Canada and Mali established diplomatic relations in 1972.
Canada is a significant foreign aid donor and Canadian companies have provided technical and other assistance to Mali. Canadian companies have also significantly invested in Mali's mining sector. Canada has also channeled aid indirectly to Mali via multilateral institutions including the World Bank and agencies of the United Nations, and this is estimated at $355m. (constant 2007 US $) over 1975–2007, or 5% of Mali's total multilateral aid receipts of $7.2bn. over the same period.OECD. "DAC2a ODA Disbursements", Stat Extracts, Aid type: Imputed Multilateral ODA. Date last updated April 2009. Canadian imports of cotton from Mali peaked at Cdn.$20m. in 1999, but have ceased entirely since 2005; Canada had an overall trade balance with Mali of Cdn.$22m. during the period 1990–2008.
History Formal diplomatic ties between Mali and Canada were signaled by the openings of Mali's embassy in Ottawa in 1978,L'Ambassadeur Mamadou Bandiougou Diawara, Welcome, Mali Embassy, website (Retrieved 31 July 2009) and Canada's embassy in Bamako in 1995.Government of Canada, Canada – Mali Relations, Date Modified: 6 July 2009 Mali has been a recipient of Canadian development aid since 1972, according to the Canadian embassy website. Statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development state that Canada has contributed official development assistance to Mali steadily since 1962, just three years after Mali's independence from France. Expressed in constant 2007 US dollars, Canada disbursed a net total of $936 million in bilateral aid between 1960 and 2007, making Canada responsible for 4.0% of Mali's total bilateral and multilateral aid receipts of $23.5 billion over this period, and ranking it as Mali's fifth-largest bilateral donor after France (16.5% of Mali's ODA), the Netherlands (9.4%), the United States (7.6%) and Germany (5.2%).OECD. "DAC2a ODA Disbursements", Stat Extracts, Aid type: ODA, total net. Date last updated April 2009. Only US$7.1m. of Canadian aid was in the form of loans, all being made during the 1970s; Canada's loans to Mali represented 0.41% of the total of US$1.75bn. (2007$) made by all donors.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ODA Loans, Gross disbursements, OECD.Stat, extracted on 30 July 2009 03:34 UTC. Canada has also contributed aid to Mali via multilateral institutions, which collectively were responsible for 39.8% of Malian aid receipts since 1960; for the period from 1975 to 2007, Canada provided US$355m., or 4.9% of Mali's $7.2bn. in multilateral aid.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, "ODA by Recipient by country", Stat Extracts, Type of aid: ODA (OA) Imputed Multilateral, extracted on 30 July 2009 03:34 UTC.
The Canadian International Development Agency supported two projects in Mali with Développement international Desjardins, the international development arm of the Quebec-based cooperative union, Desjardins Group. From 1997 to 2007, the Support Project for Urban Housing (Cdn.$5.0m.) sought to increase home ownership among low-income families in Bamako by guaranteeing mortgages that were financed by the Government of Mali and private players.CIDA, "Support Project for Urban Housing", Project Browser, Project Number: A019387-001 In 2000, Canada's Auditor-General cited anomalies in the administration of this project, including failure to award the partner contract via a competitive process, bureaucratic delays leading to none of the scheduled 1,400 guarantees being issued during the first year, and failure of the Government of Mali to contribute its agreed-upon share.Office of the Auditor General of Canada, "Case Study 14.1—Mali Mortgage Financing Project", 2000 October Report, Chapter 14, Date Issued: 15 November 2007 The Cdn.$7.3m. Nyèsigiso Network Support Project – Phase II (1998–2008) was aimed at poverty reduction through the provision of secure savings and credit services in the city of Ségou to clients including farmers and small entrepreneurs, 30% of whom were women.CIDA, "Nyèsigiso Network Support Project – Phase II", Project Browser, Project Number: A019386-001 CIDA, "Nyèsigiso: Mali's House of Providence", Regions and Countries, Last Updated: 14 April 2008
Mark Nathanson, a Canadian-born businessman, has been credited with the discovery a major gold deposit at Sadiola in western Mali in 1988.Gooding, Kenneth. 1996. "Sadiola – Nathanson's luckiest strike", Financial Times (London), 9 February 1996"Nathanson Centre Advisory Board", Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption, York University, Toronto, web page accessed July 2009 This find led to the development of the Toronto-based company IAMGOLD Corporation (previously AGEM), and its joint venture with Malian, South African, and World Bank partners to establish the SEMOS (Société d'Exploitation des Mines d'Or de Sadiola S. A.) consortium.IAMGOLD Corporation, Technical Report on the Sadiola Gold Mine, 31 May 2004, p.3-4 Sadiola and the nearby Yatela mine, under similar ownership, have been responsible for one-half of Mali's industrially mined gold production over the period 1996–2007.Sadiola & Yatela production: IAMGOLD Annual Reports: 1997: p.26 of 103; 1998: 8; 1999:2,13 of 91. 2000–2003 figures from: AngloGold Annual Reports 2000: 14; 2001:24; 2002:33; 2003:25. 2004–2007 figures from AngloGold Ashanti Annual Reports 2006:74–76; 2008:33,35,70,72. Mali gold production: Banque de France, Rapport annuel de la Zone franc, 2007:177, 2004:161, 2001:149, 1999:275.
