Reports & Research

The Alliance has compiled some of the most useful information about the cookstoves and fuels sectors to populate this searchable database, including market assessments, consumer behavior and preference information, and other research studies. The database will be updated frequently as we continue to build our knowledge database, and as always we appreciate our partners’ input. If you have any reports or research to add to this database, please send it to knowledge@cleancookstoves.org

Year
Language
Country
 
What Makes People Adopt Improved Cookstoves - Empirical Evidence from Rural Northwest Pakistan
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Environment | Inayatullah Jan | Released on June 10, 2012

Dependence of the world population on biomass fuels for domestic energy consumption is one of the major anthropogenic causes of deforestation worldwide. The use of biomass in inefficient ways in rural areas increases the fuelwood demand of a household. Development of the improved biomass stove programs in the 1970s has been one of the efforts to reduce the burden on biomass resource base through reliable and efficient methods of energy consumption. However, despite having multiple economic, social, environmental, and health benefits, the improved stove dissemination programs failed to capture worldwide recognition. A wide array of socio-cultural, economic, political and institutional barriers contributes to the low adoption rate of such programs. Drawing on field work surveys in rural northwest Pakistan, this paper provides empirical evidence of individual, household, and community level variables that play a vital role in the adoption of improved cookstoves. The study is based on primary data collected from 100 randomly selected households in two villages of rural northwest Pakistan. Using regression analysis, the study finds that education and household income are the most significant factors that determine a household willingness to adopt improved biomass stoves. The study concludes that the rate of adoption could substantially be improved if the government and non-governmental organizations play a greater role in overcoming the social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional barriers to adopting improved cooking technologies.

What Impedes Efficient Product Adoption - Evidence from Randomized Variation in Sales Offers for Improved Cookstoves in Uganda
Alliance Reports and Research, Gender, Other | | Released on June 10, 2012

Many people do not purchase products that appear beneficial. For example, the price of an efficient cookstove can be less than a few months’ savings on fuel. If liquidity constraints, present bias, and poor information on fuel savings and stove durability are barriers, then a novel sales offer combining a free trial, time payments, and the right to return the stove at any time should increase sales. In a randomized trial, this sales offer increases sales of an efficient charcoal-burning stove in Kampala, Uganda, from 5% to 45%. We provide additional evidence that both liquidity constraints and imperfect information were important barriers.

Putting the Cook Before the Stove - a User-Centred Approach to Understanding Household Energy Decision-Making
Livelihoods, Gender | Fiona Lambe, Aaron Atteridge | Released on June 10, 2012

Globally, 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity and an estimated 2.7 billion rely on traditional biomass – wood, charcoal, animal waste and agricultural residues – for cooking and space heating. Roughly one third of this population lives in rural India. Over the past two decades, considerable efforts have been made to introduce improved cookstoves and/or cleaner cooking fuels in India, but as in other countries, these interventions have largely failed to bring about a large-scale transition towards cleaner, more “modern” cooking technologies. It has been argued that a central problem with most efforts has been that they paid too little attention to users’ needs and cultural contexts, but rather over-emphasised technical factors such energy efficiency and emissions reductions. This study seeks to better understand the most important influences over household energy choices, in order to identify practical ways to support communities shifting to cleaner energy use. We use a qualitative “generative” research methodology to investigate energy use and dynamics in four villages in Haryana State. Our results indicate a range of social, cultural and financial factors that influence the way people make decisions about energy and cooking, including the availability and flexibility of traditional fuels, the type of dishes prepared, the taste of food, problems with smoke, the aesthetic appeal of stoves, and how users perceive alternatives. These findings have implications for efforts to design effective cookstove interventions, most notably the Indian Government’s ambitious National Biomass Cookstove Initiative, which aims to provide all Indian households currently using inefficient stoves with “next-generation” biomass stoves.

