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Feed the Future Mali Sugu Yiriwa

A man arranges goods at a booth with a

Hamadoun Sogoba, president of the young producers' cooperative of Tombouctou, preparing his stand at the national cereal exchange in Segou. Photo credit: CARE Mali / Sugu Yiriwa

Hamadoun Sogoba, president of the young producers' cooperative of Tombouctou, preparing his stand at the national cereal exchange in Segou. Photo credit: CARE Mali / Sugu Yiriwa

Markets

Feed the Future Mali Sugu Yiriwa (Sugu Yiriwa), or “prosperous market,” is a program working in 80 communities to strengthen agricultural market systems in the Mali Niger River delta.

Background

Sugu Yiriwa is a part of Feed the Future, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative and is led by CARE, in partnership with AMASSA Afrique Verte and AMPRODE Sahel. The program puts leadership and ownership in the hands of local organizations that will continue the work after the program’s scheduled close in January 2026. Those organizations include:

Activity area:

Map showing where Sugu Yiriwa operates in Mali

Sugu Yiriwa objectives

  • Promote inclusive and sustainable agricultural-led growth
  • Increase resilience of people and communities
  • Improve nutrition, especially among women, adolescent girls, and children

Goals

  • Improve delivery of quality products and services to producers and micro, small, and medium enterprises
  • Increase income availability without reducing household ability to farm
  • Increase the availability, access, and sales of nutrient-dense food products

 

Feed the Future Mali Sugu Yiriwa is promoting inclusive market system development which focuses on:

Building the capacity and resilience of local systems.
Leveraging the incentives and resources of the private sector.
Ensuring the beneficial inclusion of the very poor.
Stimulating change and innovation that continues to grow beyond the life of the project.

Sugu Yiriwa’s approach

Sugu Yiriwa achieves its objectives through:

  • Coalition-building
  • Collaboration with government-led agencies to develop advocacy agenda
  • Collaboration with the private sector to address market constraints
  • Building the capacity of women and youth groups

Building networks

A graphic showing that building networks of Sugu Yiriwa are comprised of Marketing events, B2B workshops, Digital platforms, and Promoting crop insurance among farming communities.

Coalitions are composed of market actors and service providers including producers, suppliers, cooperatives, traders and processors, researchers, and government. They are useful forums for discussing challenges and solutions, identifying common opportunities, sharing knowledge and evidence, building business networks, and advocating for policies and regulations. They also serve as critical market information hubs, including digital platforms. To enhance sustainability, coalition leadership is selected from active members and members and meetings/activities are self-funded.

Lassine Touré, President of the Kouin Cooperative, in his field in Djenné (Mopti). Photo credit: CARE Mali / Sugu Yiriwa.
Working session between the Multi-Actor Platforms (MSP) of Mopti and Sugu Yiriwa. Photo credit: CARE Mali / Sugu Yiriwa.

Achievements to date

Since its launch in January 2021, Sugu Yiriwa has helped more than 140,214 vulnerable small-scale producers, agro-distributors, and equipment suppliers. About half of the participants are women.

They have gained access to inclusive and sustainable market opportunites and real time, reliable information on market dynamics via two digital platforms: SIMAGRI, an online marketplace where users can purchase goods and learn about market trends; and M-Agri, a suite of services to improve income, agricultural productivity, and strengthen the Malian supply chain.

The program also helped them learn modern and simplified management practices for their businesses. These participants include 24% of young people aged 15 to 29 and 76% aged over 30.

 

Highlighted Resources

Sugu Yiriwa FY24 Impact Brief

In Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2024), Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa directly reached 146,156 market actors (55.17% women). FtF Sugu Yiriwa contributed to the increased access of 25,763 small-scale farmers and market actors (52% women) to productive economic resources.

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Image box on Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

Designed based on the gender survey commissioned by Sugu Yiriwa in 2022 and information gathered directly from direct beneficiaries, this image box aims to motivate and help development professionals to integrate a gender perspective into the development of agroforestry value chains by proposing practical approaches for each key theme. It is a dynamic, visual teaching tool for high-impact awareness-raising.

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Guides for using clay pot coolers evaporating cooling for fruit and vegetables storage

Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa, funded by USAID, commissioned a baseline study of market gardening groups in Djenné and Bandiagara, which revealed their need for training in innovative technologies for appropriate cooling, storage, and preservation of fruit and vegetables in the project areas.

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Sugu Yiriwa: Multi-Stakeholder Platforms Learning Brief

This learning brief explores Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) as a potential solution to sustainably address existing organizational and institutional challenges in agro-sylvopastoral value chains in the delta area (Mopti-Tombouctou). The brief highlights how these platforms are increasingly at the forefront of all marketing events to foster sustainable markets linkages between different value chain actors, negotiate contracts, and access financial services to create inclusive and profitable market opportunities for small-scale farmers and businesses.

