Dissemination of Improved Cookstoves in Rural
Areas of the Developing World:
Recommendations
for the Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program
A Study
Conducted for the Eritrea Energy
Research and Training Center (ERTC)
by
Ayça
Ergeneman
SPRING
2003
The author conducted this study as part of the
program of professional education at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley. This paper is submitted in partial
fulfillment of the course requirements for the Master of Public Policy
degree. The judgments and conclusions
are solely those of the author, and are not necessarily endorsed by the Goldman
School of Public Policy, by the University of California or by any
other agency.
Biomass fuels such as
wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residues account for approximately half of the
industrial and household energy consumption in developing countries. Domestic cooking makes up a major portion of
the total energy used in these nations, (close to 60 percent in Sub-Saharan
Africa) and nearly three billion people worldwide cook their meals on simple
stoves that use biomass fuels.
Efforts to improve the
efficiency of biomass cookstoves date back to the 1940s. In recent decades, urban areas in developing
nations have experienced higher penetration rates of improved stoves; indeed,
many urban households have made the switch to cleaner fuels like liquid petroleum
gas (LPG) or kerosene for cooking. Most
rural households in these countries, on the other hand, are not endowed with
the infrastructure that would bring them cleaner fuels, nor do they have the
adequate income to pay for the fuels if they were available.
The author believes
that low-income communities located in rural areas without access to markets or
energy infrastructure are most likely to benefit from improved cookstove
projects. The dissemination of increased-efficiency cookstoves in these households
can be a step taken toward curbing indoor air pollution, decreasing time and
money spent on fuelwood, and preventing the use of animal waste for fuel, which
results in less fertilizer being available for agriculture. Eritrea, with a rural annual per capita income of only
$200 and with less than one percent of its rural households having access to
electricity, could greatly benefit from increased efforts in improved cookstove
dissemination.
This paper addresses
the problem of low adoption rates of improved cookstoves in rural settings in
the developing world in an effort to provide recommendations to the Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program.
To identify key determinants of successful improved cookstove programs,
four programs that target rural settings were examined. The analysis of
improved cookstove programs in India, China, Eritrea, and Ethiopia enabled the author to come up with the following
recommendations for the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program:
1.
The Eritrea Dissemination
for Improved Stoves Program should continue the subsidy approach to make
the stoves affordable to low-income rural communities. However, the program should avoid setting
quotas for improved stove dissemination, as was done in India. In addition,
the program should be closely monitored to ensure that subsidies are not
leading to the distribution of unused stoves or stove parts.
2.
As the program
moves on to national scale, Eritrea should promote commercialization and mass
production of the stoves. This will
allow stove producers to benefit from economies of scale and bring improved
stove prices down. As the stoves become
more affordable, subsidies can be phased out. As mass production of stove parts
becomes a reality, the Eritrea Energy Research and Training Center (ERTC) should encourage competition between stove
producers and ensure that the parts are of high quality.
3.
Eritrea should encourage competition between villages
that can prove to the government that they are ready and organized for a
village-level switch to improved cookstoves.
This approach helps identify those villages that represent households
that have greater use for the stoves.
4.
The Eritrean
program should rely on a stronger promotional strategy as the project
moves to national scale. The program
might want to investigate ways in which it could further promote the improved
cookstoves. The author believes that the
program could greatly benefit from a project promotion survey, which could
direct the program administrators to the most effective avenues for promoting
the improved cookstoves. Finally, Eritrea should evaluate the effectiveness of the
current promotion strategies. This will be useful in ensuring that funds
for promotion are being spent on the right strategies.
5.
Eritrea should continue to solicit feedback from the
users of the improved stoves and make sure that the stoves continue to
adequately address the needs of the rural households. This can be possible
through conducting more user surveys or visiting villages to talk to stove
users. There should be a feedback mechanism put in place as the program
branches out to more villages in the country.
Since, some degree of heterogeneity in user needs among different
regions should be expected, the Eritrean program should make sure these are not
overlooked by building a strong channel of communication between program
administrators, technical staff, and local communities.
6.
The Eritrean
ERTC should monitor the results of the improved cookstove program and
aim to complete annual evaluations on the progress of the program.
7.
The
enlargement of the scale of the program to the national level will require
increased levels of funding, especially if the subsidies are to be sustained. Eritrea should find ways to inform international donors
and NGOs about the program’s success in the initial two phases. The
Eritrean Technical Exchange can be instrumental in these efforts.
8.
The survey of
the four improved cookstove programs has shown that the maximum rate of
adoption ranges between four to five percent, as realized by the Chinese
National Improved Cookstove Program. The
Eritrean program should view this number as a target while monitoring the
dissemination efforts closely to make sure that the adoption of cookstoves
results in the use of cookstoves. Eritrea has to significantly increase the dissemination
of improved stoves as it moves to the Sustained National Promotion
Phase. Currently, an average of 2900
stoves are being installed annually.
This number has to increase to approximately 25,000 stoves to achieve a
dissemination rate similar to that of the Chinese program, which is the most
successful program surveyed in this study.
I. Focus of the Study. 7
II. Background
on Improved Cookstoves and Improved Cookstove Programs 8
A. What
are improved cookstoves?. 8
B. History
of Improved Cookstove Programs. 9
III. Why Improved Cookstoves?. 10
IV. Case Studies:
Methodology and Limitations. 12
V. Overview
And Evaluation of Improved Cookstove Case Studies. 14
A. Chinese
National Improved Stoves Program. 14
B. Indian
National Programme of Improved Chulhas. 15
C. Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program.. 16
D. Ethiopia
Mirt Improved Biomass Stoves Program. 18
VI. Comparison of Regional
Characteristics. 20
A. Rural
Poverty. 20
B. Scarcity
of Fuelwood. 20
VII. Comparison of Program Characteristics. 22
A. Program
Coordination. 22
B. Subsidies. 25
C. Promotion
Strategy. 28
D. Technical Assistance and Monitoring. 30
Elements for
Success in Program Characteristics: Recommendations for Eritrea. 31
VIII. Comparison of Cookstove Characteristics. 35
A.
Durability. 35
B. User
Involvement in the Construction of the Stove. 35
C. Perceived
Benefits and Drawbacks. 36
Elements for
Success in Cookstove Characteristics: Recommendations for Eritrea. 38
IX. Recommendations. 40
Bibliography. 42
ERTC Energy
Research and Training Center
RTPC Rural Technology Promotion Center
Since the 1940s, efforts have been made to increase the efficiency of
biomass cookstoves by governments, international development organizations, and
NGOs. Although many of these programs
have been successful in urban areas, improved biomass cookstoves have not
reached enough households in rural settings in developing countries where three
quarters of the world’s 1.2 billion extremely poor people reside. This leaves the rural poor without access to
increased efficiency stoves, preventing a reduction in indoor air pollution,
greater time spent collecting firewood, as well as the use of dung and crop
residues, which would otherwise be used as fertilizer, for fuel. In order to identify determinants of success,
this paper will focus on four improved cookstove projects from around the
world, which have concentrated their efforts to increase stove dissemination in
rural areas. These programs are the
Chinese National Improved Cookstove Program, the Indian National Program of
Improved Chulhas, the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program, and the
Ethiopia Improved Biomass Stoves Program.
The paper will identify parallel characteristics in programs in which
high adoption and use rates have been achieved in an effort to provide
recommendations to the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program. It is
outlined in the following way: Section II provides background on improved
cookstoves and improved cookstove programs in the developing world. Section III discusses alternatives to
improved cookstoves and why improved cookstoves programs are appropriate
interventions for low-income rural communities without access to markets and
energy infrastructure. Section IV lays
out the methodology that the author will use in evaluating the success of the
case studies as well as the certain limitations encountered during the
analysis. Section V introduces the four case studies from India, China, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, whose characteristics
will be analyzed with a general overview of the improved cookstove
programs. Section VI discusses the
regional environments these four programs operate in with a special emphasis on
rural poverty and fuelwood scarcity in these regions. Section VII focuses on program
characteristics of the four case studies such as coordination, the use of
subsidies, promotion strategy, technical assistance and monitoring. Section
VIII discusses the cookstove characteristics in each case study, including the
affordability and durability of the cookstoves, and the degree of user
involvement in the design of the stoves. Sections VII and VIII include
recommendations for the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program. Finally, Section IX concludes with some
recommendations for improved cookstove programs.
The most common method of cooking used in
developing countries is an open fire.
The fire is usually shielded or surrounded by “three or more stones,
bricks, mounds of mud, or lumps of other incombustible material.” (Foley and Moss,
1983, pp.27) For short, such fires are
called “three-stone” fires, where the stones or surrounding materials act as a
support for the cooking pot over the fire.
These three-stone fires have continued to be used for cooking and
heating purposes, mainly due to their simplicity. They are easy to build and virtually
free. They can use a range of fuels.
They can be adapted to different forms quite easily – i.e. placed on waist-high
platforms for more convenience for the user.
There are more sophisticated types of traditional stoves, ranging from
mud stoves to heavy brick stoves to metal ones (see Figure 1 for different
types of cookstoves ranging from the three-stone to metal stoves). Most sources
cite the fuel-efficiency of
traditional stoves as five to ten percent.
Since nearly three billion people in the world use traditional stoves to
cook their meals, efforts to improve the efficiency of cookstoves have been
increasingly popular in the developing world. Improved stoves come in different
forms and sizes. Improved cookstoves can be designed and built in various ways,
depending on the local conditions. “At
their simplest, improved stoves rely on providing an enclosure for the fire to
cut down on the loss of radiant heat and protect it against the wind. In
addition, attention can be given to devising methods of controlling the upward
flow of the combustion gases, so as to increase the transfer of heat to the
cooking pot” (Foley and Moss, 1983, pp.16).
Many of these stoves are made of mud or sand since both are almost free
and readily available.
