High poverty rates have put health care out of reach for many Malians. Outside the capital city, Bamako, medical care can be difficult to access, as 25% of the population lives more than 15 kilometers from a community health center. Those who can reach health care establishments often find them short-staffed and undersupplied. These factors contribute to Mali’s high child and maternal mortality rates (217 out of 1,000 live births and 1,200 out of 100,000 live births, respectively)*.

IntraHealth will work to address these issues as a partner in USAID’s Improving National Capacity to Implement High Impact Health Services and Promote Healthy Behaviors in Mali Project, a continuation of the Assistance Technique Nationale (ATN) Project. Led by Abt Associates, this new initiative aims to increase the Malian Ministry of Health’s ability to deliver quality health care to mothers and children, while expanding Malians’ demand for and use of these services.  IntraHealth will work with the Government of Mali to improve their health care services with a focus on maternal health, capacity building and supportive supervision.

IntraHealth served as a partner on the earlier ATN project and is active in Mali through three other USAID initiatives: the Capacity Project, Keneya Ciwara, and Fistula Care. On the Kenya Ciwara project, recently extended through 2011, IntraHealth will work to improve health care worker performance and improve malaria services. On the global Fistula Care Project IntraHealth will lead efforts in Mali to increase awareness of obstetric fistula, available repair services, fistula prevention and the utilization of emergency obstetric care services.

*WHO, July 2008