Driving Progress in Community-Based Care: Mali’s Community Health System Reaches New Level of Maturity

Mali’s community-based essential care system made strong gains in 2025, reaching a higher level of maturity driven by nationwide progress in supervision, planning, and the professionalization of community health workers. These advances reflect concrete system-wide improvements in how primary care is delivered and supported across the country.

Participants in the evaluation workshop in Koulikoro.

The national community health system now records a maturity score of 3 out of 4, up from 2 in 2024. This shift reflects significant strengthening in core system functions and an increased capacity to deliver and sustain community-based care at scale.

Key Drivers of System Progress

The improvement in system maturity is driven by three main areas of progress:

• Scaling supervision systems: Supervision for community health workers is now fully deployed across all regions, reaching a score of 4 out of 4. This reflects a functional national system providing consistent support, oversight, and quality assurance at the frontline of care.

• Advancing in planning systems: Planning processes have become more structured and operational, reaching a score of 3 out of 4. New tools and coordination mechanisms are improving alignment and execution across all levels of the health system.

• Professionalization and accreditation of CHWs: Standardized accreditation tools have been rolled out across multiple regions, strengthening harmonization of community health worker practices. This component also reached a score of 3 out of 4.

Together, these advances demonstrate meaningful system-level progress and increased capacity to deliver timely, high-quality care.

Muso’s Contribution to System Strengthening

Muso has played a key role in driving this progress. In partnership with the Government of Mali and other stakeholders, our team has contributed across all these aforementioned key areas reflected in the 2025 evaluation.

While significant progress has been made, the assessment also highlights areas requiring continued attention. Financing, security, and system resilience remain comparatively weaker components, with scores between 1 and 2, underscoring the need for sustained investment to consolidate and extend gains.

These results reflect a system in motion that is becoming more coordinated, more professional, and increasingly capable of delivering timely, high-quality care at scale. Muso remains committed to supporting rapid, community-based care and strengthening the systems that enable community health workers to save lives where they are needed most.