One should be careful
in concluding that traditional stoves are inferior and inefficient and
therefore account for the high consumption of biomass resources, as a family’s
fuel consumption is largely dependent on the fuel scarcity it faces and not
necessarily the efficiency of the stove.
Studies show that in areas that experience fuel scarcity, consumption is
about one third of that in areas where fuel is in abundance. This indicates that households already take
measures to cut down on fuel use when they feel the “energy pinch” by “feeding
fuel into the fire more carefully, using smaller pieces […], and using the fire
for shorter periods” (Foley and Moss, 1983, pp.15). Moreover, one finds that most of the claims
citing the inefficiency of traditional stoves in the literature are more
anecdotal than scientific and not all “improved” stoves have been more
efficient than traditional ones (Gill 1985). Traditional stoves have been
around for thousands of years and have evolved to meet the local needs in a way
that is affordable for the users. Even
when the considerable progress in increasing efficiency of cookstoves is taken
into account, it is a hard task to offer these stoves at an affordable price to
households. This is a daunting task
that many improved cookstove programs face all around the world.
In
industrial countries, the switch to more efficient stoves took place smoothly
as fuelwood prices increased and stove makers increased efforts to build more
efficient models. This was followed by a
transition to cleaner fuels for cooking, such as coal and petroleum-based
fuels.
As the availability of
and access to petroleum-based fuels began to increase at the beginning of the
20ieth century, many urban households in developing countries switched to
stoves using oil-based products such as kerosene or liquid petroleum gas (LPG)
as fuels, just like their developed nation counterparts. On the other hand, rural households continued
their dependence on the burning of biomass fuels for cooking and heating
purposes. This was mainly due to weak
delivery channels for petroleum-based products and rural people’s inability to
afford these fuels especially compared to biomass resources, which were more
freely available (Barnes et al, 1994).
When oil prices increased in the 1970s, even urban households found it
hard to pay for fuels such as kerosene and LPG and many of them stepped back
down the energy ladder and started using biomass fuels for household
energy.
Domestic cooking makes up a major portion of the total energy used in
developing nations, close to 60 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, so that nearly
three billion people worldwide cook their meals on simple stoves that use
biomass fuels (Kammen, July 1995). As
noted before, many of these stoves operate with low efficiencies and use six or
seven times more energy than non-biomass-burning stoves (Barnes et al, 1994). The goal of improved cookstove programs is to
develop “more efficient, energy-saving, and inexpensive biomass cookstoves
[that] can help alleviate local pressure on wood resources, shorten the walking
time required to collect the fuel, reduce cash outlays necessary for purchased
fuelwood or charcoal, and diminish the pollution released to the environment”
(Barnes et al, 1994, pp.1).
One of the first
improved stoves was the “Magan Chula”, introduced in India in 1947. A publication called “Smokeless Kitchens
for the Millions” (Raju, 1953) advocating the health and convenience benefits
of increasing efficiency in the burning of biomass further stimulated the
promotion of improved cookstoves. The initial wave of cookstove programs
focused on the health aspects of such interventions. The general objective was
to uplift the living conditions of the poor in the developing world (Karakezi
and Ranja, 1997, pp.51). Attention
subsequently shifted to the potential for saving biomass fuels and limiting
deforestation. Currently, there is a
refocus on the health-related aspects of improved cookstove programs, as the
benefits of moving from traditional stoves to improved ones are increasingly
stressed by public health specialists. In addition, factors such as cooking
comfort, convenience, and safety in the use of the stoves are starting to get
incorporated into program design (RWEDP No:44, pp.5).
The benefits associated
with improved cookstove programs fall in two categories: those that are
internal to the household and those that are external.
Internal benefits
include:
-
Reduced
concentrations of smoke and indoor air pollution;
-
Money and time
saved in acquiring fuel; and
-
Reduced
biomass use, ability use animal dung as fertilizer instead of for fuel.
External
benefits include:
-
Less pressure
on forest and energy resources;
-
Reduced
greenhouse gases; and
-
Skill
development and job creation in the community (Barnes et al, 1993, RWEDP
No:44).
Not
all the benefits listed above are experienced or perceived by improved
cookstove users. Since the households
feel the impacts of internal benefits directly, these have a greater influence
on the decision to adopt the improved stove.
Another important point is that most of the internal benefits work to
improve the condition of women, who are predominantly responsible for cooking
and collecting fuelwood. Additionally, in many rural settings, women cook with
their children strapped on their backs.
Any reduction in pollutants emitted from cookstoves, therefore, will be
beneficial for children’s as well as for women’s health.
The
external benefits are less likely to be perceived by rural households although
this is certainly a gross underestimation of the capability of the poor to
understand the ecological problems that face them. However, some of these
benefits are hard to quantify and even if quantified, they are not realizable
in monetary terms.
Although
the internal and external benefits listed above differ significantly along
regional and cultural lines depending on the type and use of improved
cookstoves, it is safe to say that a combination of these benefits are felt by
most users.
The reader at this point may justifiably wonder whether there are alternative
policy interventions that would help resolve the very problems that improved
cookstove programs tackle. The author focuses on some of those interventions
that address at least one or more of the above-cited benefits in Table 1.
Table 1. Alternatives to Improved Cookstove
Programs
|
Benefit
|
Alternative
Intervention
|
|
·
Reducing indoor air pollution
|
Ø
Transition to less polluting fuels for cooking,
such as LPG, ethanol, or solar energy.
Ø
Improving indoor environments with the addition
of chimneys, flues, hoods, and ventilation.
Ø
Changing household behavior, i.e. modifying
cooking practices, keeping children away from the fire.
Ø
Rural electrification.
|
|
·
Less pressure on forest and energy resources
·
Reduced biomass use
·
Reduced greenhouse gases
|
Ø
Reforestation programs.
Ø
Transition to less polluting fuels for cooking.
Ø
Rural electrification.
|
|
·
Money and time saved in acquiring fuel
|
Ø
Income and/or fuel price subsidies.
|
|
·
Skill development and job creation
|
Ø
Programs concentrating on income generating
activities.
Ø
Microfinance projects.
|
Naturally,
there are some cases when the implementation of one or a combination of these
policy interventions may be preferable to improved cookstove programs. Some
rural communities, especially those in close proximity to urban areas and those
that have higher incomes, are more likely to benefit from rural electrification
programs because electric grids are more likely to reach them in the near
future and they will be able to afford the electric appliances necessary.
Similarly, these households are more likely to make the switch to cleaner fuels
since they have easier access to fuel delivery infrastructure. However,
considering that 2 billion of the world’s 6 billion people live in rural areas
with no electricity (Electricité de
France, 2000), it is hard to imagine that access to electricity can be provided
for everyone in the near future. Furthermore, studies show that even in
electrified rural areas, households do not switch to using electric appliances
quickly. This is partly due to the fact that rural households cannot always
afford the cost of electric appliances or electricity itself (Bose, 1993).
Hence, intermediate steps that will improve the conditions of rural households
may be necessary.
Interventions
that encourage the transition to less polluting fuels for cooking are another
solution to the problems addressed by cookstove programs. These fuels include LPG, ethanol, or even
solar energy. As in the case of rural electrification, not all households will
be able to afford these alternative fuels, or the appliances that are required
to use them.
As
a result of all the factors explained above, the author believes that
communities with low incomes located in rural areas
without access to markets or energy infrastructure are most likely to benefit
from improved cookstove projects. It is
with these households in mind that this paper is written.
The four case studies
this paper will focus on are the:
- Chinese National
Improved Stove Program (CNISP)
- Indian National
Programme of Improved Chulhas (NPIC)
- Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program
- Ethiopia Improved Biomass Mirt Stoves Program
This
paper will focus on the latest developments in the efforts to disseminate
improved biomass cookstoves in China, India, Eritrea, and Ethiopia – with the exception of China for which recent data was not available.
The
Chinese National Improved Cookstove Program will be analyzed at a national
level due to lack of data availability at the regional level. In India, regional data was easier to obtain, allowing the
author to pick programs in different states for analysis. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have been chosen for this purpose (See Map 1). The
two state programs function under the umbrella of the Indian National Program
of Improved Chulhas, despite having different implementing agencies and
dissemination strategies. The main reason for concentrating on these two states
is their relatively similar annual income levels (at $370 and $510,
respectively)
and comparable levels of rural poverty (39 and 42 percent, respectively)
(ESMAP, 2002).
The
Eritrean and Ethiopian improved cookstove programs will be analyzed at the
national level, even though the Ethiopian Improved Biomass Stoves Program is
only active in three regions of the country, Amhara, Oromiyo, and Southern (see
Map 2 for the location of these regions).
The author will use national statistics for Eritrea and Ethiopia since regional data is hard to obtain. The assumption is that rural households in Ethiopia and Eritrea are more or less homogenous in income levels and
energy resource profiles.
The
common justification for choosing these four case studies is their targeted
populations of rural households.
Availability of comprehensive information on cookstove statistics and
program characteristic details was also an important factor in the selection of
cases. More specifically, the author believes that the Indian and Chinese
programs, while taking a different approach in dissemination strategy, are
similar in terms of their scale, moderate levels of deforestation, and lower
incidence of rural poverty. The Chinese
and Indian programs are also in the same phase of implementation, switching
from the Sustained National Promotion Phase (Phase 3) to the Maintenance, Support,
and Improvement Phase (Phase 4).
The
Eritrean and Ethiopian programs, on the other hand, also operate under
analogous conditions such as high deforestation and very low rural per capita
incomes. These differences between the
two pairs of countries will allow for a discussion on the role of subsidies and
fuelwood scarcity in improved cookstove programs. Moreover, the analysis of the
programs in the latter countries may serve as a guide for African countries
similar to Ethiopia and Eritrea in terms of economic and natural resources.
A. Methodology and Limitations.
The purpose of this
paper is to associate certain program, cookstove, and regional characteristics
to the success of improved cookstove programs with the help of the four case
studies analyzed. There are certain limitations
in comparing the success of these programs, however. Because the programs are at different stages
of implementation, their performance in terms of dissemination figures and
rates of dissemination will be dissimilar.
