Education in Crisis: Schools in Mali as Arenas for Conflict and Peace

In 2022, in partnership with UNICEF, Search for Common Ground conducted landscape and conflict analyses of Gao, Mopti, and Timbuktu to ascertain the state of education in Mali. These scans demonstrated that education in Mali is severely threatened, especially by conflict, and that communities lack adequate resources or strategies to mitigate or prevent education losses. Drawing from the findings of these scans, this brief asserts that improving education in the country requires conflict-sensitive approaches that integrate reflections from the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding sectors. Targeting schools as sites for both conflict and peace will enable more meaningful improvements in the education landscape in Mali.