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Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Mali

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Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Mali May 2021 Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet Mali Dormino UN Photo/Marco Photo: RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: Mali is characterised by short-term climate variability, and is vulnerable to long-term climate change due to high exposure to the adverse effects The UN Security Council (UNSC) should task the United Nations of climate change, but also high population growth, diminished resilience Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali and multiple violent conflicts. Mali is forecast to become hotter with (MINUSMA) with incorporating climate, peace and security more erratic rainfall, impacting seasonal regularity and increasing the risks as a higher-order priority in its mandate. MINUSMA should risk of droughts and floods. Moreover, conflict, political instability and report to the UNSC on climate security, its effects on the mission weak government institutions undermine effective adaptation to climate mandate, and actions taken to address these problems. change. The UNSC should encourage MINUSMA to work with UN • Climate change may impact seasonal regularity and jeopardise Environment Programme (UNEP) to appoint an Environmental natural resource-based livelihoods. Livelihood insecurity can Security Advisor for prioritising climate, peace and security risks interact with political and economic factors to increase the risk within MINUSMA and for coordinating effective responses with of conflicts over natural resource access and use. the rest of the UN system, the Malian government, civil society, international and regional partners. The Advisor should support • Conflict, agricultural development and changing environmental capacity-building for analysis, reporting and coordinating conditions have affected migratory livestock routes, pushing responses to climate, peace and security risks – particularly in herders into areas where natural resources are under pressure the Malian government and MINUSMA divisions that regularly or shared use is not well defined. This can increase the risk of address local resource conflicts. conflict with other herders and farmers. The Malian government and its regional and international • Evolving conflict dynamics have strengthened the linkage partners should work with civil society to improve data and between local resource disputes, ethnic/religious community analysis on the impacts of climate change on peace and security conflicts and civil war. Local conflicts are becoming more violent, – especially on the differing risks for men and women, girls and complex and harder to resolve. boys, and female-headed households. It is important to improve the participation and leadership of women and girls in decision- • Weak governance and agricultural policies have created social, economic and political inequalities that feed conflicts. The making on conflict-sensitive resource management, climate same factors undermine community resilience to climate change, adaptation and responses to climate, peace and security risks. particularly among marginalised groups. The Malian government, and its bilateral and multilateral The Malian government and its regional and international partners should partners, including the G5-Sahel Force, the Economic focus conflict resolution, peacebuilding and long-term development Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African strategies on issues where the impact of climate change entails conflict Union (AU), European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN), risks: livelihood security, herder-farmer relations, resource disputes, should agree on a climate-sensitive stabilisation strategy that community conflict, governance, social marginalisation and exclusion. combines hard security with attention to critical development Malian civil society can play a role in defining conflict-sensitive responses needs, governance reforms and political dialogues to address that address local needs. The government and its partners should the drivers of conflict in Mali’s ten regions and in transboundary establish mechanisms for analysing the effects of climate change, to areas like the Liptako-Gourma – including the drivers affected improve the knowledge base for agencies and organisations working on by climate change. violent extremism and peacebuilding in Mali and enable them to fine-tune their responses. Special attention should be paid to the impacts of climate change on marginalised groups, including women. ND-GAIN Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Readiness Indexes Mali Mid-term projected ND-GAIN Country Index Human Develeopment Country ND-GAIN Global Peace temperature increase: Index: 0.43 / 1.0 (2019) The ND-GAIN Country Index captures a country's comparison