The author believes that different criteria should be used for
evaluating the success of programs in different stages. For this purpose, four stages of
implementation for cookstove programs are identified:
1.
Research and
Development (R&D) Phase
2.
Growth and
Scale-up Phase
3.
Sustained
National Promotion Phase
4.
Maintenance,
Support, and Improvement Phase
The Eritrea and
Ethiopia programs studied in this paper have recently moved from the “R&D
Phase” to the “Growth and Scale-Up Phase”, when pilot projects are used to
increase the acceptance and support for the program to allow it to be
implemented at the state or national level.
The Chinese and Indian programs, on the other hand, are on the last
stages of development. The third stage, “Sustained National Promotion Phase” is
when large number of stoves is disseminated in an effort to maximize the number
of households using improved stoves. The last stage, “Maintenance, Support, and
Improvement Phase” is reached when the maximum number of households is
penetrated and the program moves on to ensure the continued use of the improved
stoves as well as making incremental improvements in performance and
adoption.
To allow for a fair
comparison, the author will assign separate measures of success to each of the
phases of improved cookstove programs.
The criteria for the R&D Phase are stove performance in terms of
fuel savings, improved air quality, and the affordability of the stoves. In the Growth and Scale-Up Phase, the annual
growth rate in the dissemination of cookstoves and the degree of dissemination to
low-income rural populations will be considered. In the Sustained National Promotion Phase,
the criterion will be the annual growth in the percentage of new households
adopting the stoves. Finally, for the
Maintenance, Support, and Improvement phase, the net increase in improved stove
use, and net improvements in stove performance will be considered. See Table 2
for a summary of the criteria that will be used to evaluate the success of
improved cookstove programs in different phases.
Table 2.
Criteria for Evaluating Improved Cookstove Programs
in Different Phases.
|
|
Phase
1.
Research
and Development (R&D)
|
Phase
2.
Growth
and Scale-Up
|
Phase
3.
Sustained
National Promotion
|
Phase
4.
Maintenance,
Support, and Improvement
|
|
Criteria
for Success
|
o
Fuel savings
|
o
Annual growth rate of in dissemination
|
o
Annual growth in the number of households using
the ICS
|
o
Net increase in improved stove use.
|
|
o
Improved air quality
|
o
Degree of dissemination to low-income populations
|
|
o
Net improvements in stove performance
|
|
o
Affordability
|
|
|
|
The Chinese National
Improved Cookstove Program (CNISP) started in 1980 with the leadership of the
Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, which operates under the
Ministry of Agriculture. The CNISP promoted the use of approximately 10
different types suitable for users in different regions of China, mostly made of prefabricated cast iron, ceramic,
or concrete slabs. These stove models were primarily of three types: cooking only, cooking and space heating, and
a furnace designed for use in crop processing or other process heat generation
(RWEDP No:40). See Figure 2 below for examples of models distributed. The price
of the improved biomass stoves is around 45 Yuan or $12 in 2002 dollars (Smith
et al, 1993)
but can go up to 100 Yuan depending on the capabilities and materials used for
construction. This study will assume that the Chinese improved stoves cost $12
on average. The average annual income for a Chinese rural household is 1400
Yuan
or approximately $170, which puts the average stove price at approximately
seven percent of the household’s annual income.
The amount of direct government subsidy for the stoves is approximately
4.2 Yuan or 10 percent of the cost of the average stove, total government
contributions per stove increase to 15 percent of the stove when we include
government wages and foregone taxes. Most of the government subsidy goes to
producers of the stoves whereas households pay the full cost (Smith et al,
1993).
The CNISP has
disseminated 144 million improved cookstoves by 1994; this number is said to
have increased to approximately 180 million by the turn of the century. This translates to 62 percent of all rural
households by 1994. (Qiu and Gu, 1996).
The Chinese program has been active for a long time and the author
thinks it reasonable to place it between the third and fourth phases of
implementation. The criterion for success in Phase 3 is the annual growth in
the number of households using improved cookstoves. This averages 5% of households per year for China (Qiu and Gu, 1996). Among the criteria for the last phase of
dissemination are net increases in dissemination and net improvements in stove
performance. China seems to be performing well under each criteria,
increasing the number of stoves distributed by an average of 6 million annually
since 1994.
Figure 2. Examples of Chinese Improved Cookstoves.
The Indian National
Programme of Improved Chulhas started in 1983 under the auspices of the
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES). It is hard to find a consensus on the total
number of stoves disseminated for the national program but the number ranges
from 28 million to 32 million. This
paper focuses on the two Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In Andhra
Pradesh, a total of 2.4 million stoves have been disseminated between 1984 and
2000. In Maharastra 2.9 million stoves
have been disseminated in the same time period.
Since a NPIC evaluation report puts the use of the stoves at 65 percent,
these numbers can be discounted to 1.5 million stoves in Andhra Pradesh and 1.9
million stoves in Maharashtra.
Although close to 80
stove variations were disseminated (Meshram 2001), the stoves can be grouped
into 6 main categories:
(a)
Mud-built, fixed chulha with or without chimney,
(d)
Portable metal-clad, ceramic-lined chulha without chimney, and
(e) Portable chulha with a separate hood chimney
system.(RWEDP No:41)
The cost of the
cookstoves is approximately $9, with
some variation depending on the region and social status of the households .
The support for households comes in the way of direct cash subsidies, ranging
from 50-75 percent of the cost of the stove (RWEDP No.41). The rural per capita
income for these states is approximately $370 and $510, respectively. The price of the stove is approximately one
to two percent of average annual rural income for these states, without the
subsidy to end-users. As of 2000,
approximately 20 percent of rural households own improved chulhas.
Like the Chinese
program, the NPIC is also between the third and fourth phases of
implementation. It is hard to get a
sense of the annual increase in the number of households that adopt improved
Chulhas because of the quota system employed by the MNES. Currently, the increase in the number of
households using the improved cookstoves is approximately 100,000 stoves per
year in Maharashtra. This
number has averaged 130,000 in Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2000.
Figure 3. Selected Cookstoves Disseminated in Andhra
Pradesh and
Maharashtra
C.
Eritrea
Dissemination
of Improved Stoves Program
The Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves
Program was initiated in 1996, with the first field-test taking place in 1999.
The Ministry of Energy through the Eritrean Energy Research and Training Center
(ERTC) coordinates the program. The mogogo
stoves are mostly used for baking injera, which is a staple food in
countries like Eritrea and Ethiopia. In Eritrea, the stoves promoted are in-built ones with
ceramic grates, made mainly with metal parts and brick. The non-local inputs for
the stoves are subsidized which means that the village households only
contribute for the construction phase of the project. Close to 85 percent of the cost of the
improved stove is subsidized, out of the total cost of $20. Eritrea’s rural household
income per capita is $200, which means that the cost of the stove is
approximately 10 percent of annual per capita income.
The Eritrean program is
young and has recently moved to the second or Growth and Scale-Up phase of
implementation. As of 2003, 7000 improved mogogo stoves have been
disseminated, reaching about one percent of traditional stove users. Since the program has been active in rural
areas and almost all households in rural areas use traditional stoves, we can
assume that the stoves have reached approximately one percent of rural
households. Although this number seems
relatively low compared to the Indian and Chinese programs, the relevant
criteria for the Growth and Scale-Up phase are the annual growth in the
dissemination rate and degree of dissemination to low-income populations. The program has been successful in reaching
low-income households in the areas it has been active in. The project
evaluation report for the energy-efficient stoves program states that
acceptance of the new stoves is “wide-spread but not universal”. The annual growth in the dissemination rate
of stoves is around 17 percent, which corresponds to 2900 installations per
year.
D. Ethiopia Mirt Improved
Biomass Stoves Program.
The Ethiopia Mirt Improved Biomass Injera
Stoves Program originated in 1991 and continued under different names and
programs since. The Ethiopian programs
have been coordinated by international development agencies, the Ministry of
Agriculture (MoA), and Rural Energy Technology Centers. Since dissemination of the Mirt stoves
started in 1995, over 400,000 stoves have been disseminated mostly in urban
areas. This paper will focus on the
latest efforts in dissemination, which started in 1999. The project works in
the Amhara, Oromiyo, and Southern Regions of the country (see Figure 7) and is
joint-implemented by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and the Deutsche
Gesellschaft fur Techniche Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
The Mirt stoves distributed were fairly
homogenous although the construction materials changed from region to region
depending on the availability of inputs.
The improved stoves cost around three dollars in Addis Ababa and between four and five dollars in other areas
depending on the transport costs. This is 5 percent of the per capita income of
a rural household in Ethiopia. The
program does not offer subsidies to stove-owners.
Like Eritrea, Ethiopia is at the second phase of program implementation.
Since the inception of the program in 1997, approximately 5000 stoves have been
disseminated in rural or semi-urban areas. This is a very small percentage of
rural households, approximately 1%. However, the growth in the annual
dissemination rate and the degree of dissemination to low-income rural
households are more relevant criteria for the Growth and Scale-Up Phase that
the Ethiopian program is currently in. The author could not get access to data on
the growth in the annual dissemination rate for the Ethiopian program. However, a Winrock study evaluating the
effectiveness of the Mirt stove dissemination in the country, suggests that
many women that belonged to rural households suggested that the stoves were too
expensive for them to afford.
This section will
provide a general overview of regions in which the improved cookstove programs
were initiated. The regional elements
that will be discussed are:
·
Rural incomes
·
Scarcity of fuelwood
In the four countries
studied, Ethiopia and Eritrea have the highest percentage of people living in rural
poverty, 57 and 48 percent, respectively. An average Ethiopian rural household
has a per capita annual income of $100 whereas the rural per capita income for Eritrea is $200. In India, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are also experiencing high levels of rural
poverty, with 39 and 42 percent of their population living below the poverty
line, respectively. The annual per
capital income for a rural household in Andhra Pradesh is approximately $370
whereas the number is $510 for Maharashtra. China’s rural
households are comparatively the most
well-off, with only 9 percent of them living in poverty.
