Though many donors have begun to invest in strengthening the rule of law in Mali since the 2012 (political) crisis, a common, sector-wide strategy to reform the justice and security sector is still lacking. The authors have not found evidence of results or changes in the functioning of (parts of)  the justice sector in the course of the development of this paper.

Most programs are in their first year of implementation. Such programs should benefit from the lessons learned of more than 15 years judicial reform in Mali. This discussion note builds on those lessons learned, reminds of some general programming virtues and offers policy recommendations for more effective rule of law programming in Mali. It presents these in five key areas of recommended action.

This discussion note was input for a discussion on rule of law programming in Mali, held on 2 November 2015.