Nigeria-India exchange on clean energy products

Of particular interest to the women was how mobile technology is helping women afford clean cooking technology. In the villages of Keonjhar and Notarpali the Nigerian women saw how sensors connected to cookstoves transmit information via a mobile network to show how often and how long clean cookstoves are used. Using this information, Nexleaf Analytics quantifies how much black carbon and carbon dioxide is prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere. This is then translated into ‘climate credits’, which enable women to get payments for using their stoves.  The Nexleaf StoveTrace system captures also women’s feedback on potential design improvements. 

Following this Solution centre activity, RUWES and Nexleaf applied a similar scheme in two villages (Mararraban-Burum and Katampe) close to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, where they compared different stoves in 100 households over one year. That helped identify the type of cookstoves women prefer using and ultimately improve the health of Nigerians and protect the climate. This has also improved women’s empowerment through climate credit payments, not only helping women afford the stove but also acquire financial literacy, financial management and ultimately lead to financial inclusion for rural women. 

Read coverage: Nigerian women taking bold action to reduce household air pollution

Household air pollution in Nigeria causes a huge health burden in Africa’s most populous country. According to the World Health Organization, 3 billion people globally cook and heat their homes using open fires and simple stoves. The smoke from these fires have serious impact on the environment and health. Every year over 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution.  

Women, who do most of the cooking, and their children are most vulnerable. The main culprits are simple cookstoves that burn firewood, and the kerosene lighting, both of which produce smoke laden with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon that penetrate deep into the body causing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and other damage. 

In Nigeria the Rural Women for Energy Security (RUWES), a sisterhood of over 2 million women, are taking control of household energy decisions by creating clean energy enterprises, training women in the manufacturing and maintenance of clean cookstoves and solar systems, and by creating a network of women entrepreneurs to provide affordable clean energy solutions across the country. RUWES main aim is to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable clean energy access for all, especially the rural poor, while also reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. RUWES is also committed to bearing the torch for a new generation of clean energy skills acquisition through sustainable south-south technology exchange with rural women in other countries. The group has high ambitions to enhance the health of people and the physical environment, and to reduce premature deaths caused by black carbon inhalation.