Seeking sustainable legitimacy: Existential challenges for Mali

Abstract

After 20 years of relative social peace, Mali again faces fundamental challenges. Beyond the need to reestablish security and an administrative presence in the north, the Malian state also needs to establish political legitimacy and moral authority in representing the country’s diverse communities. Notwithstanding the country’s two decades of democratization supported by international donor-partners, sustainable livelihoods and meaningful citizenship elude many Malians. Mali is a secular, multi-ethnic, and democratic state marked by its social divisions (e.g. regional, urban–rural, and identity-based). Sustainable political legitimacy rests on the sensitive and sensible engagement of state agencies, non-state actors, and donor-partners with the existing social regulations, livelihoods, and identities of Mali’s communities.