TESTIMONY
ON
THE IMPACT ON THE PEOPLE
AS A WHOLE
Witness: Aminata Toure Barry (MALI)
Mali is a french speaking country located in the center of west Africa. Forty times bigger than Belgium, its population is about 10.500.000 inhabitants with 52 percent women and 46% young. Its economy, mainly rural occupies 80% of the population. It is among the five poorest countries of the world. Mali is under structural adjustment since 1982. From 1982 to 1999 its external debt has been multiply per six and in September 2000 Mali was included in the HIPC initiative.
Here are some indicators:
- Part of the state budget in health : 8.24% (1996)
- Part of the state budget in education 22% in 1996
- During this same period, 54% of the budget was used to pay debt service.
The SAP (structural adjustment programs) have negatively affected all the social sectors like education health and rural development.
Education
During the
last 10 years in Mali, we did not study more than five months with one non valid
school year (1993-1994) and two facultive ones. All this is due to the movements
of pupils and teachers claiming better studying and working conditions on one
hand and the incapacity of the government to satisfy these essential needs
on the other hand. As a result, the deterioration of the quality of teaching
in Mali; the privatisation of school with the existence of three kinds of schools.
- the public schools with too many pupils in the same classroom destined to poor people. e.g: In "Doumanzana" a quarter of Bamako capital of Mali in a classroom of 24 square meters exist 150 pupils with non qualified teachers (not trained to teach).
- the communautary schools: built by the parents with teachers paid by the pupils' parents to soften the sufferings of their children. e.g: "Kanabougou" a village at 30 km far from Bamako the communaty has built three classrooms in anger because their children were walking 6 or 15 km to join a school in a neigboring village.
- the private schools: by their cost, is not accessible to poor people, so destined for rich ones. Its quality is better than the two first ones. Consequently, more than 70% of Malians can't either read or write.
Health
Like school, the health indicators are not better:
- infantile death rate in 1998: 117/1000 against 6/1000 in Belgium
- infanto-juvenile death rate (-5 years) 237/1000 againts 6/1000 in Belgium
- maternal death rate in 1996 : 577/1000 - non medical assistance during delivering 71% of women. e.g: in Goundam (Timbuctu) at 700 km far from Bamako there is only one sanitary center for 50,000 persons where some sick persons have to use donkeys to walk 200 km to see the only doctor.
The Rural Population
In Mali, the rural population is the most affected by the indebting system. To ensure the payment of debt, the Malian government encourages the growing of rent cultures (cotton) rather than the growing of cereals (millet, rice, maïze etc.)
Yearly, this situation creates a cereal shortage which leads to rural exodus famine and malnutrition. The growing of cotton, by the continuous overuse of fertilizers and other imported poisons destroys the ecosystem and overdebts farmers who are obliged to find other resources to pay back debts to local banks. e.g: in 1998, 63,8% of population was poor with 88% of this rate are rural population.
In spite of this dark board, the Malian government is obliged to continue using more and more funds to the payment of the service of a debt which is illegitimate, immoral and odious.