Prevalance of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in rural women of Tamilnadu - implications for refining disease burden assessments attributable to household biomass combustion
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender | Priscilla Johnson, Kalpana Balakrishnan, Padmavathi Ramaswamy, Santu Ghosh, Muthukumar Sadhasivam, Omprakash Abirami, Bernard W. C. Sathiasekaran, Kirk R. Smith, Vijayalakshmi Thanasekaraan, Arcot S. Subhashini | Released on June 10, 2012

This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of COPD and its associated factors among non-smoking rural women in Tiruvallur district of Tamilnadu in Southern India.

Commercialization Of Improved Cookstoves For Reduced Indoor Air Pollution In Urban Slums Of Northwest Bangladesh
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment, Other | USAID and Winrock International | Released on June 10, 2012

Winrock, in collaboration with Concern Worldwide Bangladesh and the Village Education Resource Center (VERC), implemented the Bangladesh pilot project from 2005-2007 in selected wards Beginning in 2003, the energy team of USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, and the environmental health team of the Bureau for Global Health jointly supported a cooperative agreement with Winrock International to develop models to reduce indoor air pollution by combining fuel-efficient cooking technologies with behavior change messages and market-based distribution mechanisms. Winrock developed two project models: a rural model piloted in the highlands of Peru for indigenous communities, and a peri-urban model piloted in Bangladesh for poor households. The objective of the pilot project was to reduce indoor air pollution and fuel consumption via the dissemination and commercialization of efficient cookstoves among peri-urban communities through an integrated and sustainable household energy intervention. The project aimed to establish a sustainable market for improved and appropriate stoves to avoid the need for subsidies, either current or future. Three models of fuel-efficient cookstoves, each significantly less polluting than traditional stoves, were selected and promoted in this project. Winrock coupled product promotion with a multi-faceted communication campaign to raise awareness about the risks of indoor smoke and the benefits of behavior change and using improved stoves to reduce IAP exposure. The project team worked with existing local government institutions and health networks to disseminate behavior change messages, and teamed up with local entrepreneurs to disseminate stoves commercially. The project has strong potential for use as a model for incorporating IAP into child survival and health programming activities, particularly those implemented by donor agencies such as the USAID/Bangladesh Mission.

Household Use of Solid Fuels
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Environment | WHO | Released on June 10, 2012

All over the developing world, meals are cooked and homes are treated with homemade traditional stoves or open fires. These stoves are fired with either biomass fuels, such as wood, branches, twigs or dung, or coal. When these are not available, agricultural residues or even leaves and grass are used. The smoke emitted from such stoves is made up of particles and gaseous chemicals. It is estimated that as many as 70% of households in developing countries use fuels such as wood, dung and crop residues for cooking (International Energy Agency, 2002; WHO, 2006). The seemingly ‘free’ availability of biomass fuels from nature makes them the primary fuel source for household purposes. The problems related to the use of biomass as an energy source have been an issue of concern for more than three decades. The traditional stoves commonly used for burning biomass energy have long been found to be highly inefficient and to emit copious quantities of smoke due to the incomplete combustion of fuels. This inefficiency has also had consequences on the environment, since intense collection of fuelwood has resulted in deforestation in highly populated areas. The use of such fuels has also adversely affected health. In addition, the cost involved in terms of human energy and time required to collect and process such fuel has serious implications for productivity and gender equity.

Woodfuels In Kenya and Rwanda: Powering And Driving The Economy Of The Rural Areas
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment, Other | Geoffrey Ndegwa, Dr. Thomas Breuer, Prof. Dr. Johannes Hamhaber | Released on June 10, 2012

The number of woodfuel consumers in Africa is projected to increase from around 2.5 billion in 2004 to 2.7 billion by 2030, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for the highest increase. Rwanda and Kenya are two good examples of countries in which woodfuel plays a key role in energy provision, poverty alleviation and economic development.

A Manual of People's Participation Towards Addressing Indoor Air Pollution in Bangladesh
Alliance Reports and Research, Gender, Other | VERC, The World Bank | Released on June 10, 2012

This manual has been developed to provide help in the planning and implementation of the proposed IAP reducing pilot initiative in respect of service delivery, capacity building of the operational staff, and empowering the user communities, local government institutions, entrepreneurs as well as the management. The manual will help presenting the participatory tools/techniques and methodologies which will be put into practice for initiation, implementation, monitoring and finally, evaluation of the pilot project. The manual is a handy package of participatory process facilitation tools/techniques that need to be conceived, understood and assimilated professionally by the users so that the actors yield the maximum output while in action.

