Understanding the barriers to the introduction and uptake of clean/improved cookstoves in Southern Africa
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering
Abstract
This project seeks to understand the barriers that have prevented the large-scale uptake of improved cook stoves in Southern Africa. By learning from successful projects in East Africa, a roadmap to overcome these obstacles will be produced.
It is estimated that 2.7 billion people worldwide, who mostly live on incomes of less than US$2/day, depend on solid biomass fuels (fuelwood, charcoal, animal dung, grass, shrubs, agricultural residue) to meet their basic energy needs for cooking and heating. Many of these people cook on open fires, often inside their homes. As well as being very inefficient in the use of scarce firewood, women and children are exposed to harmful levels of wood smoke, which is a major cause of respiratory disease and premature death. Cook stoves are estimated to contribute around a third of global carbon monoxide emissions while the black carbon particles and other pollutants in biomass smoke are also thought to play a role in global warming.
Improved cook stoves, designed to burn biomass fuels more cleanly and efficiently than traditional stoves, have been promoted by charities and governments in many developing countries since the 1970s. A variety of approaches have been tried, including "build-your-own stove" projects, community-focused participatory schemes, manufacturing stoves in remote villages and market-based commercial activities. In some countries, these new stoves have been well-received. For example, in Kenya 80% of urban families use a metal "jiko" charcoal stove for cooking, which uses 50% less fuel and also decreases cooking time. The cost of the stove can be recovered in fuel savings in just a few months. It is estimated that the widespread uptake of the jiko stove in Kenya saves 206,000 tonnes of wood (570,000 hectares of trees) per year.
In other countries, the progress has been less spectacular. Schemes have failed for a whole range of reasons which are only partially understood. Reasons for failure include: cost of the new stoves, cultural resistance to change, negative experience with previous "development" projects, lack of fuel, failure to understand users' needs and so on. Some stove initiatives have relied solely on the attraction of new technologies rather than taking a more holistic approach which learns from past mistakes and also from successful intervention projects.
The proposed research analyses improved cook stoves and their uptake, with a particular focus on South-South learning and knowledge transfer. Countries to be studied include Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa, and Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa in Southern Africa.
A cross-disciplinary approach is required to fully understand the barriers and to create an environment that is required for improved cook stove uptake in Southern Africa. To ensure that the problem is tackled from a variety of viewpoints, project partners include engineers, social scientists, nongovernmental organisations, stove manufacturers and distributors. The full list of project partners is:
* The University of Nottingham
* Practical Action
* The Household Energy Network
* AFREPREN: an Africa-wide network of researchers, policy makers & civil society representatives
* The Energy, Poverty & Development Group at the Energy Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
* The Center of Energy & Environment, University of Zambia
* Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Malawi
* The Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics & Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
* Ashden: a charity championing the use of sustainable energy at a local level
The intended outcome of the project will be a set of resources useful to the project partners and other organisations involved in the distribution of improved cook stoves, with the ultimate aim to reduce fuel poverty and to improve the health and environment for the 2.7 billion people who currently depend on biomass stoves.
It is estimated that 2.7 billion people worldwide, who mostly live on incomes of less than US$2/day, depend on solid biomass fuels (fuelwood, charcoal, animal dung, grass, shrubs, agricultural residue) to meet their basic energy needs for cooking and heating. Many of these people cook on open fires, often inside their homes. As well as being very inefficient in the use of scarce firewood, women and children are exposed to harmful levels of wood smoke, which is a major cause of respiratory disease and premature death. Cook stoves are estimated to contribute around a third of global carbon monoxide emissions while the black carbon particles and other pollutants in biomass smoke are also thought to play a role in global warming.
Improved cook stoves, designed to burn biomass fuels more cleanly and efficiently than traditional stoves, have been promoted by charities and governments in many developing countries since the 1970s. A variety of approaches have been tried, including "build-your-own stove" projects, community-focused participatory schemes, manufacturing stoves in remote villages and market-based commercial activities. In some countries, these new stoves have been well-received. For example, in Kenya 80% of urban families use a metal "jiko" charcoal stove for cooking, which uses 50% less fuel and also decreases cooking time. The cost of the stove can be recovered in fuel savings in just a few months. It is estimated that the widespread uptake of the jiko stove in Kenya saves 206,000 tonnes of wood (570,000 hectares of trees) per year.
