The seemingly simple task of cooking a meal poses significant health risks for those living in poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa this is certainly the case. However, the techniques to mitigate these health risks exist— they just need to be scaled up.

1. Accelerating Impact
The Bioenergy-Environment-Gender Nexus:
How Simple Innovations Can Drive Change
By Dr. Mary Njenga, post-doctoral fellow on bioenergy, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
The seemingly simple task of cooking a meal poses
significant health risks for those living in poverty. In
sub-Saharan Africa this is certainly the case. However,
the techniques to mitigate these health risks exist—
they just need to be scaled up.
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), through its
regional offices in Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Kenya
and Peru, aims to do just that. ICRAF carries out
research and development of tree-based bioenergy
innovations that are socially responsible, ecologically
sustainable and economically viable—some of which
are presented in this article. The Centre is building out
capacity of farmers and scientists, communicating
their experiences and contributing to policy
development.
The Problem with Cooking
Cooking-related health risks take a number of forms:
• Poor households that can’t afford to purchase
woodfuel (charcoal or firewood) sometimes use
unsafe sources of fuel such as plastic bottles and
old shoes.
• The use of woodfuel itself generates smoke, often
exacerbated by inefficient cooking stoves and
poor ventilation. It is common to find women and
children coughing, sneezing and suffering from
headaches in smoky kitchens, where they spend a
lot of time. More serious complications such as
bronchitis, lung cancer, asthma and tuberculosis
have also been linked to prolonged exposure to
smoke while indoors.1 Household air pollution
1
“Fuel for life–household energy and health,” World Health
Organization, 2006
2
Lim S.S., et al, “A comparative risk assessment of burden of
disease and attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters
in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global
Burden of Disease Study 2010.” Lancet, 2012: 380, 2224–60.
3
Malmberg C. C., “Case Study on the Role of Women in Rural
Transport: Access of Women to Domestic Facilities.” Sub-Saharan
causes 4.3 million deaths annually and is a
leading cause of mortality in women and
children.2
• Further, the collection of firewood is tiring and
time-consuming, limiting women’s productivity
and detracting from educational opportunities for
girls. A study in Zambia showed that women spent
800 hours per year collecting firewood.3 A
different study in Uganda revealed a distance of
8-12 km is covered in the process, involving 4-6
hours per trip. With 4-6 loads per person, per
week, approximately 830-1870 hours per year are
spent collecting firewood.4 These figures may
actually have increased since these studies were
done, as firewood is becoming increasingly
scarce.
• Collecting firewood can also be dangerous,
exposing those performing the chore to the risk of
rape or animal attack.
Africa Transport Policy Program, World Bank and Economic
Commission for Africa Working Paper 11. World Bank, 1994.
4
Agea G., Kirangwa D. Waiswa D. and Okia C., “Household
Firewood Consumption and its Dynamics in Kalisizo Sub-County,
Central Uganda.” Ethnobotanical Leaflets 14: 841-855, 2010
Photos courtesy of ICRAF
Cornerstone Journal of Sustainable Finance & BankingSM
/ June 2015 / 34

2. Innovative Solutions
Agroforestry, organic fuel briquettes and improved
cook stoves are some of the innovations that could
significantly improve access to affordable and cleaner
cooking energy for the poor while empowering
women and allowing children more time for studies
and leisure.
Agroforestry
Intercropping trees with crops or pasture or setting
aside some space for a woodlot makes firewood and
charcoal more accessible. Most of the firewood
collected from farms comes from tree prunings.
At Kibugu village in Embu County, Kenya, for
instance, over 70% of households source firewood
from the pruning of trees planted on tea and coffee
farms, and this significantly reduces the time and
money spent on cooking energy (Mahmoud et al.,
forthcoming study). Further, short-rotation forestry,
where farmers grow trees that form coppices easily
and harvest wood on a rotating basis of about five
years (depending on tree or shrub species), would not
only supply firewood and charcoal for domestic use
but could generate income from sales of the surplus
for domestic and industrial use.
Fuel briquettes from organic by-products
Fuel briquettes are a local innovation that provides a
cheap and clean source of cooking energy. They are
used in homes, hotels, chicken hatcheries, for drying
tea, and in many other ways. Fuel briquettes are
cheap, as they are made from by-products from other
production processes. They produce low emissions
with no soot, burn more evenly than many other fuels,
and last much longer.
Fuel briquettes are made by compacting dry organic
by-products such as charcoal dust, sawdust, animal
dung, grass, maize cob, coconut shells, sugarcane
bagasse, or banana peelings, and are used like
charcoal or firewood. Carbonizing organic by-
products before producing the briquettes enhances
5
Njenga M., et al. “Implications of charcoal briquette produced by
local communities on livelihoods and environment in Nairobi,
Kenya.” International Journal of Renewable Energy Development
(IJRED). 2 (1) 19-29, 2013. Available online.
the quality of briquettes intended for cooking in
houses.
By using these organic fuel briquettes, households
reduce their expenditures on cooking energy, women
and youth gain employment opportunities and
generate income from the sale of briquettes, and trees
are saved. In Nairobi’s Kibera area—the largest slum
in Africa—70% of households within a radius of 250
meters from a briquette production site use fuel
briquettes for cooking and those who produce them
save 70% of income spent on cooking energy while
those who bought them save 30%.5 In war-torn
Mogadishu, Somalia, disabled women are also able to
generate income from the sale of briquettes. When
briquettes are used for drying tea, for example, there
is a reduction in energy costs, boosting profits to
farmers.
Efficient cook stoves
http://www.ijred.com/index.php/ijred/article/view/88/pdf. ISSN
2252-4940
Photo courtesy of ICRAF
Cornerstone Journal of Sustainable Finance & BankingSM
/ June 2015 / 35

3. One of the more novel innovations that could reduce
the burden of sourcing firewood, reduce spending on
cooking fuel, save trees, and improve kitchen air
quality is a domestic gasifier. Fuel in gasifiers burns in
four stages: drying, pyrolyzation (carbonization);
gasification; combustion. The gasifier produces
charcoal during cooking that, if harvested, can be used
for further cooking or as biochar for soil amendment.
The gaseous fuel burns more cleanly than solid fuels
like firewood. Some of the improved cook stoves made
from clay have an open space with a door under the
cooking pots that keeps chicken warm. The next step
in developing the gasifier cook stove is to meet social
needs such as heating space and allowing people to sit
around the fire, which promotes social cohesion.6
Conclusions
Efforts to alleviate poverty and to empower women
could be accelerated by scaling up best practices in
agroforestry and organic waste recycling for energy
and by continuing to develop efficient cook stoves.
Further research is required to understand the social,
economic and environmental factors influencing the
adoption of innovations in these communities, and
how to adapt solutions according to local need.
Agroforestry can make a difference in alleviating
energy poverty while sustaining social and ecological
systems, while also contributing to the empowerment
of women.
Dr. Mary Njenga is a post-doctoral fellow on
bioenergy at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a member of the
Board of Directors of Women Organizing for Change
in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management
(WOCAN). Mary is also a visiting lecturer at
Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and
Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi,
researching and training on the bioenergy-
environment-gender nexus. Mary has over 15 years’
experience in research and development on urban
agriculture, community-based natural resource
management, environment, bioenergy and gender.
6
Njenga, M., et al., Keeping healthy and saving trees: “Cooking
with a gasifier saves fuel and time, reduces smoke and produces
charcoal for other uses.” Miti, The Tree Business Magazine for
Africa. Issue No.26 April-June 2015, 37-39.
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