Intra-Household Externalities And Low Demand For A New Technology Experimental Evidence On Improved Cookstoves
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Environment, Other | Grant Miller and A. Mushfiq Mobarak | Released on June 10, 2012

This paper studies the behavioral underpinnings of low demand for a technology with substantial implications for population health and the environment: improved cookstoves. We conduct a multi-pronged field experiment in rural Bangladesh to investigate two commonly-cited reasons for low demand: (1) intra-household externalities and (2) tradition-based aversion. On the former, we find that women – who bear disproportionate cooking costs – have stronger preference for improved stoves, especially health-saving stoves, but lack the authority to make purchases. On the latter, we find that revealing information about technology choices by respected community members sharing common traditions influences adoption decisions more for technologies lacking self-evident benefits and more before common experience accumulates. Overall, our findings suggest that (1) if women cannot make independent choices, public policy may not be able to exploit gender differences in preferences to promote technology adoption absent broader social change; and (2) marketing and persuasion techniques may only increase adoption temporarily and may be less effective for technologies that households can evaluate for themselves.

Ghana Living Standards Survey Report of the Fifth Round (GLSS 5)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender | Ghana Statistical Service | Released on June 10, 2012

This report presents the main results of the Fifth Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 5) with Non-Farm Household Enterprise Module. The field work covered a period of 12 months (September 2005 to September 2006). The survey instruments and methodology were based on those of the fourth round with some minimal modifications. The GLSS 5 is a nation-wide survey which collected detailed information of topics, including demographic characteristics of the population, education, health, employment and time use, migration, housing conditions and household agriculture.

Household Cookstoves, Environment, Health, And Climate Change: A New Look At An Old Problem
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment, Other | Daniel M. Kammen | Released on June 10, 2012

Household Cookstoves, Environment, Health, and Climate Change: A New Look at an Old Problem takes stock of our collective knowledge of actions and opportunities centered on clean stoves. The report not only examines the lessons learned in specific stove campaigns; it builds the case for a multisectoral approach to understand the effects of stove policies and programs. After reviewing the state of cookstove research and action, the report takes a welcome and much needed look at the potential “game changers” associated with cookstoves. It examines opportunities for technology development, leading to the availability of “advanced” biomass stoves; new sources and mechanisms of financing, including those linked to climate change; and the formation of new international coalitions and partnerships like the GACC. Based on these assessments, the report makes a compelling case for the WBG’s re-engagement in the development community on many dimensions of a field that can benefit most from the reach, lessons sharing, and practical focus that a multinational development agency can offer.

Final Report On Technical Study Of Biogas Plants Installed In Bangladesh
Alliance Reports and Research, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment, Other | Prakash C. Ghimire, Development Partners - Nepal | Released on June 10, 2012

The overall objective of the proposed study was to conduct a technical review of existing biogas plants constructed across Bangladesh over the past years to facilitate the preparation of implementation plan for the proposed National Domestic Biogas Programme. The field study was carried out during the period September 03 to October 09, 2005 in 72 randomly sampled biogas households from eight different districts representing all the six divisions in Bangladesh. These plants were installed by BCSIR (61 nos.), LGED (7 nos.) and GS (5 nos.) during the period 1997 to 2005. Analysis and interpretation of the result have been done with the data and information from only 66 households as the six plants were feared to be outliers.

