GFSE, CSD 9 and LDC III : under its partnership with UNDP energy support program and with UNIDO assistance, the Regional Cell was invited to present the concept of the multifunctional platform :

• at the Global Forum on Renewable Energies (Vienna, December 2000),

• at the Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD 9, New York, April 2001), 

• in conjunction with the Mali project, at the LDCs Conference (Brussels, May 2001)   

The participation of the Regional Cell allowed, among other things, to bring the platform concept to the awareness of LDCs and potential donors (see power point presentation to be downloaded), to participate in the launch of a book published by UNDP on case studies on the theme «Women and Energy» (to be downloaded). It also enabled the development of a future vision of the regional project in order to better address the needs of concerned countries and of new countries that are interested in the platform concept.

The Multifunctional Platform has been presented at The Expo 2000 in Hannover (Germany) during the month of september 2000.
Thanks to SABENA - Bamako, who has offered the tickets, the team has been able to go to Hannover to explain the concept of the Platform to the interested people. (see the list below)

It's in the United Nations house that's the presentation took place. 

An article on the Mulfunctional Platform has been published in the newspaper of the Exposition and in the publication "Projects around the world"- International Projects.

VILLAGE SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRY: THE MULTIPURPOSE PLATFORM

The "wonder mill" and women's everyday routine

"Five o'clock in the morning in a Mali village. The women are starting work. The work quota before them is huge. Fetching water alone can take several hours. Then they must laboriously crush and grind cereal grains and prepare the meals. On top of this comes working in their own kitchen gardens, helping in the fields and looking after children.

Five o'clock in the morning in Balanfina, a village in southern Mali, an hour away from the nearest road. Here too the women get up at this time. And here too the work is hard. But times have changed in Balanfina. The reason is a machine, a multifunctional diesel unit set up in about 75 Mali villages by the Government of Mali and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The "wonder mill", as some call it here, is very versatile. By attaching and connecting a wide variety of add-on devices it can be made to mill corn, grind nuts, dehusk rice and maize and process shea butter. It can also charge batteries, supply electric current for 250 light-bulbs or to a well pump. Above, all, it can be run on oil from the indigenous nut trees growing in many villages as hedging plants and protection against erosion. The machine are operated by women. For it is they who are traditionally responsible for processing the field fruits - a tedious and very laborious daily chore until now.

"The machine has made our lives much easier", says Kani Sidibe from Balanfina enthousiatically. And she adds: "The women from our village can now some of their housework with the new machine instead of working laboriously by hand for hours". The women of Balanfina have gained a lot of time. Time which they can now devote to their children. They help in the fields or earn extra money by, for example, growing vegetables. Some men too are benefiting from the machine. They have been able to make themselves independent as joiners, carpenters or welders. They could not have afforded machines of their own, but now there is the new machine to use which they must pay only for the services they need.

The "wonder mill" is still a rare sight in the villages of Mali. Within 4 years, the UN development organization hopes, the machine will be a familiar sight in another 375 villages - and thus be serving 10 percent of Mali's inhabitants at any rate."