New Research on Gender and Livelihood Impacts from Clean Cookstove Adoption in South Asia
Practical Action, in collaboration with Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), Jagriti, and ENERGIA, is completing work on a 12-month research study to examine the impacts of adoption of improved cookstoves on both gender and livelihoods in South Asia, with a particular focus on women in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. The study is one of three funded by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves as part of its broader gender strategy, which includes activities to build the evidence on the gender impacts of adoption and the effect that women can have on scaling clean cooking solutions.
The goals of this research were to (1) better understand the impact of adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels on women and their families; (2) gain information on women’s contributions and influence in the cookstoves value chain; (3) develop an understanding of the impacts of female-owned cookstoves businesses on women entrepreneur’s quality of life and their position in the household and society; and (4) identify the complete process of cookstove adoption and use from a gender perspective.
On February 26th, the research and implementing organizations leading the study held a stakeholder consultation in Bangalore to present the findings and to gather feedback from a variety of stakeholders including government officials, researchers, civil society organizations, and others. This meeting was one of several consultations that have been held in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal in order to validate the findings of the research.