The average rural per capita income in China is $500.
The incidence of rural
poverty is an important determinant for the adoption of improved cookstoves. It is hard to imagine a rural household which
is barely meeting its subsistence needs being able to afford the whole cost of
an improved cookstove. In later
sections, this paper will revisit the issue of rural poverty as it relates to
the affordability of improved cookstoves.
Improved stoves are
more attractive to those households that experience a scarcity in biomass
resources since they will benefit significantly (be it in terms of time saved
from collecting firewood or money saved from the purchase of firewood) from the
increased efficiency of the stoves. In
regions with fuelwood shortage, people have to spend more time collecting wood
or move down the energy ladder and start using straw or dung as fuel. This has serious implications for countries
like Eritrea and Ethiopia whose populations could use animal waste as
fertilizer to improve the already tough agricultural conditions. In Ethiopia “residue fuels are usually collected freely from
farms. Agricultural and crop residues have become important source of fuel for
the rural mass, as fuelwood is becoming scarce. For example in 190/91 2.5
million toe (tons of oil equivalent) of residues fuels are supplied for energy.
Using these fuels for fuel contributes for gradual reduction of soil nutrients”
(EHSER, 2000, pp.10). Less than three
percent of Ethiopia and Eritrea is covered with forests, with coverage decreasing
rapidly over the last few years.
While reforestation efforts are undergoing in both countries, over 90 percent
of rural households continue using biomass as a source of energy. Since
improved cookstoves offer a way for rural households to decrease their
dependence on biomass fuels, cookstove programs have a higher chance of success
in these areas because households will place high value on their stoves.
Deforestation is less
of an issue in India and China where the forest coverage is 22 percent and 15 percent,
respectively. Furthermore, both
countries report increasing tree cover.
Due to a large amount of heterogeneity in different areas within these
countries however, it is hard to conclude that Indian and Chinese households
are not feeling the “energy pinch”. For instance, even though forest cover is
approximately 15 percent in Maharashtra, residents place “fuel scarcity” as the number one
benefit they perceive from improved cookstoves. In other regions in India, fuel savings is secondary to benefits such as
“faster cooking” in Andhra Pradesh.
Unevenness of forest cover is much greater in China, with most remaining forests on the periphery (Manchuria and Yunnan Provinces).
Availability and
scarcity of fuelwood will be discussed in later sections when we turn to the
perceived benefits of improved cookstoves.
Table 4. General Overview of the Regions[i]
|
|
CHINA
|
INDIA
|
ERITREA
|
ETHIOPIA
|
|
Name of Program
|
Chinese Improved Cookstove Program
|
NPIC -
Andhra Pradesh
|
NPIC- Maharashtra
|
Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program
|
Mirt Improved Biomass Stoves Program
|
|
Region of Analysis
|
National
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
Maharashtra
|
National
|
National
|
|
Land Area
|
9,326,410 sq km
|
275,045 sq km
|
307690 sq km
|
121,320 sq km
|
1,119,683 sq km
|
|
Total Population
|
1,284,303,705
|
75,727,541
|
96,752,247
|
4,465,651
|
67,673,031
|
|
Percent Rural
|
63%
|
77%
|
65%
|
84%
|
86%
|
|
Rural Population
|
809,111,334
|
58,310,207
|
62,888,961
|
3,751,147
|
58,198,807
|
|
Annual per Capita Rural Income
|
$320 (1994)*
|
$370 (1996)**
|
$510 (1996)**
|
$200 (2000)
|
$100 (2000)
|
|
% Rural Poverty
|
9%
|
39%
|
42%
|
59%*
|
45%
|
|
Scarcity of Fuelwood (Remaining Forest Cover)
|
14% (1995)
|
16% (1993)
|
15% (1993)
|
2% (1996)
|
3% (1990)
|
|
% of Rural Households Using Biomass
|
61%
|
75%
|
75%
|
80% (whole country)
|
99%
|
|
% of Rural Households with Access to Electricity
|
95%
|
64%
|
96%
|
2%
|
0.2%
|
** The
average annual per capita income can be misleading because of the heterogeneity
of rural incomes in China. For
instance, per capita income can be as low as $130, as in the Sichuan Province (China
on the Move, The Economist; London; Jul 6, 1996).
** The
state per capita incomes were the only available data for Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. These
figures were discounted by 25% to get a more realistic estimate of rural
incomes.
*with
food aid, Eritrea Rapid Appraisal Survey 1993-4, Eritrea World Bank Poverty
Assessment, 1996, without food aid this number is around 67%
This part of the paper
will focus on a few program implementation features that the author believes
play an important role in increasing the dissemination and adoption of
cookstoves. These features are:
A.
Program Coordination
B.
Subsidies
C.
Promotion Strategy
D.
Technical Assistance, Monitoring, and
Maintenance
After an analysis of these
characteristics for each of the improved stove programs, the author will
identify important elements that the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves
Program should pay attention to in the implementation of its project.
This section examines
the nature of coordination in each of the four improved cookstove
programs. More specifically, the
relationship between national and local governments and local organizations in
the implementation of the programs will be examined. In each of the four efforts, the programs
were spearheaded by a government agency.
In the case of China and Ethiopia, it was the Ministry of Agriculture, which took
the lead. In Eritrea and India, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of
Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), respectively, were responsible for
administering the programs.
i. India.
Implementation of the NPIC has been less than impressive at the state level. The following excerpt describes the frustration of one TBU employee about the process in Maharashtra:
In Maharashtra, our TBU is very active, but every time the secretary of the state department in charge of NPIC changes, my colleagues in the TBU have to convince the fellow that MNES is paying money to his department for getting this work done, and it is indeed a part of his assigned duties!
On top of this, MNES keeps on giving new directives every now and then with total disregard to ground realities: The decree to promote cement stoves is the latest one!
Unfortunately, when MNES finally decided to incorporate IAP concerns in the programme, it went for a 'short cut' solution. Instead of giving time to the TBUs to come up with user-friendly easy-to-install non-polluting stoves, and to make systematic efforts to make the chulha users aware of the hazards of IAP, it simply sent a directive that every fixed stove installed under NPIC henceforth must have a chimney.
The consequence in Maharashtra was this: The choice that was offered under NPIC was between fixed stoves with chimney and metallic portable stoves. Due to the various practical problems associated with installing fixed stoves with chimney, the state government's implementing agencies went in a big way for the metallic portable stoves. Consequently, most of the users ended up with having to accept the portable stove due to 'non-availability' of the fixed one. Now, in this region, traditionally the portable stoves are never used as the main daily-cooking-stoves. These are used only if some extra cooking is to be done (large number of guests, big festivals, etc.), or at the most for heating water for bathing (which traditionally is done outside the house on a three-stone-fire). The result is that the 'target' of stoves has been fulfilled, but the 'beneficiaries' continue to use their traditional stoves for daily cooking. Also, the rural potter-entrepreneurs (who make the fixed stoves) who have been trained and nurtured over the years, have lost a lot of business that they used to get through the NPIC, while the city-based industrialists, who fabricate the metallic stoves, have earned handsome profits.
This narrative describes the lack of coordination
between the state-level agencies and the national government in addressing the
needs of the stove users’ and the realities that exist in the field. According
to Dr. Karve, the State Government was supposed to implement the program, but
the government officials were totally disinterested. This caused the TBU to
take on more tasks than originally included in its mandate.
iv. Ethiopia.
The major stakeholders
for the GTZ program in Ethiopia are Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the Ministry of
Water and Mines and Energy, the Bureau of Labor and Social Affairs Department,
the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Micro Finance Institutions. The
distribution of improved rural energy technologies occurs through nine rural
technology centers, which are central in technology development and
promotion. Until 1995, these centers
were coordinated by the Rural Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture. However, after the
establishment of the Federal Democratic Government (FDRE), the country
experienced a decentralization of administration and the centers came under the management of
their respective Agricultural Bureaus.
A Winrock Ethiopia study
finds that there is lack of coordination between the extension staff, rural
technology experts, and the rural women’s affairs team, which represents the
end-users of the improved stoves. The
lack of a national body that coordinates these organizations is seen as a major
setback to the dissemination of rural technologies in Ethiopia (Winrock, 2001).
Subsidies have been a part of many improved cookstove programs. There
is no consensus as to whether they are necessary for the dissemination of
cookstoves in rural areas. Some experts
state that even the poorest of the poor will be able to come up with the funds
to purchase an improved stove if they deem the investment worthy (Personal
communication, Kirk Smith, March 6, 2003). Others believe that it is unrealistic to
expect poor rural households, who may be on the verge of starvation (as in the
case of Eritrea) to be able to afford
an improved cookstove, which may cost up to ten percent of their annual income.
Unfortunately, there is no hard evidence connecting the provision of subsidies
to improved cookstove adoption rates in rural areas.
Analyzing the amount and form of subsidies used in the four case
studies in this paper, the author finds that subsidies are not a determinant of
program success. For instance, the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves
Program was able to secure high adoption and use rates at its initial phase,
not despite but with the support of subsidies.
On the other hand, in Ethiopia, where the program was
implemented with a commercial approach with no subsidies going to end-users,
improved cookstoves did not reach the very poor rural households (Winrock,
2001).
The following sections will discuss the role of subsidies in the four
programs in more detail. The size and type of subsidy offered by these programs
depends on various factors such as the per capita incomes of the rural
households, the percentage of income that needs to be diverted to the purchase
of the stove, availability of local inputs, and most importantly, the price of
the improved stoves.
Price of Improved
Cookstoves.
The price of improved
cookstoves may yet be the most important factor impacting their adoption by
rural households. Rural households have
very low incomes throughout the developing world. Usually, the cost of improved cookstoves are
highest in the beginning phase of stove programs, when the scale of production
is small and does not allow for savings from mass production. In rural areas
where construction materials are hard to come by locally, the cost of obtaining
these materials from non-local sources may make it harder for rural households
that have very limited cash earnings to afford the full cost of the improved
stoves.
