APA – Bamako (Mali) – This is the materialization of a key recommendation of the social conference organized in October 2022.
The Social Pact for Stability and Growth and its action plan were signed in Bamako on Friday 25 August. It was attended by the Malian Head of State, the Prime Minister, several members of the transitional government and other institutional representatives. The social partners were also present.
Through this Pact, the government and the social partners are committing themselves to a five-year appeasement of the social climate, a period during which the various promises should be kept.
For the transitional Prime Minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, the signing of the Social Pact for Stability and Growth is the culmination of the joint determination of the Malian transitional authorities and the social partners to establish a calm social climate.
The signing of this document is fully in line with the request for a social truce made by the President of the Transition in January 2022, a few days after the economic and financial sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States.
However, the President of the Transition has on several occasions referred to the need to establish virtuous governance in order to encourage the willingness of the social partners to move towards a truce.
According to the Malian Prime Minister, the signing of this “Social Pact for Stability and Growth is aimed above all at consolidating the rule of law and improving the living conditions of workers.”
Welcoming this initiative as promising for a peaceful social climate and sustainable economic growth, the President of the Transition urged all stakeholders to respect all their commitments.
He recalled the many challenges facing Mali since 2012, notably the security crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. These crises have had a major impact on the Malian workplace and economy. For this reason, he called for the involvement of all players in order to calm the social climate and promote economic growth. According to him, “without a peaceful social climate, it is difficult to establish real security insofar as strikes seriously affect military operations in the field.”
The main aim of signing this social pact for stability and growth is to calm the social front marked by repeated strikes.
Denouncing prestige spending and the failure to reduce the State’s cost of living, some trade unionists are not ruling out a return to the battlefront to demand their rights.
MD/ac/fss/abj/APA