From 1974 to 1989 Sidibé Cissé worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Oversight for State Companies and Societies (Ministère de Tutelle des Sociétés et Entreprises d’Etat du Mali), becoming assistant to the Minister from 1987.
During this period, Sidibé Cissé studied at universities and foundations throughout West Africa, and farther afield in France, Canada, Belgium, and Italy.
[3][4] In August 2001 Sidibé Cissé was again named special counselor to the president, this time following Amadou Toumani Touré election to that office.
[10] President Amadou Toumani Touré, who is not a member of any political party, has ruled over a multiparty coalition of ADEMA-PASJ, which had recently come under internal stress due to rumors that the former PM was preparing for a 2012 Presidential bid.
[11] The editor of the powerful Bamako daily, Le Républicain, speculated that Amadou Toumani Touré's choice of woman Prime Minister was in part a symbol, reaching out to female voters in the year leading to the June 2012 Malian elections, and allowing the previous PM opportunity to run for the Presidency.
Amnesty International reported that Sidibé Cissé and other ministers had been detained by junta forces and were being held at a military camp in Kati.
[13] On 26 May 2011, Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé was one of the keynote speakers at the launch of UNESCO's Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education.