consultation et d’Appui Conseil (BEFCAC); Action Contre le Faim (ACF); IntraHealth; Médecins du Monde (MdM); Population Services International (PSI) Mali; Save the Children; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery: PSI Mali; JIGI, Association des Sages-Femmes du Mali (ASFM), Réseau des Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Mali (RJAM), l’Alliance du Secteur Privé pour la Promotion de la Santé au Mali (ASP-PSM)
MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity: JSI, Centre National d’Immunisation (CNI), Direction régionale de la Santé de Gao, Direction régionale de la Santé de Tombouctou, District sanitaire d’Ansongo, District sanitaire de Gao, District sanitaire de Niafunké, District sanitaire de Tombouctou
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics: IntraHealth, Société d’Anesthésie Réanimation et Médecine d’Urgence du Mali (SARMU Mali), Viamo
Interested in partnering with us or learning more about our work in Mali? Contact us here or check out our regional reference brief.
Learn more about USAID’s programs in Mali.
References
- Maheu-Giroux, Mathieu et al. 2015. “Prevalence of symptoms of vaginal fistula in 19 sub-Saharan Africa countries: a meta-analysis of national household survey data.” The Lancet Global Health 3(5): e271-e278.
- Institut National de la Statistique (INSTAT) and ICF. 2019. 2018 Mali Demographic and Health Survey Key Findings. Rockville, Maryland, USA. INSTAT and ICF.
- République du Mali. Les engagements du Mali pour la planification familiale. Ouagadougou and Washington, DC: Ouagadougou Partnership and Family Planning 2030. https://fp2030.org/sites/default/files/Mali-Commitment%201-pager.pdf
- INSTAT and CPS/SS-DS-PF. Mali Demographic and Health Survey 2018.
- Castle, Sarah, et al. Mali Private Health Sector Assessment. Bethesda, MD: Health Finance and Governance Project, Abt Associates Inc. 2017. https://www.hfgproject.org/mali-private-health-sector-assessment/.
- INSTAT and CPS/SS-DS-PF. Mali Demographic and Health Survey 2018.
- Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. “Mali.” https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/mali.
Last updated February 2024.