Final Report - Sanitation Review
Alliance Reports and Research, Gender, Other | VERC and Winrock International | Released on June 10, 2012

While appreciating that the issue of indoor air quality has, in recent years, emerged as a major health concern in both the developed and the developing countries of the world, the World Bank in collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) undertook and accomplished the necessary task of attempting a Bangladesh Country Environment Analysis (CEA), a major finding of which study also convincingly pointed at the dire fact that majority people in the country living in the rural areas are putting up with poor indoor air quality only because they are continuing with the traditional cooking practices. The study also found that the indoor air pollution (IAP) exposure risks can also be mitigated by the villagers at feasible cost, if self interest motivates them, and they are convinced that the problems are serious, like problems and diseases caused by poor sanitation and bad hygiene practices. As the community led total sanitation (CLTS) approach ignited people to undertake sanitation programme at their own initiative, for own good, based on community organizations and own resources, supported and facilitated by the NGOs and LGIs, the IAP risks can also be mitigated with community-led approach through an integrated institutional arrangement (GO-LGIs-NGOs-CBOs and Private sector) and effective financial policy from the government and donor communities.

Energy For Cooking In Developing Countries, World Energy Outlook 2006
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | OECD/IEA | Released on June 10, 2012

In developing countries, especially in rural areas, 2.5 billion people rely on biomass, such as fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung, to meet their energy needs for cooking. In many countries, these resources account for over 90% of household energy consumption. In the absence of new policies, the number of people relying on biomass will increase to over 2.6 billion by 2015 and to 2.7 billion by 2030 because of population growth. That is, one-third of the world’s population will still be relying on these fuels. There is evidence that, in areas where local prices have adjusted to recent high international energy prices, the shift to cleaner, more efficient use of energy for cooking has actually slowed and even reversed. Use of biomass is not in itself a cause for concern. However, when resources are harvested unsustainably and energy conversion technologies are inefficient, there are serious adverse consequences for health, the environment and economic development. About 1.3 million people – mostly women and children – die prematurely every year because of exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass. Valuable time and effort is devoted to fuel collection instead of education or income generation. Environmental damage can also result, such as land degradation and regional air pollution. Two complementary approaches can improve this situation: promoting more efficient and sustainable use of traditional biomass; and encouraging people to switch to modern cooking fuels and technologies. The appropriate mix depends on local circumstances such as per-capita incomes and the availability of a sustainable biomass supply. Halving the number of households using traditional biomass for cooking by 2015 – a recommendation of the United Nations Millennium Project – would involve 1.3 billion people switching to other fuels. Alternative fuels and technologies are already available at reasonable cost. Providing LPG stoves and cylinders, for example, would cost at most $1.5 billion per year to 2015. Switching to oil-based fuels would not have a significant impact on world oil demand. Even when fuel costs and emissions are considered, the household energy choices of developing countries need not be limited by economic, climate-change or energy-security concerns.

Gender and Community Development Analysis In Rwanda
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Other | Republic of Rwanda, East African Community | Released on June 10, 2012

The importance of mainstreaming gender in any country’s development initiatives and the need to monitor and evaluate the progress of the mechanism is premised on the alarming global gender disparities in social and economic opportunities, property and rights. On several occasions, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has, through its stands and actions, demonstrated its commitment to work towards the reduction of gender-based inequalities and promotion of gender equality and equity in all areas. Rwanda adopted the Beijing Platform for Action and undertook strategic actions aimed at tackling twelve identified crucial areas. It ratified and adhered to a number of international and regional conventions, charters and declarations, including, the CEDAW, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Southern African Development Community (SADC), COMESA and among others . All these instruments highlight gender as an important approach for sustainable development. By ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in November 1981, Rwanda undertook to take appropriate measures, including legislation to fight any act or practice of discrimination against women, to modify and/or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which embody discrimination against women as discussed in the next section.

Improved Cook Stoves For East Africa (ICSEA) PoA
Alliance Reports and Research, Gender, Other | Improved Cook Stoves for East Africa (ICSEA) Limited | Released on June 10, 2012

The purpose of this small-scale Programme of Activities (PoA) is stimulating the dissemination of improved cook stoves (ICS) in East Africa. The Programme will encompass different types of ICS, depending on the supplier and the user of the stoves. The stoves are both transportable as well as fixed built-in models, serving domestic or institutional users. These ICS are more efficient in transferring heat to the meals, thus saving fuel compared to traditional stoves used in East Africa. By reducing fuel consumption, the PoA reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the use of non-renewable biomass.