In other countries, the progress has been less spectacular. Schemes have failed for a whole range of reasons which are only partially understood. Reasons for failure include: cost of the new stoves, cultural resistance to change, negative experience with previous "development" projects, lack of fuel, failure to understand users' needs and so on. Some stove initiatives have relied solely on the attraction of new technologies rather than taking a more holistic approach which learns from past mistakes and also from successful intervention projects.
The proposed research analyses improved cook stoves and their uptake, with a particular focus on South-South learning and knowledge transfer. Countries to be studied include Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa, and Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa in Southern Africa.
A cross-disciplinary approach is required to fully understand the barriers and to create an environment that is required for improved cook stove uptake in Southern Africa. To ensure that the problem is tackled from a variety of viewpoints, project partners include engineers, social scientists, nongovernmental organisations, stove manufacturers and distributors. The full list of project partners is:
* The University of Nottingham
* Practical Action
* The Household Energy Network
* AFREPREN: an Africa-wide network of researchers, policy makers & civil society representatives
* The Energy, Poverty & Development Group at the Energy Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
* The Center of Energy & Environment, University of Zambia
* Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Malawi
* The Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics & Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
* Ashden: a charity championing the use of sustainable energy at a local level
The intended outcome of the project will be a set of resources useful to the project partners and other organisations involved in the distribution of improved cook stoves, with the ultimate aim to reduce fuel poverty and to improve the health and environment for the 2.7 billion people who currently depend on biomass stoves.
Planned Impact
The 2.7 billion people who depend on solid biomass fuels to meet their basic energy needs for cooking and heating will be the major beneficiaries of this research. For these populations, a move towards cleaner energy technologies is essential, as the practices in which they burn biomass in traditional stoves and open fires have been identified by health, energy and environment experts as socially and environmentally unsustainable.
The specific focus of the research is to understand the barriers to the introduction and uptake of clean/improved cookstoves in Southern Africa, but it is anticipated that these improved understandings, coupled with the development of a participatory 'best practice toolkit' for improved cookstove development and dissemination, will have wider applicability and will assist in the development of sustainable energy solutions for the energy-poor worldwide.
The outcomes of this research will be of great relevance to policy makers, non-government organisations, regulators and environmental organisations and will contribute to existing national government and non-governmental strategies for improved cookstove development and dissemination. The research personnel trained through the project will gain high quality skills and broad expertise and experience which will add value enabling scientific and technology development to meet the needs of society and specifically to increase clean energy access, resilience and wealth creation in developing countries (particularly for the urban and rural poor), through high quality research that improves the understanding and evidence base of the opportunities and challenges associated with clean energy for development.
The specific focus of the research is to understand the barriers to the introduction and uptake of clean/improved cookstoves in Southern Africa, but it is anticipated that these improved understandings, coupled with the development of a participatory 'best practice toolkit' for improved cookstove development and dissemination, will have wider applicability and will assist in the development of sustainable energy solutions for the energy-poor worldwide.
The outcomes of this research will be of great relevance to policy makers, non-government organisations, regulators and environmental organisations and will contribute to existing national government and non-governmental strategies for improved cookstove development and dissemination. The research personnel trained through the project will gain high quality skills and broad expertise and experience which will add value enabling scientific and technology development to meet the needs of society and specifically to increase clean energy access, resilience and wealth creation in developing countries (particularly for the urban and rural poor), through high quality research that improves the understanding and evidence base of the opportunities and challenges associated with clean energy for development.
