On November 23, 2011 the USAID West Africa Trade Hub organized a transport workshop in Bamako, Mali to launch the Mali Truck Drivers Guide and present findings from the 16th road governance report. 85 stakeholders attended the event representing drivers, transporters, shippers, police, customs, gendarmerie, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Trade, consumers’ association, and traders. The Ministry of Transport presented the Drivers Guide explaining the current situation on axle load control while the Trade Hub presented the latest 16threport results. USAID projects ATP (Agribusiness and Trade Promotion project) and IICEM (Projet Initiatives Intégrées pour la Croissance Economique au Mali) presented the results of their work.

During the Q&A session the public raised the following concerns:

• Drivers training and awareness on road regulations, especially for illiterate drivers
•  Sustainability of disseminating drivers guides
• Numerous checkpoints
• Harassments from municipality officers
• Availability of hotlines during nights and weekends
• Difficulties to get required documents for export
• Other measures to facilitate transport (export bans, axle load control)