Study on sparsely populated areas, case study: Mali

Within the framework of this study on sparsely populated areas in northern Mali, which was
conducted by Groupe URD for the World Bank between October 2013 and February 2014, interviews
were carried out with more than 520 people who are representative of the socio-economic, cultural,
and political diversity in this complex area. Northern Mali is still trying to move beyond a series of
conflicts that have caused widespread suffering, internal and external displacements of people,
and reminded us how fragile yet necessary the social contract is there between the State and these
sparsely populated areas, which are often marginalised. “Sparsely populated” implies difficulties in
terms of both interactions and additional costs linked to long distances and frequent major logistics
problems. This notion is also synonymous with economic and even political marginalisation, because
all too often when the “value for money” concept is applied to these areas, it translates into “doing
anything.”