Publications
Ray C
(2017)
From Barriers to Enablers: Where next for Improved Cookstoves?
in Boiling Point
Stevens L
(2019)
Market mapping for improved cookstoves: barriers and opportunities in East Africa
in Development in Practice
Gallagher M
(2016)
An evaluation of a biomass stove safety protocol used for testing household cookstoves, in low and middle-income countries
in Energy for Sustainable Development
Hewitt J
(2018)
Finance and the improved cookstove sector in East Africa; Barriers and opportunities for value-chain actors
in Energy Policy
Akintan O
(2018)
Culture, tradition, and taboo: Understanding the social shaping of fuel choices and cooking practices in Nigeria
in Energy Research & Social Science
Jewitt S
(2020)
"We cannot stop cooking": Stove stacking, seasonality and the risky practices of household cookstove transitions in Nigeria
in Energy Research & Social Science
Adaji EE
(2019)
Understanding the effect of indoor air pollution on pneumonia in children under 5 in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of evidence.
in Environmental science and pollution research international
Sesan T
(2019)
"We Learnt that Being Together Would Give us a Voice": Gender Perspectives on the East African Improved-Cookstove Value Chain
in Feminist Economics
Sesan T
(2018)
Toilet training: what can the cookstove sector learn from improved sanitation promotion?
in International journal of environmental health research
Title | The Great African Bake Off |
Description | This was a video clip made by the media team at the University of Nottingham to cover 'The Great African Bake Off event' that was held in Nottingham in September 2015. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | This video (and the event itself) has been used by local Nottinghamshire organisations to raise the profile of the Nottingham refugee forum and its collaboration with the University of Nottingham. It has been publicised widely by the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network (LCEDN) where there are accompanying blog posts and has been sent out in their regular email updates. In addition this has been presented at numerous national and international conferences to a wide of stakeholders including academics, practioners and policy makers. |
URL | https://mediaspace.nottingham.ac.uk/media/The+Great+African+Bake+Off/1_5zpakkfg |
Title | Zambia Cook Off Video |
Description | Zambia Cook Off Video |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Impact | Video has been widely circulated via press releases to the wide nextwork of LCEDN network, internally at DfiD and showcased to international NGOs and donors such as DfiD and shown at various conferences. |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5S2ujl-57U |
Description | the barriers to the uptake of ICS include (but are not limited to); financial, market, political, awareness, and socio-cultural factors. These may well be the same in 20 years. There are lots of systematic reviews and briefing papers that discuss these barriers but the cookstove sector is struggling to overcome them. Another observation the Barriers data is telling us is the importance of context, not just regionally or nationally but also geographically between urban, rural and peri-urban areas. |
Exploitation Route | Enable policy decisions, help cookstove manufacturers and distributors, assist NGOs and others with formulating stove programmes.... |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Energy Environment Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Retail Other |
URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/barriers/index.aspx |
Description | The project has ended and has resulted in additional funds and awards for follow-on and spin out research. We have collected 210 Household interviews, 35 Policy interviews, 35 Value Chain interviews and 20 Finance interviews across seven countries and have analysed this data using qualitative analysis software NVivo and SPSS. One of the interesting observations that is being reinforced by our data is that we know what the barriers to the uptake of ICS are. These barriers include (but are not limited to); financial, market, political, awareness, and socio-cultural and they are widely documented in the literature (including a feature length article back in Boiling Point Issue 64, available @HEDON) and they may well be the same in 20 years. There are lots of systematic reviews and briefing papers that discuss these barriers but the cookstove sector is struggling to overcome them. Another observation the Barriers data is telling us is the importance of context, not just regionally or nationally but also geographically between urban, rural and peri-urban areas. The barriers will differ in these locations, but more importantly the enablers will also differ in these areas. More interestingly, the Barriers project has highlighted a lack of consensual terminology when it comes to defining what an ICS actually is and definitions differ from person, organisation and by country. We now understand the barriers to the uptake of ICS better and we are closer to understanding how we can overcome these barriers. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Energy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Retail,Other |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
Description | GACC |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Appropriate Institutional Cookstoves for Nepal |
Amount | £24,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Discipline Bridging Award |
