The cost of crisis: loss and damage from climate, conflict and socioeconomic vulnerabilities in Mali

Mali is facing a deepening crisis at the intersection of climate change, conflict and chronic development deficits. The Mopti region – one of the country’s most fragile areas – has witnessed compounding crises due to impacts of climate change and conflict, leaving communities trapped in cycles of poverty, debt and food insecurity, while also eroding social cohesion and cultural heritage.

A new working paper on loss and damage in Mali provides evidence on how these multiple stressors interact – quantifying the economic losses such as loss of crops, livestock, employment and productive assets; and non-economic losses such as psychological distress, loss of cultural identity, modern slavery, food crisis and weakened community ties.

The study systematically assesses how different household groups – non-migrants, migrants and displaced populations, experience loss and damage at varying scales.

This launch event presented key findings from the study, focusing on:

• The scale of economic and non-economic loss and damage suffered by communities in Mopti
• How climate change and conflict act as stress multipliers, leading to increased displacement and migration
• The failure of current social protection and climate finance mechanisms to address loss and damage in fragile and conflict-affected settings, and
• The urgent need for better integration of climate finance, humanitarian response, and resilience-building efforts to protect vulnerable populations.