Care: Case Baseline Study
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment, Other | CARE | Released on June 10, 2012

CASE Project started in January 2008 and is being implemented by CARE international-Rwanda in partnership with KIST CITT and ADENYA. A total of 24,000 poor Households of Nyaruguru, Huye, Gisagara and Nyamagabe are targeted and the project intends to reduce by 50% firewood used by 2010. The baseline study brings out the current situation of energy supply and demand as well as household condition in the targeted area. The analysis assessed the time and quantity saved for a household using improved stoves as well as household improved living conditions (income, education, health and environmental impacts) derived from the use of the improved stoves.

A Rapid Assessment Randomized-Controlled Trial Of Improved Cookstoves In Rural Ghana
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Other | Jason Burwen, David I. Levine | Released on June 10, 2012

The authors conducted a rapid assesssment randomized-controlled trial to quantify changes in fuel use, exposure to smoke, and self-reported health attributable to deployment of an improved wood cookstove in the Sissala West district of the Upper West region of Ghana. Women trainers from neighboring villages taught participants to build an improved cookstove and demonstrated optimal cooking techniques on such stoves. Participants were then randomly assigned to construct improved stoves at their homes. Several weeks after treatments built their new stoves, all participants engaged in a controlled cooking test while wearing a carbon monoxide monitor. At that time we surveyed study participants on cooking activity, fuel wood gathering, self-reported health, and socioeconomic status. The authors also installed stove usage monitors on the improved and traditional stoves at a subset of households for the following three weeks. During the controlled cooking tests, treatment participants used 12% less fuel wood than controls. There were no detectable reductions in a households’ weekly time gathering wood or in exposure to carbon monoxide. In contrast, there was a sharp decline in participants’ self-reported symptoms associated with cooking, such as burning eyes, and in respiratory symptoms, such as chest pain and a runny nose. Stove usage monitors show treatments used their new stove on about half of the days monitored. When the authors returned to three of the villages eight months after project implementation, half the improved stoves showed evidence of recent usage. Treatments had less traditional stoves than controls at follow-up, suggesting new stoves displaced some traditional stoves. Treatment homes reduced total time cooking on their traditional stoves by approximately 25%. The method seems to offer a rigorous, less logistically-demanding method for evaluating user uptake, field-based stove performance, and exposure to smoke.

Assessment Of Existing Improved Cookstove In Bangladesh
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Other | Nasima Akter, MA Quaiyum Sarkar, Mizanur Rahman | Released on June 10, 2012

There are different models of Improved Cook Stove (ICS) being used in Bangladesh. This study attempted to know which type of ICS people accepted more. Specific objectives were to know i. what fuels are being used in improved cook stove; ii. what types of ICS are being used and preferred; iii. the satisfaction level of the users of ICS; and iv. select some models of ICS that will be recommended for further experimentation. Local partner NGOs of VERC and Practical Action were selected for this study. Data collection was done by interview, informal discussion and observation using structured questionnaire and checklist. A team consists of three researchers conducted the survey in July-August 2006. Study found that, basically the sampled households used two types of ICSs. These were fixed and portable ICS. About 56% of the households used fixed typed ICS, majority of which were without grate. Fifty-four percent of the users were completely satisfied with ICS. There are some limitations of using ICSs mentioned by the respondents. However, majority of the users mentioned some advantages of ICS that include creating less smoke in the kitchen, less time to cook, saving energy (fuel), etc. Fifty-six percent of the households used traditional cook stoves in addition to ICSs. A number of reasons behind using traditional cook stoves they mentioned which include feeling comfortable, fuel easily available, cheaper to use, meeting seasonal demands etc. However, majority of them said that they were habituated and felt comfortable in using traditional cook stove in addition to ICS. Study shows that 24% of the households faced problems related to fuels such as: cost of firewood, availability, smoke especially in the rainy season etc. However, all of the households were agreed to use ICS continuously. Among them seventy-three percent were agreed to pay for new ICS. Most of them opined to pay within the range of Tk. 50-100 for new ICS. It is quite clear from this study that any fixed type of ICS would not be suitable for all areas and households. Selection of appropriate and popular ICS depends largely on availability of fuels, energy savings, and reduction in smoke emission. However, an effective laboratory test of selected ICS models is needed to find out the appropriate one that may be replicated countrywide after successful pilot intervention.