Country Index score 1.2°C - 3.6°C (2060) Vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges, and its Readiness to improve resilience. Decreased seasonal regularity, Population: Yemen 34.7/100 3.4/5 vegetation regrowth & 19.7 million (2019) ND-GAIN Country Index score over time groundwater resources Burundi 34.4/100 2.5/5 Food insecure 37.5 Liberia 33.4/100 1.8/5 High rainfall variability, population: 37.0 drought & flood risk increase Zimbabwe 33.3/100 2.4/5 3.6 million (n.d.) 36.5 Niger 32.5/100 2.6/5 36.0 Agro-pastoral dependence: Global Peace Index score ca. 80 per cent (2016) 2.7 / 5 (2020) 35.5 35.0 ND-GAIN 34.5 Internally Displaced Persons: Country Index score 322,000 (2021) 34.4 34.0 34.4 / 100 (2018) 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Figure 1. Sources: Hegazi, F. et al. (2021). Climate-related Security Risks and Peacebuilding in Mali; Government of the Republic of Mali. (2016). Contribution Determinée au Niveau National; Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (2018). ND-GAIN Rankings; UNDP (2012) Human Development Report; UNHCR. (n.d.). Mali. Operations Portal: Refugee Situations; USAID. (2018). Climate Risk Profile: Mali; Vision of Humanity (2020) Global Peace Index 2020; WFP. (n.d.). Mali. 2 Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Mali Climate Exposure: Trends and Projections The effects of climate change on seasonal regularity and the incidence of 8 Climate change has differing effects on Mali’s multiple ecological zones: droughts and floods may weaken livelihood security. This can exacerbate northern desert with high temperature variability and long dry seasons, vulnerabilities, compound grievances against other groups and the central Sahelian region with seasonal flooding, and southern tropical government, and may increase the risk of violence. savannah region. Long-standing farmer-herder conflicts in Mali are directly influenced 9 Temperature: Mean annual temperature in Mali is 28.3°C, with a 0.7°C by factors including agricultural policies and local governance. There increase recorded from 1960 to 2015.1 Projections forecast an increase of is also evidence that farmer-herder conflicts are indirectly impacted by 1.2°C to 3.6°C by 2060, particularly affecting the southwest, centre and short-term climate variability and ensuing changes to the availability 10 north of the country.2 and exploitation of natural resources. Local resource disputes are also affected by broader conflict dynamics – between armed groups and the 11 Precipitation: Average annual precipitation across Mali varies over time state, and between ethnic and religious communities. Conflicts in Mali and ecological zones, from 100 mm in the north to ca. 1 700 mm in the increasingly overlap: livelihood groups are associated with specific ethnic south, with high rainfall variability leading to droughts and floods in and religious communities, increasing the risk that multiple identities exposed areas.3 Since the 1900s there has been a decrease in rainfall, converge in the conflicts between communities, armed groups and the 12 with extreme droughts in the 1970s and 1980s; but a slight recovery in government. precipitation has since boosted vegetation.4 Precipitation projections are unclear, but precipitation is expected to become more erratic.5 Climate-related Peace and Security Risks Climate change and its societal outcomes can impact peace and security. Socio-ecological Vulnerabilities Research has identified multiple pathways through which climate change Agriculture, agro-pastoralism and nomadic pastoralism are cornerstones affects political, social and environmental stresses, compounding existing 13 of the Malian economy, accounting for ca. 80 per cent of livelihoods.6 vulnerabilities and tensions. This can undermine development gains and Fertile zones provide farming, fishing and grazing opportunities for various affect the dynamics of violent conflict and fragile peace processes. In turn, livelihood groups: the Inner Niger Delta accounts for ca. 8 per cent of conflict and political instability are obstacles to climate change mitigation 14 national GDP and sustains ca. 14 per cent of the population.7 and adaptation. Four interrelated pathways illustrate the relationship between climate Precipitation Anomalies change, peace and security: livelihood deterioration, migration and Mali mobility, military and armed actors, and political and economic 15 exploitation.15 Livelihood Deterioration 10 Mali is physically exposed to adverse weather events resulting from climate change; but the effects of climate change on peace and security are mediated by social, political and economic factors.16 Ongoing conflicts 5 undermine human and physical security, social cohesion and development. Conflicts make communities, especially vulnerable groups, less able to 17 0 invest in livelihood options that build resilience to climate change. In the Liptako-Gourma
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