The Smart Economics of Clean Cooking: Placing Women at the Center of the Energy Access Development Agenda

From October 2019 to May 2020, a team of five Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) master’s students were selected to work with the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) on a capstone project under the headline “Adopting Modern Energy Cooking Services in Lower Income Countries: Drivers & Constraints.” This broad topic was employed as a baseline to inform initial research and a far-reaching literature review, which ultimately resulted in a narrower research scope: a smart economic analysis of the clean cooking sector with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Smart economics, defined for the purpose of this analysis, as a development approach that places women at the center of the agenda, was applied to the clean cooking sector in Africa.

This approach acknowledges the reality that the inability to access modern cooking solutions primarily affects the lives of women and girls, and that investing in clean cooking leads to positive movement in gender equality, as well as economic growth for the African region as a whole. The analysis resulted in a summative report, which has been condensed into this policy brief: The Smart Economics of Clean Cooking: Placing Women at the Center of the Energy Access Development Agenda.

It should be noted that the analysis contained in the following brief is based on existing literature and data; field research was not conducted, and primary data was not collected.