These days, with the help of UNDP and donor countries, a major human rights initiative is empowering women to play a more significant role in society. U. N. officials warn that progress on this front won't come easily. This is a country where over 90 percent of the women have been subjected to genital mutilation, and men are allowed up to four wives. Once part of French West Africa, Mali, the largest country in West Africa, is about the size of Texas and California combined. In the North, the Sahara covers 58 percent of the land mass.
Rainfall is minimal or nonexistent.
In the South, there's enough precipitation for cultivation. In between, in the flat Sahel, unpredictable weather causes great havoc. Droughts in the 1970s devastated the Sahel. People starved, and almost half the livestock died. Farmers ate their planting seeds and stripped leaves from the few trees and bushes that survived.