Amount | £7,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Nottingham |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2015 |
End | 05/2016 |
Description | Innovate UK |
Amount | £68,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Newton Fellowship |
Amount | £6,095 (GBP) |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2016 |
End | 04/2016 |
Description | Newton Fellowship |
Amount | £5,435 (GBP) |
Organisation | Royal Academy of Engineering |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2015 |
End | 12/2015 |
Description | Nexus |
Amount | £55,753 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ES/P002617/1 |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 09/2017 |
Description | PhD scholarship |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Government of Nigeria |
Sector | Public |
Country | Nigeria |
Start | 09/2014 |
End | 10/2017 |
Description | epsrc impact accelerator award |
Amount | £9,066 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 09/2016 |
Description | GACC |
Organisation | ALS Therapy Alliance |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Monthly Skype meetings to discuss related projects and to share information with the wider stove community. |
Collaborator Contribution | Monthly Skype meetings to discuss related projects and to share information with the wider stove community. |
Impact | We have been invited to review GACC policy documents before they are released. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | BBC Radio Nottingham - The Barriers to the Introduction and Uptake of Improved Cookstoves in East and Southern Africa |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Dr Mike Clifford and Dr Charlotte Ray were interviewed by Verity Cowley at BBC Radio Nottingham to discuss the Barriers Project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b7qyv |
Description | The Great African Bake Off - Nottingham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | On Monday 14th September 2015, the University of Nottingham hosted the Great African Bake-Off where academics, policy makers and practitioners were invited to observe volunteers from the Women's Cultural Exchange cook delicious food from a range of Sub-Saharan African countries (including Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, and Malawi) on a variety of Improved Cookstoves. The event was designed to complement the LCEDN/ USES Barriers project http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/barriers/index.aspx , which seeks to understand the barriers to the introduction and uptake of Improved Cookstoves (ICS). ICS are designed to burn biomass fuels more efficiently and have been promoted by a range of governments, charities and international organisations since the 1940s. Despite these interventions however, the uptake and sustained use of these stoves has been slow. Reasons for failure include cost, cultural resistance to change, access and availability of fuel and the failure to understand users' needs. The Nottingham team (consisting of Dr Charlotte Ray, Dr Mike Clifford and Dr Sarah Jewitt) wanted to further explore this idea that some ICS fail to meet end-user requirements and the bake-off was an opportunity to receive end-user feedback on existing ICS technologies in the market place, better understand what criteria end-users have when it comes to choosing a new cooking technology and observe how users interact with the stoves and how that could impact on adoption and sustained use. In addition, the event was an opportunity to encourage guests to interact with both the technology and end-users in order to explore user preferences, performance, safety and wider cultural (especially gender) considerations surrounding energy/fuel choice. Victoria Mponda, one of the cooking volunteers and coordinator of the Women's Cultural Exchange said of the event: "The opportunity given to us by the University of Nottingham to showcase our cooking skills was more than we could have imagined. We are always looking for opportunities to show people just how amazing our women are, to remove the stigma that is associated with our background. These are the moments that I love because it is through them that I notice the leaps and growth within the women. Being given a chance to interact with the wider community removes all the barriers they face or imagine, these moments gives us a larger hope for our future from the limbo that we face. It was home, safe and made everyone in the group very happy to be part of it". DfID also said of the event: "The event was a positive and interactive platform to demonstrate the cookstove technology being used [as part of] the Barriers project. There was an atmosphere of collective learning and I engaged in interesting conversations with other participants and cookstove users. These conversations offered necessary insight into the usability of the technology and added a valuable, real dimension to the research being carried out". This event has been since discused at other events such as the 2015 Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves 'Clean Cooking Forum' that was held in Accra, Ghana in November 2015 and was the basis to securing additional EPSRC IAA funded to replicate these events in both Malawi and Zambia in 2016. *The Women's Cultural Exchange is a local voluntary community group in Nottingham that supports the development and empowerment of women from a refugee and asylum background. The group supports and enables women to address multiple stress factors and remove the significant isolation they experience in the uncertainty of the asylum process and also adjusting to life in the UK. The group has members from over 30 countries from around the world, and is based in St Ann's at the Sycamore community centre where the Nottingham Refugee Forum offer them a premises for their weekly meetings and a place to hold most of their activities. For more information contact: womenscultureexchange@gmail.com; Facebooks Page: WCE NOTTS; Twitter: womenscultureexchange |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://mediaspace.nottingham.ac.uk/media/The+Great+African+Bake+Off/1_5zpakkfg |
