On the 14th of June 2021, the UN peacekeeping force in Mali (MINUSMA) launched a programme in Kidal to prevent the radicalisation of young people. The region is at risk of livelihood degradation worsened by climate change phenomena like drought and volatile rainfall patterns impacting traditional livelihood methods like herding and farming. This fraught situation has caused conflict between groups over increasingly scarce resources and fuelled recruitment for the jihadist insurgency in the north of the country.
In order to provide young people with jobs and integrate them into the socio-economic fabric of society, MINUSMA funded a 30-day vocational training course on the installation and maintenance of solar infrastructure like solar pumps and lighting kits for 30 at risk young people. This will also create jobs for another 52 people in the local communities. Local companies have announced their willingness to take some of them on already and all participants will be provided with kits to launch their own activities after graduating the course.
“The funding of such a project will allow the creation of jobs for young people and the availability of qualified human resources in the Kidal region, and at the same time, to reduce the risks of the enlistment of young people in armed groups or other illegal organizations” – Ag Ahmed-Ahmed, local implementing partner
To lower the risk of unemployed young people in the area turning to violence out of dissatisfaction, the scheme also increases the level of technical expertise in the area with potential wider knock-on effects for the local economy. Given that only 25% of the rural areas in Mali have access to electricity, a figure which falls to 2% in the conflict-afflicted regions in the north, the programme aims to add an injection to the economic and social security of the region, further securing livelihoods from radicalisation and the effects of climate change.
Access our compilation of climate security practices here
The project page is here (in French)