UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:

Affiliation:	- Children and youth

Initiative Title:	Multi-functional Platforms in Mali

Internet links:	http://www.ewb.ca/content/en/index2.shtml

Scope:	National: - Mali

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: End:

Lead Institution:	Engineers Without Borders

Stakeholders/Partners:	Enigneers Without Borders, UNDP, UNIDO, Malinese government, Malinese rural un-electrified communites, maintenance workers, Malinese rural women, entrepeneurs, shea butter producers, rural school, children

Relevent issues:	- Capacity-building in energy policy formulation and management - Increasing access to energy for the poor - Innovative financing solutions and technology transfer - Industrial developments impact on poverty and social development

Objectives/Challenges:

• Provide de-centralized and sustainable energy supply to Malian villages
• Free women from arduous, repetitive, and time consuming tasks for better quality of life and ability to pursue income-generating activities and education
• Aid women’s associations in obtaining credit
• Train women in management and maintenance and provide them with numeracy, literacy, and entrepreneurial skills
• Spur small-scale industrial development

Lessons Learned:

• A minimum level of expected use is required to make investments affordable
• Initial feasibility evaluations need to accurately assess the financial, economic, social and technical feasibility of installation, and develop village-specific methodologies
• Institutional capacity must be strengthened to compensate for overall weakness of the financial system in rural areas
• Capacity building is particularly needed regarding the ability to make decisions based on timely and accurate information, to implement those decisions, and to track progress on the expected results
• Need to tighten up the legal framework in rural areas, where the concept of formal individual ownership is not the norm due to problems with banks requesting collateral for initial credit
• Establishment of supply zones and replying to requests in geographically circumscribed areas, rather than those scattered over vast distances, reduces high transport and communication costs

Summary:

As part of a decade-long initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the multi-functional platform project provides decentralized energy to rural villages in response to requests from local women’s associations in Mali. The small size and dispersed locations of villages in Mali make off-grid decentralized mechanical and electric energy supply the only viable option. The multifunctional platform is a 10-horsepower diesel engine that was purposefully designed to take into account multiple end uses for energy in rural economies. Different combinations of end-use equipment are possible, according to seasonal and daily requirements, and different modules can be acquired over time to meet changing needs. For instance, one platform can simultaneously run a mill rated at 150 kilograms per hour, a water pump with a capacity of one to eight cubic meters per hour, and a battery charger, as well as provide electrical power for 135-180 25-watt light bulbs. Mounted on a steel chassis, it can power various agro-processing machines, such as a corn mill or oil press, and power tools such as saws and welders, thereby spurring small-scale industrial development.

The Programme has taken advantage of the traditional gender-based division of labor in which women perform the tasks of grinding, hulling, and collecting firewood and water, by requiring that the platform be owned and managed by women’s associations. Training is then provided in areas of literacy, bookkeeping, management and maintenance, resulting in women becoming energy entrepreneurs and selling energy to men. Women can also use the energy for income-generating activities, including oil extraction, production of food pastes and shea butter, and soap manufacturing. Women have also saved between two and six hours of time per day, and the attendance and performance of school-age girls has increased since they no longer must stay at home as much to help their mothers. In 350 Malian villages with platforms, women’s average annual income has tripled from US$34 to US$101. Men benefit from the use of electricity for hand tools and creation of jobs as operators and repair artisans.