Multi-energy for Resilience and Integrated Territorial Management Project

The project goal is to contribute to improved food and nutritional security, poverty reduction and strengthened resilience, including climate resilience, for poor rural people in southern Mali. The development objective is sustainable improvement in access to renewable energy and soil productivity.

MERIT will strengthen the climate resilience of ecosystems by promoting low-emission energy sources. It will benefit more than 42,000 households, or some 420,000 indirect beneficiaries in the project area, of whom at least 50 per cent women and 30 per cent young people.

The ASAP/PAPAM project area was located in six cercles [the cercle is the second-level administrative unit in Mali] in the southern part of the Kayes and Sikasso regions. Under MERIT, interventions will be expanded within these regions and will also include the Koulikoro and Ségou regions.

MERIT targets smallholder women, men and young people (crop and livestock farmers, and agro-pastoralists), who are considered the group most vulnerable to climate change. The targeting approach will combine the criteria of vulnerability to climate change at the local level and the eligibility criteria (number of animals, access to water) selected for ASAP/PAPAM to identify beneficiaries of biodigesters. For the installation of biodigesters, the project will target vulnerable households, beginning with large households or family clusters.