Within the framework of this study on sparsely populated areas in northern Mali, which was conducted by Groupe URD for the World Bank between October 2013 and February 2014, interviews were carried out with more than 520 people who are representative of the socio-economic, cultural, and political diversity in this complex area. Northern Mali is still trying to move beyond a series of conflicts that have caused widespread suffering, internal and external displacements of people, and reminded us how fragile yet necessary the social contract is there between the State and these sparsely populated areas, which are often marginalised. “Sparsely populated” implies difficulties in terms of both interactions and additional costs linked to long distances and frequent major logistics problems. This notion is also synonymous with economic and even political marginalisation, because all too often when the “value for money” concept is applied to these areas, it translates into “doing anything.”