This report analyzes the sectoral, policy, legal, and institutional barriers to expanding access to credit and index insurance in the livestock sub-sector in Mali. 

Based on interviews within the sector, this report identifies the key risks and constraints involved in extending and repaying credit and providing index insurance in the livestock sector in Mali today. The report identifies existing or potential partnerships between financial, livestock sector, and insurance stakeholders that might be used as a basis for designing and piloting one or more programs to increase access to finance for producers in the livestock sector as well as one or more insurance products addressing key risks and constraints for producers and insurance providers.

The report covers findings and recommendations by category of stakeholders: commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, loan guarantee providers, producers of livestock and by-products, and existing providers of index insurance and reinsurance in Mali. In developing recommendations, the team also took into consideration general lessons learned in trying to extend access to finance and/or index insurance for small producers in Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Kenya under the USAID-funded Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab assessments or project evaluations involving index insurance.