Dissemination of Energy Saving Technologies for Improved Rural Livelihood

Abstract

A firewood stove was developed and promoted in Kenya by the Ministry of Energy, GTZ, private practitioners, home economics branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, maendeleo ya wanawake and ITDG/Practical Action. About 97% of Kenyan households and cottage industries depend mainly on charcoal and firewood. According to MOE, Kenyan energy demand was 35,119,616, while supply was 15,024,510 indicating that 2.3 times was needed in 2002. The PSDA energy component contributes to increased use of firewood energy-saving technologies for energy and environmental conservation. Baseline assessment was done in 6 districts and adoption of stove was found to be 4.8%. Interventions mainly the kisasa/maendeleo with 35-50% efficiency and rocket with 50-70% efficiency were implemented in 12 districts. Intervention approaches were capacity building of community resource persons, production and dissemination of promotion materials using diverse media such as community resource persons, radio, TV, T-shirts, matchboxes, calendars, drama, songs, peer pressure and education. The project works at the grassroots with partners to build capacity and broaden knowledge. Sustainability is in-culcated in the project design whereby all stoves and services are paid for by the beneficiaries and all dealers in the chain gain some profit but competition is encouraged so that consumers get quality products at affordable rates. The first phase was between January 2006 and June 2007. The project surpassed targets by reaching 62,000 households against a target of 45,000 households, leading to extension t up to December 2008. By December 2007 the project reached 83,683 households with stoves. In November 2007 the project had registered more than 7-fold (5% to 38%) increase of stove adoption. Many dealers are now involved in marketing and installation of stoves at local levels, motivated through capacity building and the fee they charge in each installation. Majority were idle youths who now practice stove installation to earn income. The average monthly youth group income was 5,389/=. Firewood household stoves technology dissemination has been repackaged, resulting in 7-fold increase in stove adoption, job creation and women and children health improvement.