International refugee aid and social change in northern Mali

It has long been recognised that the experience of forced migration can lead to profound
social transformations among the persons who have been displaced. Among the
multiplicity of factors engendering such change, attention must be given to the impact of
international aid and development programmes designed to benefit refugee or returnee
communities. The wider the cultural difference between the traditional lifestyle of the
beneficiaries and the approach adopted by the aid agencies, the greater the impact of
such programmes is likely to be.
This paper constitutes a case study of one such situation by focusing upon the
experience of persons forcibly displaced as a result of the armed conflict which took
place in northern Mali between 1990 and 1995. Many of the refugees involved belonged
to an ancient nomadic culture and, until their exodus, had had only sporadic contact with
the services aid agencies and modern governmental institutions are able to provide.
The findings of the article are principally based upon interviews conducted with some
200 returnees at selected sites in the Timbuktu and Kidal regions of northern Mali in the
summer of 1998. These were originally undertaken for the purpose of evaluating the
UNHCR repatriation programme (see Sperl, 1998). The article concludes with a number
of recommendations concerning the design and implementation of refugee and returnee
assistance programmes in a developmental context.