Gender and Livelihoods Impacts of Clean Cookstoves in South Asia: Executive Summary, 2015 .
Commissioned by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Developed by: Practical Action; Lead Contact: Dr. Ewan Bloomfield, Practical Action
In South Asia, women play a significant and dominant role within the household cooking sector. Generally women do most of the cooking and, therefore, are disproportionately affected by household air pollution (HAP) caused by the inefficient burning of solid biomass cooking fuels. They are also required to spend a significant amount of time and effort collecting the traditionally used biomass fuels, a physically draining task that can take up to 20 or more hours per week.
This study analyzes the gender impacts of clean cooking solutions on households that have adopted them, as well as women’s current and potential involvement in ICS market systems in each of the three South Asian countries. This study focuses primarily on improved biomass cookstoves, but also analyzes the use of other cooking solutions, including kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Efforts have been made to generate recommendations on women’s involvement in ICS value chains that can effectively reach “last mile” households in South Asia.