Promotion Of Improved Cookstove In Rural Bangladesh
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Other | Tahmid Arif, Anik Ashraf, Grant Miller, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak Nasima Akter, ARM Mehrab Ali, MA Quaiyum Sarkar Lynn Hildemann, Nepal C Dey, Mizanur Rahman Puneet Dwivedi, Paul Wise | Released on June 10, 2012

This study aimed to explore the factors affecting the promotion of improved cookstove (ICS) to replace traditional stove and hence to combat indoor air pollution (IAP). The study was conducted in 58 randomly selected villages of Jamalpur sadar and Hatia upazilas (29 villages in each) in 2008. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Focus group discussions were performed in each village to divide the villages in three equal clusters as well as Paras and listed the opinion leader of the villages. Fifty randomly selected households and nine households of the opinion leaders were surveyed in each village. Thus, a total of 3,080 households were selected for quantitative survey with pre-designed questionnaire. These households were also offered two types of ICSs – portable and with-chimney under different experimental conditions. Among those who adopted ICS as was offered usually chose portable ICS since they believed this would reduce fuel consumption while they chose ICS with chimney to reduce pollution. We found that households were usually aware of IAP but not so much so of the existence of ICS. But once they came to know about it through this survey, they would expect ICS to be better than traditional stoves in producing better tasting food, less smoke emissions, less cooking and fuel collection time, etc. When compared with those who did not know about ICS before, prior knowledge on ICS was found to be associated with greater share of people thinking ICS was better than traditional in terms of taste of food and smoke emission. In most cases financial constraints was stated as a reason for not to adopt an ICS. The adoption decision was also found to be highly responsive to price. On the other hand, opinion leaders appeared to have a stronger impact on households’ decisions when the leaders decided against ICS as opposed to when they decided in its favour. Although this is a very product specific study the results can provide a guideline to understand similar constraints for many other improved technologies that exist but are not generally adopted.

Piloting Pyrolytic Cookstoves And Sustainable Biochar Soil Enrichment In Northern Vietnam Uplands
Gender, Environment | CARESoil Fertiliser Research Institute (SFRI) Population, Environment and Development Centre (PED) | Released on June 10, 2012

The project intends to test the effects of this biochar technology in practice in two of the upland provinces in northern Vietnam. 450 poor families selected for participation in the pilot project will benefit immediately and directly in terms of fuel-wood savings, reduced time spent on wood collection, improved health and increased agricultural production. Further, in close cooperation with Women’s Union, Farmers’ Union and the Government extension system in the respective provinces, the project will disseminate learning from the project based on tests of the effects of the biochar stove, the enrichment potentials of the biochar and the potential for replication and up-scaling in other areas. The project seeks to build a foundation for large-scale introduction of the biochar stove-cum-soil enrichment technology in poor rural upland areas of Vietnam. The project will thus contribute to national policies of poverty reduction, deforestation and rural development.

Best Volume 4: Proposed Strategy (Biomass Energy Strategy)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | European Union Energy Initiative (on behalf of: Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) | Released on June 10, 2012

In this Volume 4 an investment package of US$ 120 million is presented for the implementation of the proposed biomass energy strategy to render the supply of wood and charcoal sustainable. The package includes four parallel programs dealing with energy conservation, rehabilitation of plantations, fuel substitution, and capacity building. Some regulatory changes are required to change the current rules that govern the cutting of wood for energy purposes: the law and decrees consider that wood comes from natural forests whereas today most if not all wood comes from man-made plantations. This makes firewood and charcoal just another product from the farm or the plantation and the legislation should take this into account. In addition, the applied taxation system on woodfuels is no longer adequate and should be improved. A different system is proposed whereby benefits are offered to stakeholders as long as they improve the efficiency of their operations. Without such changes it does not make much sense to implement the investment package.

