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The Women and Energy Project for stove dissemination in Kenya: crossing the sustainability bridge
[top] [end]BackgroundThe 'Women and Energy Project' was initiated in 1983 as part of the Special Energy Programme of the Ministry of Energy, with financial and technical assistance from the German Technical Co-operation agency (GTZ).The overall aim of the project was to improve the living and working conditions of the rural population and of rural women in particular by:
The years 1983-86 were devoted to research and testing of stove prototypes suitable for Kenya's rural households. Two prototypes emerged:
(Maendeleo is a kiswahili word meaning development). The years 1987-88 were devoted to developing and testing stove production methods and dissemination strategies. From the end of 1988 onwards, the project concentrated its efforts on refining and consolidating the stove production process. The last phase of the project (consolidation phase) was in 1993 - 4. Efforts were concentrated on infrastructure development for the production centres, training and quality control, awareness creation, promotion of marketing, and monitoring of these activities. In December 1994, the project was handed over to the Ministry of Energy. [top] [end]Project Achievements[top] [end]ProductionTwenty-nine production centres were established, with 23 belonging to women's groups and 6 to individual entrepreneurs. Eighteen of the centres have wood-fired catenary arch kilns and three have round down-draught kilns.
Another twelve potential production centres either failed to start or failed as soon as they had been set up. [top] [end]DisseminationThe total number of stoves disseminated by the end of 1994 was as follows:
Between 1989 and 1994, stoves were mostly disseminated through the efforts of the home economic officers of the Ministry of Agriculture. Training was given to 120 of the 235 stockists identified as market outlets for the producers. [top] [end]Project sustainabilityWith all the above efforts, the big question was whether the project would become self-sustainable. Would it be able to continue on its own without any external input?A marketing study done in March 1996 revealed that the producers were very dependent on the home economic officers. It was they who initiated the process of linking producers to market outlets (stockists or shopkeepers), but these links were found to be unsustainable because of the high costs associated with transporting stove liners. Unfortunately, the changes required to make the producers take over the marketing of the stoves could not be accomplished as the project funding was coming to an end. [top] [end]Stoves marketing trainingIn 1995, GTZ set aside study funds for training producers, especially women's groups, in management and marketing. The training focused on:
Due to limited funds, not all the women's groups producing the stove liners could be trained. Out of the 33 centres visited in a follow-up assessment, the 10 best were selected for the training. Efforts were made to ensure that at least one centre from each of the provinces in which the project had activities was included. To cater for individual entrepreneurs, three managers from three centres were invited to attend the training sessions held near their establishments.
[top] [end]Results[top] [end]Marketing strategies
[top] [end]Transport of liners
[top] [end]Other achievements
[top] [end]Overall resultsThe groups sold 1675 liners of which 829 were sold through the efforts of the trained members.Of the ten groups trained, five which have put in considerable effort are likely to sustain their activities. Three groups are experiencing problems; two of these are situated in the interior, with poor access roads to the market outlets, hence they are relying on the home economic officers; the third has quality control problems. Two groups are still weak and require additional encouragement. As yet, none of the groups is able to pay group members for the time they spend in producing the liners (production labour) due to lack of funds. However, two groups have started re-imbursing the marketing teams their lunch and transport expenses when marketing the stoves. The famine which occurred in the course of the year, brought about by continued drought, adversely affected the performance of four of the groups. [top] [end]Future activitiesThe marketing training was an additional step in crossing the sustainability bridge.A lot of effort is still required to make the project self-sustainable. To strengthen the effects of the training, the following needs to be done:
Overall, the 'Women and Energy Project' remains among the most successful stove projects in Africa. It is hoped that one day it will fulfill its objective and cross over the sustainability bridge to complete commercial independence. [top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 39: Using biomass residues for energy
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Page created:
06 August 2007; Last edited:
20 August 2007; Version: 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pagename: TheWomenAndEnergyProjectForStoveDisseminationInKenya-CrossingTheSustainabilityBridge @HEDON: NHGA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
