Women Tackling Climate Change and Rural Poverty Using Energy Efficiency - Uganda

This activity is enhancing the capacity of women leaders in Uganda to take up the responsibility of the sustainable utilization of biomass stoves in their communities. By providing examples of modern and sustainable biomass stoves, this activity hopes people will be more willing to adopt this modern technology.

Fast facts:

800 women have directly benefited from training and capacity building in the use of new biomass stove technology as well as tree planting;
80 households have already constructed and are using biomass stoves;

The problem

Traditionally, food is cooked using a three stone cookstove, which emits harmful smoke. The stoves run on fuel wood, which has lead to deforestation in the area, as women search for wood in natural forests.

The solution

The biomass stoves do not use as much firewood due to controlled combustion, reducing the amount of harmful smoke. Women leaders are influential in the area and have been elected by fellow women in the community who trust their skills. This activity is teaching women about climate change and how it affects their health, income and their surrounding environment. Women have also been trained to construct the biomass stoves. These women meet regularly to discuss their development issues at the household level and how to save their income.

Helping the planet

Biomass stoves save 60% of firewood annually. Women have also been trained in tree planting to increase on their source of income and at the same time contribute to climate change mitigation efforts.

Helping people

This activity is engaging with the local government on energy efficiency bylaws. They want to urge men to construct the biomass stoves as an alternative to the traditional three stone cookstoves.

Scaling Up

This activity aims to scale up by sensitizing people in the region to biomass stoves via radio talk shows. The entire country of Uganda is experiencing the same energy efficiency issues. If this activity can show that the biomass stoves are generating income and helping women, it might be able to scale up to these other regions.