In the four case
studies this paper focuses on, the price of the improved stoves varies
significantly. The average price for an improved Chinese cookstove is cited as
approximately $12 whereas the price for the Eritrean improved mogogo
stove is as high as $20. The Ethiopian Mirt and the Indian Chulha stoves sell
at around $10 each when we do not take subsidies into account. Naturally, when we state the price of these
stoves, we have to put them in context by looking at the purchasing power of rural
households in respective regions and countries. As we can see from Table 4,
rural incomes and the purchasing power of rural households also vary. The
purchasing power of rural households in the regions of China and India that this study focuses on is significantly higher
than those in Eritrea and Ethiopia. This has a
large bearing on the ability of households to afford improved cookstoves which
has implications on whether subsidies should be used to assist the households
in their purchase of the improved stoves.
i. India.
In India, the subsidy amount
changes according to regional and household characteristics, as well as the
type of stove. Poorer regions or poorer
households may get to pay less per stove. The subsidy goes all the way up to 50
percent of the stove costs in some regions. Studies find that the effect of the
subsidy has been negative for the NPIC since the government paid the builders
to cover half of the cost for building the stove, which caused the motivation
of the builders to be directed more towards the government than the
consumers. This caused the production to
be “hasty and faulty”. “Many stoves did not accommodate the household cooking
pot, or could not withstand the heat required for cooking. Others did not offer the assured savings in
household firewood consumption. The heavy government subsidy for cook stoves
also suppressed efforts by private entrepreneurs to disseminate their own
improved stoves, as they could not possibly compete with the highly subsidized
government price” (Sinha in Boiling Point No. 48).
Barnes and Kumar point out that in most cases in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, household could
afford to purchase the stove if the subsidies were decreased or removed
completely and a more commercial approach was used.
ii. China.
In China, where the purchasing
power of rural people is the highest in comparison with the remaining three
countries, most of the cost of the stoves is born by users. In the Chinese case, the government, through
Rural Energy Offices, has opted for the provision of subsidies to stove
producers who have to use high-quality inputs in the construction of the
stoves. Once the production of improved stoves begin, rural households slowly
begin to purchase them. As more stoves are sold, the scale of production
increases and economies of scale enable producers to supply the inputs or
construct the stoves cheaper. The lower
price of the next batch of stoves allows poorer families to afford them. The ability to produce the components of the
stoves in small factories has helped China bring down the cost of
the stoves and made the commercialization of the stoves very successful.
In China, the subsidy amount
totals to 15 percent of the full cost of the stove, with most of the subsidy
going to stove producers. Local energy
manufacturing and retail companies are encouraged to take part in the
production of improved stoves through the provision of loans as well as
technical and management support. Some support also goes to training and
promotion costs.
Critics of the subsidy
approach applaud China’s efforts in commercialization and subsequent move to mass production
and advocate for a similar approach in other countries trying to increase the
dissemination of improved stoves.
However, such a contention neglects the heterogeneity in the types of
stoves that rural households use to fulfill their cooking needs. Some stoves,
especially those that are built into houses (as in some Eritrean and Indian
villages), do not lend themselves well to mass production. Moreover, as will be discussed in the coming
sections, the purchasing power of rural households differs greatly between
countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, and China. What is
affordable for a Chinese rural household may not be so for its counterpart in Ethiopia. Thus, even
though the benefits that are perceived by households in both countries are
similar, an Ethiopian household may not have the “cash” resources to afford the
commercialized stove.
iii. Eritrea.
The Eritrean program is an example of close to full subsidies. In
Eritrea, where the improved stoves cost as much as what a rural household earns
in a month, the government has chosen to provide all non-local materials to
stove builders – who are effectively the users themselves. The
builders, who are mostly women, volunteer their time for the construction of
the stoves showing a willingness to pay for the benefits of shifting to an
improved stove. Since all the non-local
inputs for the stoves are subsidized, village households only contribute to the
construction phase of the project.
Assuming that the improved stove takes about two days to build, with
labor costs around $1.5 per day, the total labor contribution per stove is $3.
Since the rest of the materials for the stove is donated by the government and
NGOs, close to 85 percent of the cost of the improved stove is subsidized. In other words, the households that decide to
adopt the cookstoves do not have to make any cash contributions.
Using subsidies to increase the penetration of improved cookstoves in
rural villages in Eritrea may be justified if
the health costs associated with indoor air pollution are considered. Smith et al state that approximately 9.4
percent of global burden of death and disease in less developed countries can
be attributed to acute respiratory infections (Smith et al 1999). If we assume that 3-4 percent of disability
adjusted life years lost in Eritrea is due to indoor air
pollution (which is the major cause of acute respiratory infections), then
spending a comparable portion of the national income to reduce exposure might
make sense. Offering improved cookstoves
to five percent of the population would cost the Eritrean government
approximately $900,000 per year. This
corresponds to about 0.13 percent of Eritrea’s GDP, proving that
the intervention is cost-effective.
iv. Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian program does not include any subsidies to end-users, with
minimal support going to individual producers in the initial “capacity
building” phase of the project. The
project strategy involves a commercial dissemination approach in which private
entrepreneurs are responsible for the production of the stove. The project and public sector funding goes to
the training of the producers and the promotion of the project (Winrock, 2001).
The Winrock
International study focusing on rural energy technologies in Ethiopia reveals that women prefer to use technologies that
do not cost much such as the closed mud stoves. The study suggests that even if
the women know about more advanced technologies, they do not have the resources
to buy them. In an evaluation done on
the Mirt stove in the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS),
a large percentage of households indicated that the price was too high.
TABLE 5. PRICE OF STOVES AND TYPE OF SUBSIDIES
|
|
CHINA
|
INDIA
|
|
ERITREA
|
ETHIOPIA
|
|
Name of
Program
|
Chinese
Improved Cookstove Program
|
NPIC –
Andhra Pradesh
|
NPIC-Maharashtra
|
Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program
|
Mirt
Improved Biomass Stoves Program
|
|
Price
of Improved Cookstove without Subsidy
|
$10
|
$9
|
$9
|
$20
|
$5
|
|
Amount
of Subsidy to End-Users
|
None to
end-users
|
$4.5
|
$4.5
|
$10-20
|
None to
end-users
|
|
as % of
cookstove price
|
none
|
50%
|
50%
|
75%
|
none
|
|
Price
of Improved Cookstove with Subsidy
|
$10
|
$2-$4.5
|
$2-$4.5
|
$10 in
terms of non-cash inputs
|
$5
|
|
Price
of Stove as % of Annual per Capita Rural Income
|
6.5%
|
2.4%
|
1.7%
|
10%
|
5%
|
|
Type of
Subsidy
|
Producers
Training,
technical assistance
|
Direct
cash subsidy to end-users.
|
Providing
non-local materials
Training,
technical assistance
|
Producers
Training,
technical assistance
|
Source: Winrock 2001, RWEDP No. 40, RWEDP No.41,
Smith et al 1993, Sustainable Energy in Eritrea, Dissemination of Improved Cookstoves.
One of the most
important aspects of an improved cookstove project is the promotion
strategy. Much of the time, rural
households are unaware of the benefits of the improved stoves, especially the
health-related benefits. Venkata Ramana states
that the presence of a well-thought-out promotion strategy that can target
different segments of the population is crucial in improved cookstove programs
(Personal Communication, March 27, 2003). Through a well-designed promotion strategy rural
households can be informed of the benefits associated with the improved
stoves. This will cause not only higher
rates of adoption but cause households value their stoves more once they are
adopted. This section will discuss the
promotion strategies employed by the four case studies.
i. India.
In India, public awareness about the improved stoves is
created through radio and television spots as well as local fairs (Meshram,
6). In Andhra Pradesh for example, the
Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd. (NEDCAP)
“Dandora” (drum beating), a form of folk art, for announcing the implementation
of the program in selected villages.
In Maharashtra, the state government developed 27 permanent
demonstration sites, displaying the different models of improved chulhas.
Training courses used screenings of a video film on improved stoves. Also, an innovative approach involved
attempting to popularize the cookstoves through a people’s program called
Janambhoomi (Sinha, 26).
ii. China.
The Chinese program
also makes use of demonstration in order to promote improved cookstoves. In
addition, in some provinces, the Chinese Program requires building holders to
have an improved stove in place in order to receive construction permits.
iii. Eritrea.
In Eritrea, much of the advertising for the stoves occurs
through word of mouth, as households in villages nearby pilot villages hear
about the benefits of the improved stoves.
Demonstration can play an important role in the promotion of improved
stoves as well.
One
method used by the Eritrean program is to first install the stoves in the
houses of some early adopters so that the other villagers can see how the stove
works. Or in a large town, they will do
a first round of the project, where they take sign-ups. Installation is done for the first round
signers, and then people can decide whether or not to adopt. In the town of Imbaderho, a small town of
5000 households, in the first round, about 420 households signed up for the new
mogogos. On March 10, 2003, a follow-up visit was made by the ERTC to about
10 households that did not get the stoves in the first round. ‘Almost all’
indicated that they wanted the stoves but did not get them in the first round
because they either did not know how good they are, or because they could not
attend the original project sign-up meeting.
Another promotion
avenue employed by the Eritrean program is the use of mass media in the form of
TV and radio spots. This may be more
influential in semi-urban areas in Eritrea with wider access to electricity but it does not
go a long way in rural areas where access is limited. However, it should be noted that there are
close to 400,000 radios in Eritrea, which translates to one radio per every ten
household. Even though only a small
fraction of households own radios, they can be important tools in reaching the
public, especially if we assume that several households may be sharing a radio.
iv. Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, the GTZ project includes the promotion of the new
stoves to households through awareness raising campaigns, distribution of
promotional materials, and the use of mass media (HEPNR 15). In addition, the project helps promote the Mirt
stoves by installing it in a market place and cooking injera with it. It is cited that many stoves have been sold
through this promotion strategy (Winrock 2001, pp.23).
