MCI Hosts Successful Stakeholder Workshops in Mali’s Two Millennium Cities

MCI convened two stakeholder workshops in late January, in the Millennium Cities of Ségou and Bamako, Mali. City stakeholders – representatives from municipal governments, the private sector and community organizations – reviewed findings from MCI’s and the cities’ own needs assessments in public health, education, gender, transport, energy, agriculture and water/sanitation, as well as research identifying potential opportunities for investment. Their aim was to validate findings and costing models, discuss promising investment opportunities and define top development priorities.

Nearly 50 stakeholders participated in the Ségou workshop, including the Governor of the Ségou Region, Mr. Boureima Seiba, who officially launched the event, the Mayor of the Urban Commune of Ségou, Mr. Ousmane Karamoko Simage and the mayors of the surrounding rural communes. MCI Social Sector Specialist for Mali Abdoulaye Sidibé organized the workshop, ensuring that local authorities and other stakeholders had reviewed the needs assessments and were aware of their relationship to achieving the MDGs, and bringing everyone together in what proved to be a truly participatory process. MCI Social Sector Research Manager Moumié Maoulidi and MDG Center MDG specialists Amadou Konate and Helassy Sidibé were all active participants. 

The first day opened with a presentation of potential investment opportunities by former MCI Regional Investment Advisor Mamadou Diarrah, which was followed by an overview by Abdoulaye Sidibé of the MDGs and the social sector needs assessment process. Participants then divided into working groups to review the research findings, update per capita costs and identify priorities and programs to help the city attain the MDGs in each sector. On the second day, each working group summarized each sector’s primary challenges and priorities, along with the associated costs. A lively discussion resulted in general agreement that water/sanitation and public health face the most significant challenges and should therefore command the attention of the city and its partners over the next several years. Local authorities will now work together with MCI to devise an integrated urban development strategy to achieve the MDGs in each of these areas and to identify partners and programs capable of providing technical and financial support.

The Bamako workshop, also organized by Abdoulaye Sidibé, included among its participants MCI Director Susan Blaustein and MCI Regional Coordinator for West and Central Africa Abenaa Akuamoa-Boateng. Some 30 Bamako officials, impressive in their command of their respective sectors, identified education and water/sanitation as the most important areas for Mali’s capital to address, if Bamako is to attain the MDGs in these areas by the universal target date of 2015. Waste management, access to clean water, teacher training and the availability of teaching and learning materials were highlighted as priorities within each of these areas.

After both Ségou and Bamako authorities finalize their separate development strategies in the coming months, MCI has committed to assisting each city in organizing a donors’ roundtable to help mobilize funding for the strategy’s implementation. These important steps will further Segou’s and Bamako’s progress toward the attainment of the MDGs, helping to create the conditions in which sustainable urban development can really take hold.