April 2012: The Stockholm Environmental Insitute (SEI) has published a discussion brief, entitled “Learning from Cooks: a User-Centred Approach to Help Transform Household Energy Use,” which recommends the use of qualitative methodologies to assess user needs for cookstoves and presents results from a case study in India. The study began in Zambia.

The brief argues that the lack of success to introduce clean cookstoves in areas that rely heavily on traditional biomass as primary energy source is linked to the relative lack of knowledge on the needs, preferences, and constraints of stove users. It presents results from a 2011 SEI baseline assessment of household energy options and practices in the Indian state Haryana which show that, besides focusing on cooking technologies, an understanding of the cultural, social and financial factors influencing energy use can generate concrete recommendations for stove design and introduction.

The study, which began in Zambia, is based on enthnographic approaches of ‘generative’ research, and builds on an earlier SEI project, called “Household Energy Economic Analysis,” a survey examining the uptake of new stoves in different market segments in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

SEI is an Associate Member of the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD), a UNEP-facilitated knowledge network on energy, development, and environment issues. [SEI Press Release] [Publication: Learning from Cooks] [Publication: Household Energy Economic Analysis]