Best Volume 3:Rural Supply & Demand (Biomass Energy Strategy)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | European Union Energy Initiative (on behalf of: Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) | Released on June 10, 2012

This Chapter addresses biomass energy issues in rural areas. Although the focus of the BEST is on the commercial aspects of biomass (purchased firewood and charcoal in urban areas), it is important to also look at rural aspects: the majority of Rwandans live in rural areas and in addition, they supply over 80% of the energy used in urban areas. If there is a problem with the supply or use of energy in rural areas, this may have implications for the energy situation in urban areas. Since there are quite a few unknown aspects of rural energy, MININFRA decided to carry out a rural energy survey. This survey consisted of 3000 interviews of randomly chosen rural households, 100 in each district1, as well as focus group discussions in each district. The results of these data collection efforts are presented below.

Best Volume 2:Background & Analysis (Biomass Energy Strategy)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | European Union Energy Initiative (on behalf of: Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) | Released on June 10, 2012

The Biomass Energy Strategy (BEST) that is described in this report is developed in the framework of the EUEI Partnership Dialogue Facility on request of the Government of Rwanda. The strategy mainly addresses charcoal supply sustainability issues, simply because charcoal is the main urban fuel for which not many acceptable alternatives exist. Rural biomass energy issues have now been included as well. Two workshops were held, on April 30 and September 18, 2008. The first workshop was organized to discuss the main approach to the proposed strategy, to see whether there would be consensus among the participating agencies and organizations, and the second more to discuss and validate the results. The Minister in charge of Energy participated in both workshops and the Minister in charge of Natural Resources participated in the last workshop. Comments made by the various participants have been incorporated in the report. In addition, a meeting was held with district officials dealing with wood energy of the six districts that provide most of the wood, to discuss regulatory issues. Finally, in January 2009 MININFRA carried out a rural energy survey among 3000 randomly selected households, 100 in each district. The results of this survey are analyzed and used to include the most important rural biomass energy issues.

Best Volume 1: Executive Summary (Biomass Energy Strategy)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | European Union Energy Initiative (on behalf of: Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) | Released on June 10, 2012

Biomass in the form of firewood and charcoal plays a crucial role in the economy of Rwanda. This is however, often not recognized and there are very few people who realize how much Rwanda has already achieved to obtain a sustainable wood supply situation. Pictures of the previous turn of the Century show completely denuded hills around Kigali. Today, these hills are green with trees, and in fact most of the firewood, charcoal, and pole wood in the country come from man-made plantations. There are very few other African countries where the same claim can be made; indeed, Rwanda is quite far ahead of the others.

Best Summary (Biomass Energy Strategy)
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | European Union Energy Initiative (on behalf of: Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) | Released on June 10, 2012

The Ministry of Infrastructure, MININFRA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, MINIRENA, recently issued a Biomass Energy Strategy, prepared together with the firm MARGE and EUIE-PDF partnership financing. The results are interesting in the sense that Rwanda appears to be miles ahead of other countries in the Region or the rest of Africa in terms of sustainable supplies of wood energy. Unlike other countries, shifting cultivation has stopped and land clearing for agriculture and firewood does no longer take place. Whereas wood in other countries mainly continues to come from natural forests, in Rwanda it has come for some time now from tree plantations . These tree plantations have been planted by the Government and by farmers, mainly to earn revenue and to protect the environment. It is just a matter of time before other countries will enter into the same situation that now prevails in Rwanda.

