On 30 July 2026, the EMERGE project held an online Policy Lab dedicated to Mali, bringing together stakeholders to validate policy recommendations developed within the project and gather feedback to support the development of Mali’s Roadmap for the Transition to Clean Energy.

The virtual workshop brought together representatives of the National Energy Directorate (DNE) of the Ministry of Energy and Water, Energie du Mali (EDM), ECREEE and Mohammed I University and focused on the development and implementation of Mali’s energy policy.

The EMERGE Policy Labs are designed as interactive spaces for dialogue, experimentation and validation of policy recommendations tailored to the EMERGE pilot sites. They also provide an opportunity to gather stakeholder feedback to improve and optimise the EMERGE tools and ensure that they remain relevant and user-friendly.

From EMERGE tools to Mali-specific scenarios

The EMERGE Toolbox is designed to support energy-system analysis and decision-making by combining economic, technical, social and environmental dimensions while also taking energy infrastructure constraints into account.

This approach reflects the wider ambition of EMERGE to co-design and test tools that can help optimise the use of available resources while considering social, climatic, economic and technical factors.

For Mali, scenarios were developed using the Climate and Energy Policy Impact Assessment Tool – CEPIA, covering two key economic sectors: residential and transport.

In the residential sector, two contrasting scenarios explored the long-term impact of cooking electrification. The Ambitious scenario assumes stronger public policies and incentives supporting a transition from traditional biomass cooking to electric cooking technologies, while the Low scenario assumes a slower transition resulting from limited policy support and greater economic barriers.

For transport, the scenarios examined different levels of electrification and modal shift. The ambitious scenario assumes a faster roll-out of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles and a significant expansion of public transport, while the conservative scenario assumes slower electrification and greater reliance on petrol-powered vehicles and private cars.

Strategic recommendations for Mali

The workshop also addressed strategic recommendations developed for the Mali case. These include accelerating investment in solar, wind and hydropower infrastructure, promoting electric mobility, improving energy efficiency in the residential sector, strengthening policy frameworks and public-private partnerships, building the capacity of policymakers, academia, civil society and the investment sector, and developing a bottom-up roadmap reflecting local realities while contributing to regional and continental strategies.

Policy recommendations discussed during the workshop also addressed coordination and information-sharing between government, the private sector and civil society; capacity-building and local content; the legal and regulatory framework; gender mainstreaming in energy planning; affordability and competitiveness; decentralisation; and stronger coherence between the energy sector and other sectors using energy services.

Stakeholders identify key priorities

A central part of the Policy Lab was an interactive Mentimeter validation exercise. Participants assessed the feasibility of the proposed policy recommendations through real-time voting and discussion and ranked the recommendations most relevant to Mali.

The exercise also provided space to discuss the main challenges facing the country’s energy transition, opportunities for renewable energy deployment and the expected impact of the proposed measures.

The results highlighted particularly strong support for funding and innovation, including research and innovation in energy and artificial intelligence, financing mechanisms and incentives for renewable energy.

Grid modernisation and renewable energy integration emerged as key priorities, including strengthening transmission and distribution capacity, wider adoption of smart meters and increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. Expanding access to energy also received strong support, particularly through accelerated electrification and the roll-out of off-grid solutions in rural areas.

At the same time, participants gave more mixed assessments to areas including regulatory reforms, social tariff programmes and decentralisation, indicating the need for further policy refinement and stakeholder engagement.

The Mali Policy Lab provided stakeholder input to validate and further refine EMERGE’s policy recommendations. The workshop findings will contribute to ensuring that Mali’s clean energy transition roadmap reflects national priorities and stakeholder perspectives.

Through its participatory approach, EMERGE is developing knowledge communities across its African ecosystems in Morocco, the Niger River region (Mali/Nigeria) and Mozambique, while co-designing and testing tools that can support energy planning and the clean energy transition.