Solar energy for women's business productivity and empowerment in rural Benin

 

The use of traditional stoves, the time spent foraging firewood, and unpaid domestic work and care responsibilities have significant opportunity costs for women who spend, on average, five hours each day collecting firewood and cooking. These activities deprive them of their health and opportunities to access basic education, take up off-farm employment, or start a business that could increase their financial independence.

In addition to alleviating the burden of unpaid domestic work, clean cooking solutions can potentially boost women's productivity in income-generating activities and ultimately improve their empowerment. Sustainable strategies, including solar cooker technology, are needed to meet energy needs, save mangrove ecosystems, streamline women's time allocation for wood collection, and reduce their exposure to heat and smoke. With less than 20% of the population having access to clean cooking facilities in Benin, there is still much to do to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

This project aims to contribute to the large-scale adoption of solar cooker technology for productive uses (women's enterprises) and domestic purposes (cooking). It will generate evidence on the impact of access to solar cookstove technology on women entrepreneurs' productivity in the salt and gari (cassava flour) value chains. Advocacy activities for policies that support the adoption of the technology to reduce rural women's workload will also be included in the project. This will ultimately improve women's business competitiveness, reduce gender inequalities and increase rural women's empowerment.