Search Climate Insights Directory

The report assesses gender dynamics and climate vulnerabilities in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Niger. It identifies a consistent gap between national gender policies and real-world implementation, noting that women are often framed as victims rather than active agents of adaptation. Key challenges include limited access to land, finance, and education, alongside high rates of gender-based violence. The document recommends institutionalizing local gender assessments, ensuring women's representation in project design, and using gender-disaggregated data to guide the LoCAL+ programme's investments in climate resilience.

The report details the southward expansion of JNIM into Mali's Kayes and Koulikoro regions, where the group has significantly increased violence and fatalities since 2021. JNIM leverages illicit activities—including zakat taxation, cattle rustling, and the control of timber logging in the Baoulé forest—to fund its operations and gain local influence. The group further exploits social cleavages, such as farmer-herder conflicts and the persistence of hereditary slavery, to recruit members and undermine state authority. While the Malian government and its Wagner partners have made gains elsewhere, security forces in the south are described as overstretched and under-resourced, with varying levels of community trust.

The report identifies Mali as highly vulnerable to environmental and climatic stresses, particularly droughts and floods, which exacerbate poverty and food insecurity. It highlights that vulnerability is shaped by regional disparities, social hierarchies, and health crises like HIV/AIDS. Environmental degradation, driven by deforestation and unsustainable agricultural expansion (especially cotton), further reduces the resilience of rural populations. The document argues for integrated strategies to reduce vulnerability, focusing on income diversification, improved water and sanitation, and targeted support for the most marginalized groups, including women and children.

The report identifies critical stresses on biodiversity, food and fibre provision, water supply, and fuel provision across Mali, linking these ecological declines to threats in human nourishment, water access, energy, and livelihoods. It highlights the southern regions of Sikasso, Mopti, and Segou as high-priority areas due to the convergence of high population density, poverty, and deteriorating ecosystem services.