A study done by Winrock International Ethiopian
(WIE), the Women's Affairs Office of the Prime Minister's Office (WAO) and the
Women's Affairs Department (WAD) of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in Ethiopia found that a majority of women (77%) indicated
that they had not heard about the improved stove technologies. The writers of the study suggest that this is
partially due to lack of women’s time for attending trainings by extension staff
and partly to the lack of promotion for these technologies. The study finds
that even though the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture has extension staff
devoted to promotion activities, the number of staff when compared to the
population is low. Other problems associated with the extension program are
that it mostly focuses on men-related activities, and that it does not devote
consistent effort to promote improved stove technology. The level and strength of promotion depends
on the availability of funds from NGOs and international organization.
i. India.
The technical
assistance for the NCIP is implemented through the thirteen state Technical
Backup Units (TBUs). In Andhra Pradesh,
the Regional Engineering
College in Warangal provided technical support and training for stove
builders and users. However, it was
found that after-sales service and maintenance was lacking and user
satisfaction was not monitored. The stove parts were not of high quality and
users had a hard time finding new stove parts, especially for stove liners,
which tended to crack after six months.
In Maharashtra, the TBU was the Appropriate Rural Technology
Institute (ARTI), which provided training to traditional potters and
self-employed workers to design build and sell improved stoves.
However, even though technical support was strong in the design and construction
stages of the program, quality control was very poor. Barnes and Kumar believe that this is due to
the “pressure by field implementation staff to meet sales targets.”
Furthermore, they state that untrained entrepreneurs sometimes built the
stoves, with no mechanism to ensure the use of stove parts from approved
vendors.
For monitoring, India uses a three-tier system. The first tier involves self-monitoring by
the State Governments and nodal agencies.
The second tier involves monitoring by TBUs and Regional offices. The last tier of monitoring is an evaluation
by an independent organization.
ii. China.
The CNISP program has
strong mechanisms in place that provide technical assistance, monitoring, and
maintenance services. In terms of
R&D, there is a network of 25 institutions focusing on issues such as
training and promotion of new stove designs.
Another integral part of the program are the Rural Energy Companies,
which work mainly at the county level alongside the County Offices of Rural Energy. These
companies make and sell stoves and stove parts and provide installation and
servicing of rural energy technologies.
iii. Eritrea.
In Eritrea, the technical assistance
for the improved cookstove project is implemented by the Energy Research and
Training Center (ERTC) which trains local artisans in the design and
construction of the stoves, provides non-local supplies, as well as testing and
monitoring stove performance. Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program is closely monitored by the ERTC, with
annual reports analyzing the progress of the program and monitoring program
activity.
iv. Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia nine Rural Technology
Promotion Centers (RTPCs) are responsible for technology development and
promotion. Even though the technology produced in these centers are similar due
to the training in prototype and batch manufacturing they received, each center
also produces technologies that are specific to the communities they
serve. In terms of monitoring, a study
done by Winrock International Ethiopia found that the RTPCs engaged in very
limited follow-up with the beneficiaries of the technologies. Also, the Centers
did not have a formal feedback mechanism in place. Another finding was that the
Centers lack professional and skilled employees, a strong budget, and
experience a high turnover. Overall the
study states that there is “an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of the
centers if they are to achieve their objectives” (Winrock, 2001,
pp.18-19). The GTZ Project has designed
a system which will monitor performance and evaluate the impacts of the
program. It plans to “build the capacity
of regional counterparts and to delegate the monitoring to the implementing
agencies at regional/zonal level” (HEPNR, 8).
Program Coordination
Program coordination is important for all the
phases of improved cookstove programs.
In China, the straightforward implementation mechanism that
minimized bureaucracy and established direct contact between the implementing
agency at the national level and the local agencies contributed to the success
of the program. In the state of Maharashtra in India, on the other hand, lack of communication between
the state and local TBUs translated to a disconnect between the expectations of
the MNES and the reality that the state TBU faced in the field. As a result,
even though the number of stoves that the MNES directed TBU to disseminate were
handed out at the state level, the actual adoption and use of these stoves have
been predicted to be much lower than the figures released by the
authorities. The Ethiopian improved
stove program seems to be suffering a similar fate with the NPIC program in Maharashtra, as coordination between extension staff, rural
technology experts, and the local agencies, which represent the end-users, has
been reported to be weak. In addition,
the Ethiopian program lacks a national body that could facilitate greater
interaction between these organizations.
In Eritrea, the implementation of the improved cookstove
program is structured along the lines of the Chinese program. The government is well organized and
maintains strong connections with the ERTC.
Also, similar to the Chinese program, the Eritrean government allows for
competition between villages to determine who will be eligible to receive the
improved cookstoves. This allows those
villages that are organized and ready for the implementation of the program to
go first. Eritrea should maintain the coordination mechanism that is
in place as it is well positioned to face challenges coming from this
direction.
Subsidies
When improved cookstove
programs shy away from using subsidies, especially in rural areas, they are
overlooking the possibility that it might be “precisely those areas that
require heavy subsidization which might be the most important to reach.”
(Barnes et al, 1994) As Halpern and
Barnes also acknowledge “ under some circumstances it is reasonable to use
subsidies to promote access to energy for the poorest households, which now
must get by with such fuels as dung and straw for cooking, and candles and
kerosene for lighting.[…]Energy subsidies have become unpopular among policy
advisers. But subsidies should not be rejected out of hand. Instead, they
should be more carefully designed to maximize their impact on the poor” (Barnes
and Halpern, 2000, pp.65).
The
author believes that subsidies should focus on achieving affordability for
households. Subsidies (to end-users) have greater influence on success,
especially in the second phase of improved cookstove programs as it is at this
stage when stoves are the most expensive and thus least affordable for low-income
rural households like those in Eritrea.
In China, the end-users did not
need subsidies because they had relatively high rural incomes. The price of the
improved cookstoves was on average seven percent of annual rural household
income in China. The percentage was approximately one to two
percent for Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra without the
subsidies. A study of the NPIC program
in these states shows that many of the households in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra also had adequate incomes
to afford the improved Chulhas, even if the government did not subsidize them
or subsidized them to a lesser extent (Barnes and Kumar, 2003). Subsidies,
coupled with a quota system, which determined the number of cookstoves to be
disseminated on an annual basis, caused local agencies to hand out Chulhas to
households regardless of their needs, which led to high dissemination numbers
but low use. It might indeed make sense
for the NPIC to scale down on the subsidies and move to a more commercial
system in the distribution of improved Chulhas.
The
situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea may be different as rural
incomes are much lower in these countries.
In Eritrea, the improved stove makes
up about twelve percent of the rural household income whereas this figure is
five percent for Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, the lack of subsidies to
the end-users is one of the factors found to cause low dissemination rates for
the Mirt stoves in rural areas (Winrock, 2001).
The
Eritrean program should continue its subsidy approach if it wants to sustain
the high dissemination and use rates in rural areas of the country, especially
at this phase of the project. Learning
from NPIC’s mistakes, the Eritrean program should avoid using quotas to set
goals for stove dissemination.
Furthermore, the program should be closely monitored to make sure that
subsidies are not leading to the distribution of unused stoves and stove parts.
As
the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program moves on to national
scale, efforts should be directed towards commercialization and mass production
of the stoves, which will allow producers to benefit from economies of scale
and lead to lower stove prices. As the
improved stove prices goes down, the government can reduce subsidies and
decrease its spending on the program.
Promotion Strategy
A
strong promotion strategy is important across all phases of improved cookstove
programs. However, promotion is clearly essential at the second phase (Growth
and Scale-Up) of cookstove projects when the program starts to increase in
scale and becomes implemented at the national level. Since, Eritrea’s improved stove program
is currently at this stage, educating the public about the benefits of the
improved stoves is important if the program is going to be successfully scaled up
to the national level.
The Eritrean improved
stove program could benefit greatly from a project promotion survey, which
could direct the program administrators to the most effective avenues for
promoting the improved cookstoves. Also, the program could benefit from an
evaluation of the effectiveness of current promotion strategies.
While demonstration
schemes are widely used as a promotion strategy in all cases studied, most
programs also use media resources such as TV and radio spots to inform the public.
Eritrea should continue with its media promotion efforts, primarily focusing on
radio spots since approximately one in every ten households own a radio and
more might have access to one through sharing or borrowing from households that
have radios.
Currently, most of the
promotion of improved cookstoves happens through word of mouth but this might
not prove adequate as the program seeks to expand to the whole country. Eritrea should continue its
demonstration projects Eritrea might want to investigate
ways in which it could further promote the cookstoves such as increased
demonstration events or training village level administrators so that they can
inform/educate villagers about the improved cookstoves.
Technical Assistance
The NPIC experienced
strong technical support in the design and construction stages of the program
in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. However,
the same success cannot be attributed to the “quality control” aspect of the
program, mostly due to the pressure (from the national government) to
disseminate as many stoves as possible in a given time. This led to a high percentage of stoves be
set aside at the household level because of poor quality and malfunctioning. On the other hand, much of the success of China’s technical assistance has been attributed to the
Rural Energy Companies, which are the primary producers of the stoves and stove
parts. Since they are responsible for
both the sale and maintenance of the stoves, they have an incentive to provide
the best service to the improved stove users. Since the Eritrean program does
not rely on a commercial dissemination approach, it is not possible for it to
emulate the Chinese approach. However, Eritrea has to make sure that quality control remains an
important aspect of the improved cookstove program as the program moves on to
the next phase.
Monitoring
The Chinese program is
very successful at monitoring the dissemination efforts of the program since it
employs the help of an independent party at the provincial level to take
responsibility for this function. The
Indian program uses different stages of monitoring, also relying on an
independent party for the evaluation of the program. The Ethiopian program on the other hand, does
not have a strong monitoring strategy in place, a component of the program that
should be improved as the GTZ project progresses.
