About URC

URC is a globally recognized, international development organization committed to building and sustaining resilient health systems by working with partners to implement science-driven, scalable solutions tailored to local needs in complex and often volatile environments. Through strong security oversight and flexible programming, URC enables work in an insecure environment while keeping staff, partners, and community members as safe as possible.

URC: Delivering Health Care Needs Amid Violence in Mali

For URC people working with USAID in Mali, the acronyms CVE and PVE have very real, often very personal definitions that guide how project goals and objectives are delivered under dangerous working and living conditions.

URC leads USAID’s 5-year program, “Keneya Nieta,” directly supporting the agency’s CVE/PVE strategy by connecting vulnerable communities to critical services, such as healthcare. Working in 4,000 villages across the regions of Mopti, Segou, and Sikasso, URC is bolstering delivery of health care for women and children through community health platforms, reaching more than 7 million people with critical health care in 2023. This was achieved without loss of life.

More than 140 villages are considered non-secure and at higher risk due to the presence of hostile armed groups, creating serious security issues that include:

• Violence from armed groups that have attacked, kidnapped, and threatened residents of Keneya Nieta intervention villages; some community members have been displaced.
• Terrorist groups threatened local leaders, causing them to deny URC access to their villages.
• Ongoing military operations.

Safety of URC people is a priority. Daily and weekly safety updates are distributed. A local incident response team at the regional and Bamako offices conducts additional due diligence/analysis and determines if project activities can be resumed in the incident area. URC’s Home Office has a strong security team that provides oversight and guidance and is linked to the US Embassy Regional Security Officer at the Mali Mission.

Last year, the project suspended staff movement in some villages of Djenne and Sofara after villagers were attacked and threatened by terrorist groups. URC staff witnessed a gun fight between terrorists and a local militia group, taking shelter by hiding in a villager’s home.

Despite these challenges, URC continues to make substantial progress in Mali:

• Increased financial management and health care planning through village solidarity funds ($US800,000), that covered 90 percent of operating villages to insure 21, 567 pregnant women and 132,258 children could access needed services.
• Helped implement emergency transport mechanisms in 80% of the 4,000 target villages.
• Reached 357,517 people through family planning outreach, boasting a remarkable 93% recruitment rate for family planning services.
• Contributed 123,000,000 CFA francs (USD$175,000) to bolster health campaigns, benefiting over 2.78 million children under 5 years and mobilizing nearly 2 million people through collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Development.
• Organized malnutrition screening sessions targeting children aged 6-59 months, with 729,778 children screened and 64,499 identified as malnourished. Through diligent monitoring, an impressive 99.72% received treatment and recovered.
• Coached village Health Solidarity Committees to raise US$314,000 from the diaspora and the private sector.