While Canada-to-Mali extractive sector investment is concentrated in Toronto and Vancouver-based companies,Refer to section 5.5, "Mining". firms headquartered in the Canadian province of Quebec command investments in most other sectors.Refer to section 4.1, "Trade", "Commodities", "Services" However, the province of New Brunswick has enjoyed a unique and close relationship with Mali. In 2003, Mabo Touré, the daughter of the President of the Republic of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, completed a course of study at the University of Moncton; as of 2005, 35 students from Mali were enrolled at this institution. A three-year co-operation agreement signed in 2005 between the governments of Mali and New Brunswick was renewed for another five years in 2008,Communications New Brunswick. 2005. "Co-operation agreement renewed with Mali," 15 October 2008 and in 2008, Malian President Touré was conferred an honorary doctorate degree by the Université de Moncton.Université de Moncton, "L'U de M accordera un doctorat honorifique au président de la République du Mali", news release, 01 octobre 2008 The Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick received the distinction of "chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mali" in 2005, in recognition of its collaboration since 1991 with the Institut Universitaire de Gestion de Bamako, au Mali.Communications New Brunswick. 2005. "Le CCNB est nommé chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mali," news release, 29 September 2005,
Canada and Mali have established at least two community twinning relationships. In a reversal of humanitarian flows, the citizens of the Malian village of Sanankoroba (situated 30 km south of Bamako) raised one hundred dollars as emergency relief to benefit their sister community of Sainte-Élisabeth, Quebec, which had been affected by the North American ice storm of 1998. The Sanankoroba – Ste-Élisabeth twinning was established in 1985 via contacts with Canada World Youth and SUCO (Solidarité Union Coopération) and continues in the areas of exchange visits and technical support.CIDA, "Claude Giles helps farmers in Mali", Media Room – Canadians Making a Difference in the World, Last Updated: 14 April 2008. Accessed March 2009."Historique du jumelage entre Ste-Élisabeth et Sanankoroba" SUCO, which has been active in Mali since 1967, was contracted by CIDA in 1997–2001 and extended from 2002 to 2009 to execute similar development projects in sixty villages, as part of CIDA's long-standing theme of decentralization of Malian government services.Gosselin, Claudie; Touré, Bani. 2000. Cohérence des politiques et interventions canadiennes dans la lutte contre la pauvreté : le cas du Mali, Ottawa: North-South Institute, p. 25, 30.CIDA. "Community Mobilisation and Decentralization – Phase II", Project Browser, Last Updated: 29 August 2009 In 1999, Roméo LeBlanc was the first Governor General of Canada to make a state visit to Mali, during which he toured Sanankoroba, in the company of the Malian President. In 2008, the Canadian city of Moncton, New Brunswick partnered with the Commune of Kaladougou in southwestern Mali, with the intent of a "knowledge sharing partnership regarding communications".City of Moncton. "Moncton-Kaladougou Partnership", website, accessed August 2009
In 2004, Ralph Goodale, then Canada's minister of finance, met with parliamentarians and civil society groups in Mali,"Le ministre canadien des Finances rencontre les parlementaires et la société civile: au cœur de la gouvernance malienne", l'Essor n°15272, 23 August 2004 and in 2005, in concert with other nations in the G8 group, he agreed to cancel 100% of the debt of 18 heavily indebted low-income countries, including that of Mali.Hirano, Ko. 2005. "G-8 OKs accord on large 100% debt waiver for poor states", Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Washington: 12 June 2005. pg. 1Department of Finance. 2005. "Canada Proposes 100 Per Cent Debt Relief for World's Poorest Countries", News, Ottawa, 2 February 2005, 2005–008 About $2 billion of Mali's foreign debt was written off, such that the total government debt declined from 49% of the Malian gross domestic product in 2005 to 20% in 2006.OECD, African Economic Outlook, 2007/2008, p. 424-5 Annual external debt service payments fell from 3.1% of GDP in 1987 and 3.0% in 1997 to 1.3% in 2006.Calculated from: World Bank, Mali, Data & Statistics, "Mali at a glance", 9/24/08
Development and technical assistance