VZCZCXRO9574
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0226/01 1041647
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141647Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0228
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MCC WASHINGTON DC 0124

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 
 
BAMAKO 00000226  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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. 
 
--------------------------- 
Two New Education Ministers 
--------------------------- 
 
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. 
 
------------------ 
Portfolio Shuffles 
------------------ 
 
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 
 
BAMAKO 00000226  002 OF 002 
 
 
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. 
 
-------------------------- 
Comment: Technical Changes 
-------------------------- 
 
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