SOME NEW MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES IN MALI, BUT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAMAKO 000226

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM ECON EAID ETRD EINT EAGR EFIN PINR
ML
SUBJECT: SOME NEW MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES IN MALI, BUT
LITTLE CHANGE

REF: BAMAKO 00199

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1.(SBU) Summary: President Amadou Toumani Toure sacked both
Ministers of Education, altered the portfolios of five other
Ministers, and created two sub-cabinet level directors with
the rank of Minister during a minor cabinet reshuffle on
April 9. The Ministers of Higher and Basic Education fell
victim to their own lethargy and incompetence coupled with
rising public frustration with Mali's increasingly
dysfunctional education sector. One of the sub-cabinet level
posts created is charged with overseeing the Office du Niger,
and will therefore impact the Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC) and other donors with programs in Mali's
major agricultural zone. The overall party composition of
President Toure's cabinet remained unchanged as other shifts
seemed more the product of internal bureaucratic decisions
than political calculations in advance of Mali's April 26
local elections. In recent weeks Bamako - or, at least, its
opposition media - has been filled with speculation about the
impending replacement of Prime Minister Modibo Sidibe
following the failure of his highly touted "Rice Initiative."
The new cabinet changes, however, may have actually
fortified Sidibe's standing within the government, and the
only Rice Initiative victim appeared to be Minister of
Agriculture Tiemoko Sangare who is now Minister of
Environment. End summary.

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Two New Education Ministers
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2.(SBU) President Toure implemented a minor Ministerial
reshuffle on April 9, replacing both Ministers of Education
and reassigning a handful of other current Ministers to new
portfolios. The President also created two new institutions
of Ministerial rank - one to oversee the national budget
process and a second to manage the Office du Niger, which is
Mali's primary agricultural region.

3.(SBU) Mali's new Minister of Higher Education and
Scientific Research is University of Bamako Rector Siby
Ginette Bellegarde. She replaces former Minister Amadou
Toure, who was generally perceived as observing the collapse
of Mali's higher education sector from the sidelines. Having
served as the Director of the University of Bamako since
2004, Minister Bellegarde is an education specialist who is
widely respected by university professors and Ministry
technocrats. With a university system plagued by crumbling
infrastructure, overcrowding, a dearth of qualified teachers,
few educational materials, corruption, and chronic student
and teacher strikes, the challenges facing Minister
Bellegarde are substantial.

4.(SBU) The new Minister of Basic Education, Literacy and
National Languages is Salikou Sanogo. Like Bellegarde,
Minister Sanogo is also an education professional. Sanogo
recently chaired Mali's National Forum on Education, which
essentially served as a stocktaking of Mali's flailing
education sector. Sanogo's leadership during this Forum was
commended by President Toure and Prime Minister Sidibe as
well as by participants from Mali's education institutions.
Sanogo has held a number of senior level education related
posts.

5.(SBU) Sanogo replaces former Minister of Basic Education,
Sidibe Aminata Diallo, whose curious political trajectory
began in 2007 when Diallo was transformed from a little known
economics professor into Mali's first female presidential
candidate. Diallo also emerged as the president of political
micro-party, the Rally for Education and Sustainable
Development (REDD). During her tenure as Basic Education
Minister Diallo was roundly criticized for failing to fully
comprehend her portfolios and being out of touch with
educational realities in Mali. Although Sanogo belongs to
Mali's second largest political party, the Union for the
Republic and Democracy (URD),his selection seems to be based
not on his allegiance to the URD - which already has two
cabinet Ministers - but on his ability to re-energize basic
education in Mali.

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Portfolio Shuffles
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6.(SBU) President Toure tinkered with the composition of
three other Ministries, creating one new Ministry and
assigning what appear to be two Ministers to one pre-existing
Ministry. Mali's economy and finance portfolios are now once
again housed within a single Ministry - the Ministry of

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Economy and Finance. President Toure had split these
portfolios into two separate Ministries - the Economy,
Industry, and Commerce Ministry led by Minister Ahmadou
Abdoulaye Diallo, and the Ministry of Finance led by Minister
Abu-bakar Traore - following his re-election in 2007. Mali's
new Minister of Economy and Finance is Sanoussi Toure,
another technocrat who was formerly Prime Minister Modibo
Sidibe's Cabinet Director. Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo is now
Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce. His colleague
Abu-bakar Traore is now Minister of Mines, a new Ministry
created by splitting up what was previously the Ministry of
Energy, Mines and Water Resources and is now just the
Ministry of Energy and Water.

7.(SBU) The cabinet reshuffle also created a new position,
that of Delegate Minister of Economy and Finance for
budgetary issues within the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The Delegate Minister of Economy and Finance is another
technocrat, Lassine Bouare, who formerly served as the
Director of Mali's social security administration. The new
Delegate Minister falls under the Minister of Economy and
Finance, though, as a member of the Cabinet, he also answers
directly to the Prime Minister.

8.(SBU) Two other Ministers exchanged portfolios, with
Agathane ag Alassane moving from Environment to Agriculture
and Tiemoko Sangare going the other way, from Agriculture to
Environment. This switch may be attributable to the
high-profile failure of Mali's Rice Initiative, which was
managed by the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture
(reftel). Sangare is a senior member of Mali's largest
political party, the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA) -
a position which may have also figured into President Toure's
cabinet reshuffle calculations. Ag Alassane is an
agricultural development specialist by training.

9.(SBU) The Agriculture Ministry's work load may be
lightened somewhat by the concurrent decision to create a
State Secretary charged with the Integrated Development of
the Office du Niger. This position reports to the Prime
Minister and will be filled by former Segou Governor Abou
Sow. The MCC and other donors with agricultural projects in
the Office du Niger zone will presumably now coordinate their
activities with State Secretary Sow.

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Comment: Technical Changes
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10.(SBU) Apart from the changes at the top of Mali's two
education Ministries, other shifts appear largely technical
in nature - a result that is not much of surprise given that
local elections are scheduled for later this month and
sweeping Ministerial changes could have altered in
unpredictable ways an electoral landscape that is generally
favorable for President Toure. Several local newspapers have
observed that instead of weakening or removing Prime Minister
Sidibe, as many local journalists predicted, the reshuffle
has added several loyal Sidibe allies to President Toure's
cabinet. This includes Sidibe's former Cabinet Director and
longtime friend, Minister of Economy and Finance Sanoussi
Toure; and two other allegedly close allies, Minister
Delegate Lassine Bouare and State Secretary Abou Sow. Prime
Minister Sidibe's ties to former Finance Minister Abu-bakar
Traore may have also helped Traore retain his place in the
cabinet, as Mali's new Minister of Mines. With gold
accounting for an estimated 70 percent of Mali's exports and
perhaps as much as 15 percent of Mali's gross domestic
product, Traore appears to have landed on his feet - perhaps
thanks to Sidibe's influence - while leaving the two
portfolios that were previously attached to Mali's mining
sector to a greatly diminished Ministry of Energy and Water.
MILOVANOVIC