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Sugu Yiriwa Learning Brief on Multi-Stakeholder Platforms: a sustainable solution for creating inclusive, competitive, and profitable market opportunities

In 2021, Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa, together with the regional technical services and market actors set up two Multi-Stakeholder Platforms – one in Mopti and one in Tombouctou, with approximately 67 members (including 38 women) each. In addition, in 2023, Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa supported the creation of a local branch, called the Local Unions of Market Actors (ULAM), which function under the umbrella of the Multi-Stakeholder Platforms, with approximately 33 members (including 11 women) each. The learning brief explores how these platforms are increasingly more at the forefront of all marketing trade events to foster sustainable market linkages between different value chain actors, negotiate contracts, and access financial services to create inclusive and profitable market opportunities for small-scale farmers and businesses.

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Sugu Yiriwa: Mid-Term Evaluation

Prepared by Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, this document summarizes the results of the mid-term evaluation report for the Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa Delta Zone Activity. It assesses the quality of the activity's implementation, achievements and results, and identifies areas for improvement for the remaining project period.

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Failing Forward podcast: "Transforming Lives Amidst Growing Security Challenges in Mali"

The complex nature of Mali’s political situation poses significant challenges to program implementation and participant outreach. In this episode of the Failing Forward podcast, Laurore Antoine, Chief of Party for Sugu Yiriwa, shared valuable insights into how adaptive leadership, collaboration with local grassroots organizations, and strategic use of digital solutions, among other adaptive management approaches, have been instrumental in achieving program goals and positively impacting lives in Mali.

Listen to the episode

Factsheet: Feed the Future Mali Sugu Yiriwa

Feed the Future (FTF) Mali Sugu Yiriwa, ‘prosperous market’ in English, is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded five-year activity aimed at strengthening agricultural market systems in the Delta Zone through market-driven, inclusive, nutrition-sensitive, and agriculture-driven economic growth. Since its inception and design, the Activity has always aimed to put leadership and ownership in the hands of local actors that will carry forward the work after the Activity’s close in January 2026.

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Factsheet: SIMAGRI

Through the SIMAGRI platform, Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa is using digital technology to strengthen the resilience of farming and trading communities in remote areas of the Mali delta zone.

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Rural women’s entrepreneurship contributes to the fight against child malnutrition in the Delta zone of Mali

As part of the "Enriched Products" social safety net, USAID Feed the Future Mali's Sugu Yiriwa activity is transforming agri-food processing units into autonomous service providers. The activity buys enriched flour directly from these women. This approach not only meets vital needs, but also boosts women's entrepreneurship in very remote areas of Mali.

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Rapid market assessment report for social transfer operations

This report presents the results of the rapid market assessment study carried out in Sugu Yiriwa's intervention circles (Mopti and Tombouctou). Initiated within the framework of social transfer operations for the purchase of agricultural inputs and nutritious local products, the aim of the study was to make a rapid diagnosis of the input and processed food product markets, with a view to identifying trends and drawing up an appropriate intervention strategy.

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Responding to institutional tenders: A sustainable resilience strategy for small organizations in the delta

Faced with the insecurity and the high cost of living, which have a considerable impact on the activities of these small organizations, Sugu Yiriwa's training and support on calls for tender enable market actors to carry out substantial transactions, increase their income and provide for their families on a sustainable basis.

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Sugu Yiriwa provides electronic fund transfer to small-scale producers and households in Mali

Faced with insecurity and the high cost of living, which have a considerable impact on the activities of small organizations, Sugu Yiriwa's training and support in institutional tendering enables market actors to carry out substantial transactions, increase their income and provide for their families in a sustainable manner.

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Guidelines: Workshops for B2B Market Actors

This guideline is a reference document designed by Sugu Yiriwa to explain the key stages to organize a workshop for B2B market actors.

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Guidelines: Grain Exchanges

This guideline is a reference document designed by Sugu Yiriwa to explain the key stages to organize a grain exchanges fair.

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Guidelines: Promotional livestock sales

This guideline is a reference document designed by Sugu Yiriwa to explain the key stages to organize a promotional livestock sale.

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Guidelines: Agricultural and trade fair

This guideline is a reference document designed by Sugu Yiriwa to explain the key stages to organize an agricultural and trade fair.

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Sugu Yiriwa Impact Brief: FY 2023

In fiscal year 2023, Sugu Yiriwa directly reached more than 63,000 market actors, and contributed to the increased access of almost 2,000 small-scale farmers and market actors to productive economic resources.

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Sugu Yiriwa Crop Insurance Learning Brief

Sugu Yiriwa supported OKO/SUNU to promote crop insurance services among the farming communities across three circles and 24 villages of the Mopti region. These efforts have resulted in enrolling almost 450 farmers (including more than 150 women) and covering more than 387 hectares of land.

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Highlighted Videos

Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa Overview (French)

The program aims to strengthen the resilience of farming and trading communities in the Mopti and Tombouctou regions.

Watch Video

Feed the Future Sugu Yiriwa's learning and experience-sharing event (French)

Event participants exchanged experiences and shared lessons learned in order to enhance community resilience.

Watch Video

Tombouctou Regional Cereal Exchange (French)

The exchange offered a space for networking and marketing and attracted 250 participants from across the region.

Watch Video

Partners

CARE

USAID

Feed the Future

AMASSA Afrique Verte

AMPRODE Sahel

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