Publication - Cooking in Displacement Settings: Engaging the Private Sector in Non-wood-based Fuel Supply

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Title

Cooking in Displacement Settings: Engaging the Private Sector in Non-wood-based Fuel Supply

Publisher

Moving Energy Initiative (MEI)

Author

Laura Patel & Katie Gross

Published in

January 2019

Abstract

Providing adequate cooking fuel and clean-burning, fuel-efficient stoves in displacement settings has long been a major challenge for local authorities, humanitarian agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local communities and refugees themselves. Refugees generally have limited access to modern cooking solutions. Most either depend on insufficient humanitarian agency handouts of ‘in-kind’ firewood or have to travel long distances to collect firewood (in the latter case, exposing themselves to the risk of attack and/or sparking conflict with host communities). In many displacement settings, such as in Tanzania and Bangladesh, a crisis point is being reached in which firewood from the local environment is no longer available and no alternatives exist.

In many cases, host governments are recognizing the environmental damage and are now pushing for change, banning in-kind firewood distribution or requesting humanitarian agency support to transition refugees to alternative fuels. All these issues are present in the Kakuma refugee camp complex in Kenya, which prompted the Moving Energy Initiative (MEI) to explore alternative solutions to meeting residents’ cooking energy needs.

There is significant potential for private-sector engagement in this context – which, though largely overlooked to date, could result in win-win scenarios for all stakeholders. Refugee camps and other displacement settings present opportunities for private-sector cooking fuel companies to expand their customer bases, with the added advantage for vendors of offering concentrated demand and scope for economies of scale. Studies show that refugees are already engaging with existing suppliers, using what little income they have to purchase traditional cooking fuels (i.e. firewood and charcoal). On a global scale, however, private-sector investment in

the supply of alternative fuels to these markets has been limited to date.

URL

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