Mali - IOM and Mali’s Ministry of Solidarity, Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in the North have signed an agreement to formalize the handover of IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) programme to the government.

Following the 2012 crisis in Mali and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, IOM started the programme in close collaboration with the government. It was designed to provide up-to-date information on movements of internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees, as well as on the needs of people affected by the conflict.

At its peak in June 2013, the DTM registered and identified 353,000 IDPs in the country. This has now fallen to 86,000, due to people returning home. A recent survey of IDP households revealed that 69 per cent would now like to return home, while 28 per cent have decided to stay in their place of displacement. Most IDP households (52 per cent) said that they need food aid.  

The DTM team is composed of 120 members of the National Directorate for Social Development (Direction Nationale du Développement Social), the General Directorate of Civil Protection (Direction Générale de la Protection Civile) and IOM, who are deployed in all regions of Mali.

The DTM assessments include the registration of IDPs in the south, location assessments for IDPs and returnees in the north, return intention surveys, and needs assessments in areas of return. In addition, flow monitoring points in Bamako, Mopti, Gao and Timbuktu track IDP movements throughout the country and identify the most vulnerable people. 

The handover of the DTM programme consists of transferring the data collection process and analysis to the National Directorate for Social Development, together with the DTM equipment.  The programme received support from USAID, ECHO, the Government of Japan and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

For more information, please contact

Stéphanie Daviot

IOM Mali

Tel: + 223 90 50 00 09

Email:  sdaviot@iom.int