What’s for Dinner? Gendered Decision-Making and Energy Efficient Cookstoves in Benue State, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Solid biomass collection such as firewood rests mostly on women and children in settings where traditional fuels dominates household energy choices. A 2015 World Health Organisation (WHO) report estimated that 3.5 million people globally rely on solid biomass for cooking and heating using traditional and inefficient cookstoves. The report identified the practice as the major cause of indoor air pollution responsible for 4.3 million premature deaths globally and 70,000 deaths estimated in Nigeria. The study will discuss results from ongoing qualitative research investigating enablers for the uptake of improved cookstoves (ICS) in Benue State, North Central Nigeria. The researchers used interviews and household questionnaires to gain an understanding of gendered cooking responsibilities at the household level. The paper will highlight fuel choice and wider household responsibilities that affect the use of ICS. It further discusses households' sources of income and what duties are performed by spouses in the study area. Household decision-making regarding stove purchases and cooking preferences influencing the types of stove used for preparing food will be highlighted. The results suggest that households with shared responsibility for cooking and fuel choice help to enable women to make decisions on household energy use and have access to some basic financial resources. These appear to be important drivers for clean energy use. The study indicates that the inclusion of gender perspectives within energy policy has potential to promote the uptake of ICS with greater energy use efficiency and reduced levels of household air pollution among Nigeria's rural and urban population.

The Energy Lock-In Effect of Solar Home Systems: A Case Study in Rural Nigeria

“…It should also be noted that the choice of interviewing the heads of households led to the majority of the respondents in the study being male. The traditional role women have with the collection of cooking fuel, food preparation and cooking due to cultural gender norms [50][51][52] would likely reduce the time they can spend using certain energy services provided by the SHS, for example watching a television. It is therefore possible women might have different opinions to men with regards to their views and aspirations about their non-cooking energy service demands and the ability of a SHS to meet them, and the significance of these gender-based differences, if any, could be the subject of future research.…”