section_path: Demographics/Health
section_name: Health
paragraph_text: Health
  
  Mali faces numerous health challenges related to poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 63.2 years in 2024. In 2000, 62–65% of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69% to sanitation services of some kind. In 2001, the general government expenditures on health totaled about US$4 per capita at an average exchange rate.
  
  Efforts have been made to improve nutrition, and reduce associated health problems, by encouraging women to make nutritious versions of local recipes. For example, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Aga Khan Foundation, trained women's groups to make equinut, a healthy and nutritional version of the traditional recipe di-dèguè (comprising peanut paste, honey and millet or rice flour). The aim was to boost nutrition and livelihoods by producing a product that women could make and sell, and which would be accepted by the local community because of its local heritage.
  
  Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, and medicines are in short supply. Malaria and other arthropod -borne diseases are prevalent in Mali, as are a number of infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. Mali's population also suffers from a high rate of child malnutrition and a low rate of immunization. An estimated 1.9% of the adult and children population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS that year, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 85%–91% of Mali's girls and women have had female genital mutilation (2006 and 2001 data).
  
  In 2024, approximately 7.1 million people in Mali, including over 3.8 million children, require urgent humanitarian assistance due to escalating conflict and climate crises. UNICEF is amplifying its efforts to provide essential services like health, education, and protection, while appealing for $133.5 million to address these needs. The situation is dire, with over 522,000 children lacking access to education and millions at risk of malnutrition amid underfunded humanitarian responses. Urgent action is needed to mitigate the impacts of violence, insecurity and climate change on vulnerable populations in Mali.