National poverty reduction strategies have reduced the proportion of the country’s poor people from 68.3 per cent in 2001 to 59.2 per cent in 2005. Still, Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 175th out of 177 countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s 2006 Human Development Index.
Three forms of poverty affect people in Mali:
- poverty of living conditions, defined as inadequate access to water, education, health care and housing
- monetary poverty, characterized by a lack of assets and income
- poverty of potential, characterized by scant access to land, equipment, credit and employment
More than 73 per cent of the country’s rural people live below the poverty line. Poverty is widespread in rural Mali, but it does not affect all poor people in the same way. Over the past decade trends have shown a shift in the geographical distribution of poverty.