The improved stove
program is being frequently and closely monitored by the ERTC in Eritrea. ERTC
should sustain its efforts in the next phases of implementation and continue to
perform annual evaluations as the project moves on to the national level.
This study focuses on the dissemination of “biomass” cookstoves in the
developing world. Even among biomass
stoves though, there is much heterogeneity and much of the success for improved
cookstove programs depends on the characteristics of these stoves. This section
will discuss cookstove characteristics in terms of:
·
Durability;
·
User involvement in design and production; and
·
Perceived benefits by rural households.
Durability of improved
cookstoves is an important factor determining household choice on whether to
adopt the stove or buy a new one to replace the old one. The durability depends on such characteristics
as the quality of materials used in the construction of the stove, provision of
proper technical knowledge to stove builders, and the availability of technical
assistance for stove repairs. Among the
improved stove programs analyzed, the Indian Chulha had the shortest life span
with an estimated 30 months whereas the its Chinese counterpart came out to be
the most durable. Although the NPIC
program requires that the stoves be constructed by self-employed workers who
are certified by the Technical Backup Units, that this was not the case at all
times. The stoves built by uncertified
self-employed workers were usually of lower quality. Furthermore, even though stove manufacturers
were required to buy their inputs for the construction of the stoves from
approved suppliers, this requirement was frequently overlooked and inferior
stove materials were purchased from the market.
Barnes and Kumar
contend that most of these quality problems in India arise from the nature of the program where users
do not have a choice in picking stoves that were suitable for their
households. The authors also believe
that “a greater number of standard parts in the stove also can be important for
lower costs and improving quality control” (Barnes and Kumar 2003).
One problem associated
with programs where the improved cookstoves are built into the houses of users
(such as in India, Ethiopia, and Eritrea) is the fact that these stoves require custom
installation. Alterations to the
original design of the stoves lead to lower efficiencies. This problem is
avoided in the Chinese program where all the critical components of the stoves
are produced in small factories and then assembled in the home.
In Eritrea and Ethiopia, the durability of the improved stoves is a function
of the materials used and their design.
For instance, in Eritrea, the life span of a mogogo with a metal
chimney is approximately 5 years whereas the life span of a mogogo
without a metal chimney can be as long as 20 years. Similarly, in Ethiopia, the Mirt stoves that used a scoria-cement mix
were found to be more durable but since this mix was not available in most
rural areas, stoves had to be built with other materials, which made them less
durable.
All of the four
programs involved users in the construction phase of the stove, with varying
degrees of participation. The situation in China is slightly different than the cases in Eritrea, and Ethiopia because women were involved at the design and
field-testing stages of the program rather than in the actual construction
phase. The household involvement in
these initial stages enabled the stove designers and builders to incorporate
“convenience to household” as an important element in the program. In Eritrea, women were involved in all phases of the program,
including the construction of the stoves.
Technical personnel from the Eritrean Energy Research and Training Center visited villages to train the women how to build the stoves themselves.
This enabled them to take advantage of the local skills and capabilities, as
rural women had considerable expertise in pottery making, clay furniture
making, etc.
Women were active
participants in the production, sale, and installation phases of the stoves in Ethiopia as well. GTZ notes that almost half of the stove
producers in Ethiopia are women (HEPNR, 2000). However, there is
evidence that the RTPCs in Ethiopia did not have direct contact with the
beneficiaries. Even though the extension
staff acted as an intermediary between the technical staff and farmers, this
did not lead to enough linkage between the end-users and developers.
Since there is no
linkage between technology developers and end users, technology development
does not take account of the indigenous knowledge of farmers and as such the
role of innovative farmers is neglected. Moreover, there is lack of
participation of women in technology development.
Technology
development is also gender neutral and biased towards the ones who can afford
it. Even though RTPCs are operated with government budget, they have to produce
technologies that they can sell and their potential targets are those who can
buy. On the other hand private enterprises are profit oriented and are
interested in making technologies that can fetch them money. Special focus is
not made to address the needs of women. The aims set for the technology
development is to alleviate the workload of the farmer without consideration to
the specific needs and concerns of women. Even though women are implicitly
assumed to benefit from the technologies to be developed/multiplied, no special
reference is made to the needs and priority concerns of women (Winrock, 2001,
pp.18-19).
Much of China’s success in the CNISP can be attributed to
women’s involvement in the program. Women were involved both at the
field-testing stage and in discussions centering on their needs from the
stoves. In one region, the stove included a shelf to place spices, at the
request of women.
This section will talk
about how and whether the rural households perceive the benefits of the stoves
in each of the programs. The most common benefits associated with improved
cookstoves are better health and fuel savings.
In India, it was found
that “users of the improved stoves actually rank the removal of cooking smoke
from the household as a higher priority than energy saving, with the exception
of Andra Pradesh, where users picked “smoke removal” as a less beneficial
aspect compared to “fuel savings” (Barnes and Kumar 2003).
In Eritrea, interviews conducted in 22 households across 8
villages indicated that the primary benefit for the new mogogos is
reduced smoke. Villagers stated that
they experienced significant decreases in stinging eye problems. Fuel savings followed reduced smoke. Other benefits cited were decreased cooking
time and increased productivity, improved safety, and better quality bread.
Drawbacks of the stoves include the larger size, the labor, effort and
cost for installation/ construction, and the inability to move stoves with
change of residence.
In a survey completed in
150 of 600 households using the improved stoves in Ethiopia, 94 percent of the respondents indicated that they
bought the stove for its fuel saving quality (Winrock, 2001). Other reasons
cited by Ethiopian users include reduced smoke, faster cooking, durability, and
safety (PRASIHSP, 2000). In addition, a study done by Wudnesh showed that women
in the study areas spent five hours a day on average collecting firewood. In
most regions where the Winrock study was based on, women identified wood
collection as their most difficult task (Winrock, 2001).
The
Ethiopia study also found that
the technology developed by the RTPCs depended not on the farmers’ needs but on
the past experience of the technology developer. The surveys designed to assess the needs of
the beneficiaries were very limited. “For
the most part, technology development in RTPC has been from prototypes imported
from abroad or from designs borrowed from other Rural Technology Centers”
(Winrock, 2001) This is partly due to
the lack of contact between the technology developers and the end-users.
Table 6. Overview of
Cookstove Characteristics
|
|
CHINA
|
INDIA
|
ERITREA
|
ETHIOPIA
|
|
Name of
Program
|
Chinese
Improved Cookstove Program
|
NPIC -
Andhra
Pradesh
|
NPIC-
Maharashtra
|
Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program
|
Mirt
Improved Biomass Stoves Program
|
|
Materials
Used
|
Prefabricated
cast iron, ceramic, concrete slabs
|
Mud
with cement or pottery liners
|
Two-pot
chimney model with pottery liners
|
Mud,
ceramic, metal
|
Pumice
(volcanic ash) and cement. Scoria (red ash) and sand/cement
|
|
Variability
of Design
|
High –
20 different types
|
Moderate
- Several models depending on regional requirements
|
Moderate
– two basic types
|
Low
|
Moderate
– depends on availability of materials
|
|
User
Involvement in Design
|
Yes.
Women involved in design and field testing stages.
|
NA
|
NA
|
Village
women.
|
Women
very active in the production, sale, and installation of the stoves
|
|
Efficiency
Improvement
|
10-12%
to 20-25%
|
24-28%
|
20-28%
|
6-8% to
20%
|
10% to
19-21%
|
|
Durability
|
High –
close to ten years
|
Low –
estimated as 30 months
|
Moderate
|
Low –
5-8 years under optimal conditions
|
|
Commercial
Marketing
|
Yes.
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Source: Winrock 2001, RWEDP No.
40, RWEDP No.41, Smith et al 1993, Sustainable Energy in Eritrea, Dissemination of Improved Cookstoves.
User Involvement in the Design and Construction of
the Stove
It is very important for
an improved cookstove program to include the users of the stoves in the design
and construction stages of the project.
This is partly because the users, mostly women, will be the primary beneficiaries
of the programs and they should naturally have a say about an intervention that
will bring change to their lives. More
importantly, however, the end-users will be more knowledgeable than the
scientists in terms of what the improved cookstoves will need to accommodate in
terms of local cooking practices, additional benefits (such as insect removal
or heating), and aesthetic requirements. Chikkatur believes that “a bulk of the
engineering of energy technology should be carried out in the village itself,
with villagers as partners. The villagers need to be an integral part of the
entire technology design process and not just in the implementation stage”
(Chikkatur, 2002).
The Eritrea Dissemination
of Improved Stoves Program involves the users of the stove in the design and
construction phase of the stove. This is
made possible since the builders of the stoves are usually drawn from among the
users. As the Eritrean program moves to
national scale and the stoves start to be produced commercially, the ERTC
should make sure that the users are kept as an integral part of the design and
construction of the stoves by keeping easy communication channels between the
producers and the end-users.
Perceived Benefits and Drawbacks
The perceived benefits
and drawbacks of the stove will differ from region to region. Successful stove programs will take
heterogeneity into account when designing their programs. A survey of the characteristics of the traditional
stoves should be performed prior to designing the improved cookstoves since
those stoves that do not possess similar characteristics are not likely to be
adopted by households. This was the case when a program failed to understand
the different uses of the stove in a certain region and constructed the stove
so that it was “smokeless” without knowing that the rural households used the
smoke emitted by the old stove to repel insects. What happened was the
households reverted back to using the traditional stove, putting the new one
aside (Chikkatur 2000).
The Eritrean program does
a good job in soliciting the views of improved stove users through occasional
surveys and village visits. Eritrea should keep taking feedback from the users of the
improved stoves and make sure that the stoves continue to adequately address
the needs of the rural households. This is possible through conducting more
user surveys or visiting villages to talk to stove users. In addition, there
should be a feedback mechanism put in place as the program branches out to more
villages in the country. Since, some
degree of heterogeneity in user needs among different regions should be
expected, the Eritrean program should make sure these are not overlooked by
building a strong channel of communication between program administrators,
technical staff, and local communities.