Description | The Great African Cook Off - Malawi |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The Great African Cook-Off was two events held in Malawi and Zambia to showcase a range of improved cookstoves (ICS) and to concept test existing technologies for user acceptance. The events brought together members of the public, stove producers, policy makers and charitable organisations that have interests in this area. The outcome informed key stakeholders on the state of the stove sector in both countries and fed into new and existing debates on technology design and dissemination strategies to facilitate stove uptake. In the case of Malawi, the event was held as part of the Cleaner Cooking Camp Conference in March 2016. Supported by the National Cookstoves Steering Committee, led by the Energising Development Programme (EnDev), the annual event brings together stove enthusiasts (both national and international) to discuss the challenges around clean cooking in Malawi. The organising committee supported the cook-off by providing us with designated space where attendees were able to interact with participating cooks and ICS end-users. The event was attended by a range of stakeholders including government, donor organisations and INGOs as well as the Malawian Minister for Energy. We also had additional support from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Malawi (LUANAR) who is in-country partner on the Barriers project and supports dissemination events that target and benefit a range of stakeholders in a national context. More specifically, LUANAR are interested in encouraging policy and private sector stakeholders to interact first-hand with ICS end users and better understand end-user priorities and preferences in order to facilitate stove adoption rates. This type of event demonstrated what products are currently available in the market, the benefits and challenges of using ICS and what other types of technology could be introduced in the future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | The Great African Cook Off - Zambia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The Great African Cook-Off was two events held in Malawi and Zambia to showcase a range of improved cookstoves (ICS) and to concept test existing technologies for user acceptance. The events brought together members of the public, stove producers, policy makers and charitable organisations that have interests in this area. The outcome informed key stakeholders on the state of the stove sector in both countries and fed into new and existing debates on technology design and dissemination strategies to facilitate stove uptake. The Great African Cook Off Zambia was the first event of its kind in Livingstone. Community stakeholders and a diverse variety of people gathered to share knowledge and learn about improved cooking technologies including rocket stoves, solar cookers, gasifiers, improved charcoal burners and more. Co-hosted by Greenpop (a social enterprise who is dedicated to (re) connecting people with the planet and each other.) and the University of Nottingham, the intention behind the event was to frame development as a celebration and explore the barriers to cookstove uptake in rural and urban Zambia while exposing people to the various technologies that are available in this space. The event offered unique opportunities for sustainability and eco-education. Zambians were offered an opportunity to engage with local businesses and experts in the improved cookstove industry while witnessing the stoves in action at the hands of local chefs. Approximately 200 people from a variety of organisations in and around Livingstone attended the event, along with around 40 Greenpop team members, production staff and crew. Together they explored the context, issues and opportunities around improved cooking technologies through information stands and a cook-off style event where six cooking teams were invited to test a variety of different stove types, from imported gasifier stoves to locally-produced, handmade clay rocket stoves. In addition, the event had support from Lion Alert, Zambia which currently runs a low-carbon cookstove project in the Dwamba Forest Area in Livingstone, Zambia. They offered to supply locally produced cookstoves to showcase and use during the event and assisted in providing access to volunteers and communities where ICS are being used for follow-up discussions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5S2ujl-57U&t=34s |
Description | hospital visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Health professionals |
Results and Impact | The stove demonstration attracted interest from the audience of healthcare professionals and also from the relatives of patients at the mothers' shelter at Livingstone General Hospital in Zambia. Several people were interested in building their own stoves and also working to improve the conditions at the shelter. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |