The Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education approved a program implementation grant of US$41.7 million for Mali at its February 7 meeting. The grant will be implemented over a three-year period and be supervised by the World Bank.

The grant will focus on populations affected by the occupation of the north of the country by insurgent groups. The program's objectives are to improve access to basic education for children affected by the conflict in the north of Mali, mitigate the negative effect of overcrowding through improvements of the learning environment, and improve learning and primary school completion through a package of interventions, such as school feeding programs, teacher training, materials distribution, pedagogical support for teachers, and school management committee activities. The programs targets 40,000 out of school children (of whom 50% are internally displaced) in 4 of the country's 9 regions: Bamako, Koulikoro, Ségou and Mopti.

During the same meeting, the Board of Directors also approved US$13.5 million for the Global and Regional Activities program.