This paper tackled the
problem of low adoption rates of improved cookstoves in rural settings in the
developing world in an effort to provide recommendations to the Eritrea
Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program.
To identify key determinants of successful improved cookstove programs,
four programs that target rural settings were examined. The analysis of
improved cookstove programs in India, China, Eritrea, and Ethiopia enables the author to come up with the following
recommendations for the Eritrea Dissemination of Improved Stoves Program:
9.
The Eritrea
Dissemination for Improved Stoves Program should continue the subsidy
approach to make the stoves affordable to low-income rural
communities. However, the program should
avoid setting quotas for improved stove dissemination, as was done in India. In
addition, the program should be closely monitored to ensure that subsidies are
not leading to the distribution of unused stoves or stove parts.
10. As the program moves on to national scale, Eritrea should promote commercialization and mass
production of the stoves. This will
allow stove producers to benefit from economies of scale and bring improved
stove prices down. As the stoves become
more affordable, subsidies can be phased out. As mass production of stove parts
becomes a reality, the ERTC should encourage competition between stove
producers and ensure that the parts are of high quality.
11. Eritrea should encourage competition between villages
that can prove to the government that they are ready and organized for a
village-level switch to improved cookstoves.
This approach helps identify those villages that represent households
that have greater use for the stoves.
12. The Eritrean program should rely on a stronger
promotional strategy as the project moves to national scale. The program might want to investigate ways in
which it could further promote the improved cookstoves. The author believes that the program could
greatly benefit from a project promotion survey, which could direct the program
administrators to the most effective avenues for promoting the improved
cookstoves. Finally, Eritrea should evaluate the effectiveness of the
current promotion strategies. This will be useful in ensuring that funds
for promotion are being spent on the right strategies.
13. Eritrea should continue to solicit feedback from the
users of the improved stoves and make sure that the stoves continue to
adequately address the needs of the rural households. This can be possible
through conducting more user surveys or visiting villages to talk to stove
users. There should be a feedback mechanism put in place as the program
branches out to more villages in the country.
Since, some degree of heterogeneity in user needs among different
regions should be expected, the Eritrean program should make sure these are not
overlooked by building a strong channel of communication between program
administrators, technical staff, and local communities.
14. The Eritrean Energy Research and Training Center (ERTC) should monitor the results of the improved
cookstove program and aim to complete annual evaluations on the
progress of the program.
15. The enlargement of the scale of the program to the
national level will require increased levels of funding, especially if the
subsidies are to be sustained. Eritrea should find ways to inform international donors
and NGOs about the program’s success in the initial two phases. The
Eritrean Technical Exchange can be instrumental in these efforts.
16. The survey of the four improved cookstove programs
has shown that the maximum rate of adoption ranges between four to five
percent, as realized by the Chinese National Improved Cookstove Program. The Eritrean program should view this number
as a target while monitoring the dissemination efforts closely to make sure
that the adoption of cookstoves results in the use of cookstoves. Eritrea has to significantly increase the dissemination
of improved stoves as it moves to the Sustained National Promotion
Phase. Currently, an average of 2900
stoves are being installed annually.
This number has to increase to approximately 25,000 stoves to achieve a
dissemination rate similar to that of the Chinese program, which is the most
successful program surveyed in this study.
African
Energy Data and Terminology Handbook, Edited by Stephen Karekezi, John
Kimani, Lugard Majoro, and, Waeni Kithyoma, 2002.
Available
online:http://www.afrepren.org/rural.pdf
Barnes,
Douglas F; Openshaw,
Keith; Smith, Kirk R;
van der Plas,
Robert; The design and diffusion of improved cooking stoves, The
World Bank Research Observer; Washington; Jul 1993.
Barnes, Douglas., Priti Kumar,
Success Factors in Improved Cookstove Programs:
Lessons from Six States in India, to be
published in Journal of Environmental Studies and Policy, TERI: New
Delhi.
Bose, Sarmila, Money, Energy and
Welfare. Chapter 5, “Women, Work, and Household Electrification in Rural India, Delhi: Oxford University Press: Bombay, India, 1993,
pp. 143-181.
Budds, Jessica, Biran Adam,
Jonathan Rouse. What’s Cooking? A review of the health impacts of indoor air
pollution and technical interventions for its reduction. Water and
Environmental Health at London and
Loughborough (WELL) October 2001.
China on the Move, The Economist; London; Jul 6, 1996.
China
Overcoming Rural Poverty, 2001 Rural Development and Natural Resources Unit,
East Asia and Pacific Region, Joint Report of the Leading Group for Poverty
Reduction, UNDP, and The World Bank.
Available online:
http://www.worldbank.org.cn/English/content/poverty.pdf
Chikkatur, Annath. Conference on Development by
Design, Grassroot Level Energy Analysis and Technology Development in Rural India: Grassroots Level Open Collaboration for Rural
Energy, Bangalore 2002.
Design, Promotion, and
Dissemination of Energy-Efficient Stoves Project Evaluation Report, August
2001.
Available online:
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/MogogoEval200108.html
Eritrea Poverty Assessment, Population and Human Resources Division
Eastern Africa Department, The World Bank, 1996.
Eritrean Energy Research and Training Center, Improving
Traditional Stove Efficiency in Eritrea: Efficient Stove Testing And Promotion Benefits.
Available
online: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/StoveEff032000.html
Goldemberg, J. Rural Energy in Developing Countries
Chapter 10 in UNDP World Energy Assessment: Energy and the Challenge of
Sustainability, UNDP, New York, 2000.
Household
Energy/Protection of Natural Resources Project (HEPNR) Project
brief, First Phase, January 1998 to December 2000, Addis Ababa, December 2000.
Available
online: http://www.gtz.de/hep/download/Projectbrief1200columns.pdf
Kammen, Daniel M., Michael R. Dove. The Virtues of Mundane Science, Environment, Vol.
39 No. 6 (July/August 1997).
Larson Bruce A., Sydney Rosen. Understanding Household
Demand for Indoor Air Pollution Control in Developing Countries. Social Science
& Medicine, Vol. 55, pp. 571-574, 2002.
Maps of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Available
online: http://www.thebharat.com/maps/maharashtra/index.htm
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Annual Report
2001-2002.
Available
online: http://mnes.nic.in
Poverty Reduction Aspects of Successful Improved Household
Stove Programmes (PRASIHSP), Final Summary Report, Department for International
Development, KAR Project R7368, October 2000.
Available
online:
http://povertystoves.energyprojects.net/documents/final_report_poverty_reduction_stoves_R7368.pdf.
Qiu Daxiong, Shuhua Gu., Diffusion of Improved Biomass
Cookstoves in China, Energy Policy, Vol. 24, No.5, pp.463-469, 1996.
Ramakrishna, J., Results and Analysis of The Global Survey
of Improved Cookstove Programs, Project Main Report #1. Environment and Policy
Institute of the East-West Center, Hawaii, and World Bank (ESMAP).
Regional Wood Energy
Development Programme (RWEDP) Improved Solid Biomass Burning Cookstoves: A
Development Manual. Field Document No. 44.
Available
online: http://www.rwedp.org/acrobat/fd44.pdf
Regional Wood Energy Development Programme (RWEDP) Indian
Improved Cookstoves: A Compendium, Field Document No. 41.
Available online:
http://rwedp.org/acrobat/fd41.pdf
Rouse, J. Improved Biomass
Cookstove Programmes: Criteria for Success, MA Rural Development Dissertation, University
of Sussex, UK, 1999.
Electricité de
France, Rural Electrification of Developing Countries, The EDF Approach,
Presentation by Guy Marboeuf.
Available
online: http://www.edf.fr/html/fr/actualites/seminaire_gabon2/en/Presentations/Approach.pdf.
Sinha, Bashakar,2The Indian stove
programme: an insider’s view – the role of society, politics, economics and
education, Boiling Point, No. 48, pp.23-24.
Available online:
http://www.itdg.org/html/energy/docs48/bp48_pp23-26.pdf
Smith, Kirk R. In Praise of Petroleum? Science
298(5600):1847, 2002.
Smith, Kirk R. National Burden of Disease in India from
Indoor Air Pollution. PNAS. November
21, 2000, Vol. 97, No. 24.
Smith, Kirk R., et al.
Greenhouse Implications of Household Stoves: An Analysis for India. Annual
Review of Energy Environment, Vol.25, pp. 741-763, 2000.
Smith,
Kirk R., et al. One Hundred Million Improved Cookstoves in China: How Was It Done?, World Development, Vol 21, No.
6, pp. 941-961, 1993.
Smith, Kirk R., Carlos F.
Corvalán, Tord Kjellström. How Much Global Ill Health is Attributable to Environmental
Factors? Epidemiology, Vol.10, No 5. pp 573-584. September 1999.
Strategy for Danish-Eritrean Development
Cooperation (SDEDC), Eritrea’s
Political and Economic Situation, 2000.
Available
Online: http://www.um.dk/publikationer/fremmedsprog/English/Strategy/Eritrea/eritrea.2.asp.
Van
Buskirk, Robert., Eritrea Design, Promotion, and
Dissemination of Energy-Efficient Stoves
Project Evaluation Report August
2001.
World
Resources Institute. UNEP, UNDP, World Bank. 1998-99 World Resources: a guide
to the global environment. Oxford University Press. Chapter 2, pages
65-67.
Z. Luo and W. Hulscher
Woodfuel Emissions and Cost, Wood Energy News, Vol 14, No. 3, Regional Wood
Energy Development Programme in Asia (GCP/RAS/154/NET).
Dan
Kammen, Professor of Energy and Society (ERG)
Professor
of Public Policy in the Goldman School, Professor of Nuclear
Engineering, Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and
Resources Group.