Country Spotlight: Mali Achievements 2021

2021 Achievements | Better assessing Education in Emergencies needs through strong assessment and analysis in Mali

In Mali, sustainable access to education is prevented by a severe humanitarian and security crisis, combining the effects of conflict and recurring flooding. Non-State armed groups have been occupying the country since 2012, causing a drop in school enrollment rates and an increase in school closings due to insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic (from 1,344 schools closed in December 2020 to 1,664 schools in August 2021),¹ a situation affecting around 500,00 children.² As the last comprehensive education needs assessment in Mali was completed in 2013, the Education Cluster was faced with information gaps for strategy development and fundraising.  

In response, the Global Education Cluster utilized its diverse portfolio of core support made available through ECW funding to strengthen needs assessment and data collection support, including development of an indicator for education needs: the number of closed or non-functioning schools.³ The GEC supported the Cluster with People in Need (PiN) calculation through a series of webinars and reviewing the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) produced by the country cluster team. GEC’s global partner REACH, present in country, supported with the Joint Education Needs Assessment methodology and analysis which was used for 2022 planning. Primary data collection, hampered in certain regions due to access challenges, has taken place in most targeted areas thanks to REACH and Cluster partners. The Secondary Data Review was also completed, and the published report is available on Mali Education Cluster’s Humanitarian Response page. Finally, the Education Cannot Wait Multi-Year Resilience Programme for 2021-2023 is underway, with a focus on Gender and Protection.