Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2014
This article offers a political economy perspective on the Malian crisis with a focus on aid and donor practices. The argument is two-fold. On the one hand, aid consolidated a regime that grew increasingly discredited, so that aid and donors – voluntarily or otherwise – contributed to create the pre-2012 context of fragility. On the other hand, this structural gap has created a state of affairs that provided some impulse and support to putschists and insurgent groups. It explores four channels through which this has happened in practice. External funding agencies have sponsored what was perceived as President Amadou Toumani Touré's ‘mismanagement’ of the situation in the north and the degradation of governance. In addition, donors exerted weak control over policies and ignored signals of growing popular dissatisfaction with ATT. Finally, when they tried to put pressure on governments, donors chose highly controversial issues and have enacted unpopular conditionalities, which have had destabilising effects.
The fieldwork missions carried out in Bamako in June and September 2013 were funded by the Universidad de los Andes. The French embassy to Mali also provided funding as part of their support to a collective research project dealing with the elections in Mali in 2013. I thank Bruce Whitehouse and my colleagues at the Department of Political Science for their comments on an earlier version of this text, and am solely responsible for remaining errors.
Maurice Adevah-Poeuf, President of the Agence française d'Appui aux Collectivités, 27.11.2007.
Technical advisor, Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances, République du Mali, 02.3.2007, 26.3.2008, 17.6.2013, 21.3.2014.
Technical assistant (France), Ministre de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, République du Mali, 11.11.2007.
Economist, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Technical Unit, 1.4.2008.
Issaka Bagayogo, Professor of Anthropology, Université de Bamako, 06.11.2007.
Main economist, Unit coordinator and Head of the Human and Sustainable Development Unit, technical assistants Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Technical Unit, 2.4.2007, 15.3.2007, 17.6.2013, 21.3.2014.
Head and coordinator of the Rural Development Unit, Agence française de Développement in Mali, 24.11.2007, 29.11.2007, 18.3.2013.
Head of Cooperation, Head of delegation, first secretary for Institutions and rural development, coordinator of development economics, coordinator of decentralisation programmes, coordinator of budget support, health and education, Delegation of the European Commission in Mali, 3.4.2007, 5.12.2007, 8.4.2008, 9.4.2008.
Vérificateur, Bureau du Vérificateur Général du Mali, 13.11.2007.
French Ambassador, Adjunct counsellor for Cooperation, 13.4.2007 et 8.11.2007, 22.3.2008, 15.6.2013.
Representation of the IMF in Mali, 25.11.2007, 25.3.2008.
Technical assistant Technique (European Union), Programme ADERE-Nord (développement régional du Nord Mali), 20.11.2007, 12.4.2008 and by email.
Direction of International Cooperation, Canadian embassy to Mali, 18.12.2007, 14.6.2013.
Secretary of Education, Secretary of health, Dutch embassy to Mali, 5.12.2007, 6.12.2007, 11.6.2013, 23.3.2014.
Senior economist Senior, Department of Human Development for the Africa region, 13.11.2007.
Representation of the World Bank in Mali, 13.3.2007, 13.11.2007.
Presidential advisor, Republic of Mali, 4.4.2007.
Technical assistant (France), Budget division, République du Mali, 10.11.2007.
Main advisor and coordinator of Pacte (decentralisation project), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), 14.12.2007, 2.4.2014.
Technical assistant (European Union), Commissariat au Développement Institutionnel, République du Mali, 30.10.2007.
Paul Elisabeth, technical assistant (Coopération technique belge) at the Cellule de Planification et de Statistiques, Health ministry, République du Mali, 1.10.2007, 8.4.2008 and by email.
Budget Division, Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances, République du Mali, 6.3.2007.
Ag Dalla Ousmane, researcher at the University Jean Monnet in Saint-Etienne, former regional coordinator of the European project ADERE-Nord in Gao, 4.5.2013.
André Marty, French cooperation expert, 10.5.2012.
Cooperation division, Spanish embassy to Mali, 20.6.2013, 25.4.2014.
German embassy to Mali, 22.6.2013.
Donor technical pool, 20·6. 2013.
Babin Pascal, agriculture engineer, researcher at the Institut de Recherches et d'Applications des Méthodes de Développement and former counsellor on cotton for the Dutch cooperation agency (SNV), 15/07/2010.
Delpeuch Claire, doctoral student at the Groupe d'Economie Mondiale, Sciences Po, 15/02/2010.
Samuel Boris, doctoral student at Sciences-Po/CERI, 8.4.2008 and by email.
Dr Vallée Olivier, economist and international consultant, 23.11.2009.
Raffinot Marc, economist, Université Paris-Dauphine, 4.4.2009.
Roy Alexis, doctoral student at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Afrique noire, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 4.2.2010.
Texier Pierre, industrial director, adjunct director, Compagnie française de Développement des Textiles, 10.8.2010.