From Technology to Impact: Understanding and Measuring Behavior Change with Improved Biomass Cookstoves
Alliance Reports and Research, Gender, Other | Jason Burwen | Released on June 10, 2012

Half the world cooks using biomass-fueled stoves. Improved biomass stoves represent an intersection of opportunities to address health, environment, poverty, and gender concerns on a wide scale. However, theories of change implicitly assume the behavior change that translates improved stove performance into desired outcomes and impacts. Experience shows behavior change cannot be presumed. Household stoves are nodes in a complex system, representing sites of interaction between the physical characteristics of the device, user behavior and perceptions, and larger social and environmental relationships. As such, the impacts of an improved stove are highly uncertain and may bear no relation to stove performance. This uncertainty compels us to evaluate stoves not only for performance and impacts, but also for technology uptake. Most stove evaluations lack an evaluation of technology uptake, and high-precision methods of monitoring stove usage have only recently become feasible. I present an example of a randomized-control trial that focuses on stove uptake in tandem with stove performance, illustrating the challenges of connecting stove performance to impacts. I conclude with a proposal for a richer evaluation framework that should be used to create the evidence base for scaling up improved stove deployments

Cleaner Hearths, Better Homes: New Stoves for India and the Developing World
Alliance Reports and Research, Health, Gender, Other | Douglas F. Barnes, Priti Kumar, Keith Openshaw | Released on June 9, 2012

Cleaner Hearths, Better Homes: New Stoves for India and the Developing World has a twofold goal: describing India’s best legacy improved biomass stove programs and recommending ways in which the international community can promote stoves that are commercially viable, convenient for users, and more energy effi cient. By implication, there also would be a reduction of indoor air pollution to more reasonable levels than is common today. To date, the eff ectiveness of many of the world’s stove programs has been hindered by their small scale. Even India’s best case examples faced serious challenges. But hard-learned lessons from these cases, combined with varied experience from stove programs around the world, can well serve the international development community’s eff orts to address the energy problems faced by the poorest populations on our planet.

Benefits and Costs of Improved Cookstoves: Assessing the Implications of Variability in Health, Forest and Climate Impacts
Health, Livelihoods, Gender, Environment | Marc A. Jeuland, Subhrendu K. Pattanayak | Released on June 9, 2012

Current attention to improved cook stoves (ICS) focuses on the ‘‘triple benefits’’ they provide, in improved health and time savings for households, in preservation of forests and associated ecosystem services, and in reducing emissions that contribute to global climate change. Despite the purported economic benefits of such technologies, however, progress in achieving large-scale adoption and use has been remarkably slow. This paper uses Monte Carlo simulation analysis to evaluate the claim that households will always reap positive and large benefits from the use of such technologies. Our analysis allows for better understanding of the variability in economic costs and benefits of ICS use in developing countries, which depend on unknown combinations of numerous uncertain parameters. The model results suggest that the private net benefits of ICS will sometimes be negative, and in many instances highly so. Moreover, carbon financing and social subsidies may help enhance incentives to adopt, but will not always be appropriate. The costs and benefits of these technologies are most affected by their relative fuel costs, time and fuel use efficiencies, the incidence and cost-of-illness of acute respiratory illness, and the cost of household cooking time. Combining these results with the fact that households often find these technologies to be inconvenient or culturally inappropriate leads us to understand why uptake has been disappointing. Given the current attention to the scale up of ICS, this analysis is timely and important for highlighting some of the challenges for global efforts to promote ICS.

Adoption and sustained use of improved cookstoves
Gender | Illse Ruiz-Mercado, Omar Masera, Hilda Zamora, Kirk Smith | Released on June 9, 2012

The adoption and sustained use of improved cookstoves are critical performance parameters of the cooking system that must be monitored just like the rest of the stove technical requirements to ensure the sustainability of their benefits. No stove program can achieve its goals unless people initially accept the stoves and continue using them on a long-term basis. When a new stove is brought into a household, commonly a stacking of stoves and fuels takes place with each device being used for the cooking practices where it fits best. Therefore, to better understand the adoption process and assess the impacts of introducing a new stove it is necessary to examine the relative advantages of each device in terms of each of the main cooking practices and available fuels. An emerging generation of sensor- based tools is making possible continuous and objective monitoring of the stove adoption process (from acceptance to sustained use or disadoption), and has enabled its scalability. Such monitoring is also needed for transparent verification in carbon projects and for improved dissemination by strategically targeting the users with the highest adoption potential and the substitution of cooking practices with the highest indoor air pollution or greenhouse gas contributions.