Mali is one of the ten poorest countries in the whole world.  Thirty-six million people die each year in Mali because they do not have enough food to eat.  This is not just a problem in Mali or in Africa for that matter.  Severe hunger affects 850 million people around the world.  The problem in Mali is not that the people do not have enough food available to them but they are so poor that they can not even afford to grow or buy the needed amounts of food.  As a usual daily struggle for the women in Mali, they have to provide their families with adequate food supply.  Malian organizations are working on pulling women, children, and all people out of poverty and provide long term food security. 
           

Agriculture plays a very important role in the living standards and conditions; along with what and how often Malian people eat.  The climate also affects the circumstances.  Heavy droughts have had a heavy input on Mali's livestock and agriculture progress.  Clean water is also very insufficient which threatens the conditions of malaria and other serious diseases.  Clean water access could improve farming, health conditions, child care and activities.

Poverty is Mali is widespread.  Sixty-four percent of people live below the poverty line.  Seventy percent are illiterate (which is the highest rate in Africa) and many children under the age of three, about twenty five percent, suffer from malnutrition. Mali’s health display is one of the worst in the world.  “…Only 36% of the population are within 5km of a health service, and only 8% have access to modern sanitary facilities…” (Mali Fact File).  Many different and separate cases of poverty have been found and one main cause of poverty in rural area is natural disasters.  With a frail ecosystem, little or no infrastructure, low education levels, and a heavy dependence on outside assistance.

                 HIV/AIDS is relatively low compared to the rest of the African continent; however most infected areas are in the urban cities but has been spreading to rural districts along side of migration, as well as the disease being brought in by outside adjacent countries.  

As population growth continues to rise, Mali’s poverty problem also remains. 

Sources: CIA World Factbook- http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ml.html
               Mali Fact File. Http://www.iss.co.za/AF/profiles/Mali/mali]html