EU Cooperation with Mali: food security projects in Ouéléssébougou, 40 kms South of Bamako, Mali

Farms in the area of Ouélessébougou, 40 kilometers South of Bamako, are located in Sikasso, region that has become the breadbasket of Mali, thanks to the hardworking population but also to the support of international donors such as the EU.
Having food security as a top priority; the EU finance a €15 million resilience programme operated by the UN World Food Programme.
It consists of transferring resources to the most vulnerable population in exchange of ots participation in the restoration of community assets. Examples of this activities are the framing the millet fields with rocks to preserve the land’s erosion, organising communal gardens to crop vegetables and of supporting the introduction of high nutritive value crops such as Moringa de Maroco, a tree nicknamed the tree of life, because of its high nutritive value.
After 2012’s drought, local communities of the area of Ouélessébougou have taken part to EU-sponsored cash for work and food for work programmes which have led to the resumption of agriculture activities.
Since 2005, the European Commission, which puts resilience at the heart of its work on fighting hunger and poverty, has launched a series of food security reinforcement programmes in Mali for more than €100 million.