Mali

AGSP/Mali At a Glance:

• Program Start Date: November 2005
• Academic Focus: Primary School
• Academic Year Start: October
• Number of Local partners: 3
• Number of Scholarships to Date: 22,033 (Girls: 21,375 Boys: 658)
• Number of Schools: 109
• Number of Mentors: 259
• Geographic Focus: Gao, Kidal, Timbuktu

AGSP local partners in Mali are Aide à l'Enfant du Désert et du Sahel (AEDS, in Kidal), Association Malienne pour la Survie au Sahel (AMSS, in Timbuktu), and Sahel Etudes Actions pour le Développement (SEAD, in Gao). The AGSP schools were selected as those which were implicated in the AQEE program, the other education program that World Education manages in Mali and which includes the three AGSP regions in the North. All girls in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades in those schools were selected to receive scholarships.

There are 259 mentors in Mali. Through their General Assemblies, every school chooses resource people who are educated and respected by the community. The mentors work closely with the school directors, teachers and the mothers associations (AMEs) to help monitor and supervise study groups at home and raise awareness about decreasing girls' domestic work. They also help coordinate role model visits. AMEs in Mali play a very important role in the organization and implementation of mentoring activities.

The Mali NGOs helped communities organize regional girls' education days at which they raise awareness about the importance of girls' education, gender equity, and health and hygiene. The communities have also actively monitored the girls at home and in school throughout the year. They have also participated in sensitization sessions on girls' education and HIV/AIDS as well. SEAD reported that in Gao, the local radio stations have begun transmitting messages about the importance of girls' education.

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Basic Information

• School year calendar: October – July
• The target areas of assistance are Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal
• AGSP coordinator Bibata Dicko makes monthly visits to all three regions.
• World Education has relationships with three local non–governmental organizations: SEAD in Gao, AMSS for in Timbuktu, and AEDS in Kidal.
• Funding level Year 4 in dollars: $827,867

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Program Overview

In Year 1 of the program, the AGSP in Mali was funded by USAID/Mali and managed by World Education in Mali, through its Improved Quality of Education in Mali program. The AGSP provided 5,000 scholarships to girls in primary schools in Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal through NGOs SEAD, AMSS and AEDS respectively.

In Year 2, although the program was integrated into the regional AGSP program with funding from USAID/Washington, World Education and USAID wanted to maintain consistency with the prior year and therefore used the same selection process. The 4th and 5th grade scholars from Year 1 were selected to receive scholarships again and new 4th grade girls in the target schools were chosen as well. However, AGSP targeted additional girls in Year 2. Because the projected number of girls surpassed the number currently enrolled in schools that are located in both AGSP and AQEE target zones, it was necessary to identify additional schools. Our NGO partners worked closely with the Ministry of Education, specifically representatives from the Centre d'Amination Pédagogique (CAP), to identify schools most in need in the three regions. Specifically, they chose schools that have easy access, have classes at least through 4th grade, have a weak enrollment rate and have weak results.

In Year 3, implementing partners again increased the number of beneficiaries and served 7,570 girls. The scholarships are comprised of school fees, school supplies, books, uniforms, a backpack, a hurricane lamp, and shoes.

This year (year 4), with the addition of boys, a total of 6,907scholarships were distributed to girls and 658 to boys. There are 264 mentors in Mali. Through their General Assemblies, every school chooses resource people who are educated and respected by the community. The mentors work closely with the school directors, teachers and the mothers associations (AMEs) to help monitor and supervise study groups at home and raise awareness about decreasing girls' domestic work. They also help coordinate role model visits. AMEs in Mali play a very important role in the organization and implementation of mentoring activities.

Scholars are selected through a transparent process which increases accountability and inclusiveness. In Year 1, AGSP schools were selected as those which were implicated in the AQEE program, the other education program that World Education manages in Mali and which includes the three AGSP regions in the North. All girls in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades in those schools were selected to receive scholarships in Year 1.

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Exemplary Practices

AMSS Practice: Mothers' Associations as Traditional Leadership

During the first year of AGSP–Mali (2004–05), AMSS established Mothers' Associations (AMEs) with the support of Ms. Bibata Dicko, World Education, Inc. Country Consultant for Mali. The AMEs have become central to the management of AGSP scholarships as these community–based organizations are comprised of mothers of primary school children and scholars.

• The mission of AMEs is to provide girls' access and retention to school, and to ensure their academic success while also privileging mothers' knowledge and involvement in the educational process.
• AMEs promote mothers' activities, ensure equal educational opportunity between girls and boys, advocate for the improvement of girls' living conditions and their school success, and assist girls who drop out of primary school before middle school.
• AMEs coordinate each step of the program in collaboration with NGO fieldworkers who provide support and guidance. They organize and document General Assemblies (GA) at the community level to identify the needs of scholars and also participate in drafting the scholarship budget for their schools within the funding limits set by AMSS. AME mothers are entrusted by AMSS with the scholarship funds in the form of a check to pay vendors upon delivery of scholarship items. AMEs help verify item quality as well as organize the official scholarship distribution ceremony.
• In 2004–2005, AMSS trained the mothers in good governance, financial management, ability to effectively lobby and do advocacy work, income–generating activities, and HIV/AIDS literacy (basic and advanced). All of the trainings were held at the community level in the villages.
• The idea of creating Mothers' Associations for local education management in the area of Timbuktu is a first. This innovation is based on the realization that despite the PTA's (Parent Teachers' Association) efforts, school attendance rates for girls remained low. The AME is based on traditional women's groups that exist in almost all villages in Mali. These traditional groups are respected and well known by the whole community, including village authorities, youth organizations and other traditional groups. The formalization of the AME aims to strengthen and enrich the current community role of traditional women's organizations with a focus on education, based on the assumption that mothers are the primary and most influential actors in retaining girls at school.

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