SAA-Mali organized its Annual Stakeholders’ Workshop from Feb 28 to March 1, 2023, under the theme "Entrepreneurship in agricultural value chains: opportunities, challenges and prospects in the context of Mali".   About 60 agricultural value chain actors and partners from the government, private sector, research and educational institutions as well as NGOs attended the forum.

The objective of the forum was to create a space for reflection, discussion and sharing experiences and ideas on the challenges and prospects of agriculture, food and nutrition security in Mali. The meeting has also provided the opportunity to create synergy and enhance partnerships for the effective implementation of SAA activities planned for 2023, thereby  to improve  food and nutrition security, as well as increase the incomes of smallholder farmers in Mali and developing resilient sustainable food systems.

The 2023 is the mid-year in the implementation of SAA’s current strategy, the need for the organization to reflect on achievements and lessons learned was underlined. Various presentations were presented on Reminder on SAA's 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, including main achievements of Regenerative Agriculture (RA),  Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA),  Market Oriented Agriculture (MOA), Capacity Building (CB) and ISSD Sahel Project. Partners also made valuable contributions during the group work and panels.  The participants were divided into 3 groups with the following instructions:

• Analysing what SAA is already doing in each of the 3 pillars (Regenerative Agriculture, Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture, Market Oriented Agriculture) of its 2021-2025 strategy,
• What other techniques/practices, approaches, and methodologies do you think allow us to consider to have more impact?
• What past or current experiences have you had that you could suggest to inspire us to learn, broaden our scope of thinking, and build partnerships? Etc.

PANEL sub-theme 1: APEJ (Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment) and FIER (Vocational training, integration and support for entrepreneurship of rural youth)This sub-theme is dedicated to “Agricultural Entrepreneurship: Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects for Youth, Women, and People with Specific Needs”

The 2nd PANEL sub-theme 2: CNRS(National Center for Scientific Research), CNOP(National Coordination of Farmers' Organizations of Mali) and DNA presentationsThis sub-theme is devoted to “Roles of ICTs in agricultural entrepreneurship: opportunities, challenges and perspectives”.

At the end of the 2-day workshop, the Country Director, Dr. Hamado Tapsoba noted that the workshop served as a forum for SAA partners to deepen their understanding of and discuss SAA's interventions in Mali. He also appreciated the participants, especially the DNA (Direction Nationale de l'Agriculture) for their constant support and commitment.