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This document presents the Systematic
Country Diagnosis (SCD) for Mali. The SCD was prepared
following a consultative process within and outside the
World Bank. It identifies constraints and opportunities for
achieving the twin goals of ending poverty and improving
shared prosperity by 2030 while acknowledging (i) the need
for selectivity in pro-poor interventions, and (ii) the many
competing ‘binding’ reasons for poverty in Mali. The
objectives of the twin goals are similar for Mali as the
incidence of dollar-a-day poverty exceeds 40 percent of the
population. Selectivity means the identification of
principal opportunities for poverty reduction in the next 15
years, as well as the identification of binding constraints
to reaping such opportunities. In the search for
selectivity, there is the risk of not identifying the
correct set of opportunities and constraints. However, the
risk of not being selective would probably have more serious
implications as it could lead the government and its
development partners to disperse their resources and
attention too thinly over too many competing priorities.
Selectivity also implies making trade-offs between immediate
and longer term objectives. In this document priority is
given to the identification of poverty reduction
opportunities which could deliver results before 2030, while
acknowledging that efforts should not undermine the
prospects for poverty reduction and shared prosperity beyond
2030. In this regard, particular attention is paid to
environmental and fiscal sustainability.