Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD) — Mali

SWEDD is a multi-country initiative financed by the World Bank (IDA) with technical support from UNFPA and the West African Health Organisation (WAHO). Mali was one of the original five countries when the project was approved in December 2014 and launched in November 2015, remaining active today through successive additional financings and the SWEDD+ phase.

In Mali, activities are concentrated in Kayes, Koulikoro and Sikasso and combine girls' 'safe spaces', school-retention support, deployment of rural midwives, and community husbands'/future-husbands' clubs aimed at shifting norms around child marriage and household decision-making.

World Bank reporting shows the girls' school drop-out rate in Mali's SWEDD project areas fell from 53% in 2016 to 2% in 2019, and women's average monthly income from project-supported economic activities rose from about US$5 in 2014 to about US$110 in 2020. Since 2019 the project has helped establish 15 private midwifery practices and distributed bicycles to 7,900 girls; one flagship midwifery practice in Banankoro delivered 4,400 curative consultations, 2,100 antenatal consultations and 700 deliveries over four years.

Not all publicised figures are Mali-specific or independently verified — several widely cited totals are regional aggregates across all SWEDD countries, and the World Bank's own implementation review flags operational gaps, including menstrual-hygiene kits for Mali schoolgirls that did not reach them in time and in insufficient quantity. Results should be read as programme-reported achievements pending independent impact evaluation.