ENERGIA News 2 International Programmes

ENERGIA News Issue 2, April 1997

International Programmes: Focus on...

GTZ - Household Energy Projects the Second Generation: Integration in Development Planning and Policy

The majority of the population in developing countries meets its energy demand with biomass like wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and dung. The Household Energy Programme (HEP) of the German Technical Co-operation Agency (GTZ) concentrates its projects and activities on measures which aim at alleviating poverty, fuel wood scarcity, overwork and health problems affecting women and children.

Originally designed as “pure” cook-stove dissemination projects to mitigate the effects of fuel wood shortages, this type of project has evolved into a second generation, with a new project approach and a spectrum that takes in diverse household energy (HHE) impacts and target groups.

Participation at All Levels: Vertical Integration

HEP operates since 1983, financed by the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation. Whereas in the past, advisory services centred mainly on households/women, producers of fuel-efficient stoves and traders, the focus in the last two years has shifted to decision makers and energy planners, as well as extension organisations, in particular NGOs. HEP also acts as an information agent, supporting co-operation among international organisations and Southern and Northern networks, like the Foundation for Woodstove Dissemination (FWD) and the Household Energy Development Organisation Network (HEDON).

Participatory advisory services provide the foundation for this integrative approach, and for the acceptance of the measures by the different target groups. Problems and needs are discussed with the beneficiaries, as well as possible solutions. Based on earlier HHE project experiences, concepts and strategies for implementation can be designed, tested and adapted to the specific situation. Such an approach is time-consuming but necessary if participation of the target group is regarded as being decisive for successful and sustainable implementation. Not only beneficiaries, in particular women, have to be sensitised; policy and decision-makers also have to become co-operation partners.

In the past, rural household energy was regarded as synonymous with cooking, and proposed solutions were primarily technical and focused on cook-stoves. This unattractive topic with little prestige value for policy makers and financiers. As a result, household energy - the rational use of biomass and its substitution potential - is still a low priority in national energy policies. While in the past, specific individual projects have been supported, this second generation of household energy projects systematically attempts to incorporate the entire complex of household energy into national energy policy and planning.

Networking among Development Sectors: horizontal integration

The central element for success in second generation projects is an integrated and participatory approach. Household energy is not an isolated element in planning and extension work, but forms an integral part of a system which inter-links different scopes of action and sectors. HHE activities can be integrated horizontally with schemes directed at related sectors (see diagram 2) wherever the key activities coincide or overlap with the HHE scope, for example:

forestry - through support of tree planting measures at the household level and afforestation measures in general;
environmental and resource protection - by reducing the consumption of woodfuel;
health - through reduction of smoke nuisance and other health-risk factors associated with household cooking;
food security - through improvement of the nutritional situation by means of food-conserving and energy-saving methods of cooking;
energy - through better kitchen management and usage of fuel-saving cooking appliances;
promotion of small scale industries - through provision of employment and income generation measures;
Regional Rural Development - through measures to improve living and working conditions of women, such as implementation of kitchen management techniques, income generating activities, family planning etc.;
refugee and disaster aid - through environmental protection and afforestation measures in temporary settlements;
education - through awareness creation and sensitisation activities in schools and public events focusing on energy saving and resource protection measures.

Horizontal integration can be achieved through two strategies:

One is to introduce HHE measures in ongoing projects and programmes in other development sectors;
The other is to plan HHE projects which, from the start, integrate components from other development sectors.

Which path to take depends on the situation. For the introduction of HHE in ongoing projects it matters a great deal whether project personnel actually perceive the need for HHE measures, since this will make them more receptive to their introduction. If feasible, then this first strategy may have the advantage of being more economic, as the operational costs can be reduced by using the infrastructure and services of the existing project.

Decentralisation to Priority Regions: the Sahel and Southern Africa

Besides the main HEP office in Eschborn, Germany, ‘HEP-Sahel’, financed by the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation, began to operate in summer 1996. HEP-Sahel, located in Burkina Faso, includes the countries of Mali, Niger, Senegal, Mauritania and Chad. Like the HEP, HEP-Sahel is geared to socially and environmentally sound supply of household energy, through strengthening and training of already existing local know-how. In HEP-Sahel, a special emphasis is given to sensitisation of policy- and decision-makers and advising partner organisations and extension organisations, in particular NGOs. A third advisory service office, for Southern Africa, is financed by the European Community and started a nine-month orientation phase in November 1996. It includes the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Please contact GTZ for further information and a list of publications available in English, French and German:
GTZ Household Energy Programme, P.O. Box 5180 - 65726 Eschborn, Germany; Tel. +49.6196.793006, Fax +49.6196.797325
GTZ - HEP Regional Office, B.P. 1485 Ouagodougou, Burkina Faso; Tel. +226.311672, Fax +226.310873

Integrating Household Energy Measures in the Shire/Tigray (Ethiopia) Food Security Programme
Karin Roeske, HEP Team

One of the first examples of the integration of a household energy (HHE) component in sector projects is the Food Security Programme Shire/Tigray (IFSP) in northern Ethiopia. The Programme started in 1992 with the aim of improving the food supply of about 20,000 smallholder households seriously threatened by food shortages: malnutrition of families, overwork of women, low marriage and childbirth age of women, short interval between pregnancies, high rate of infant mortality and degraded ecological and economic resources are all problems in the project region. Given such a vicious circle of insufficiencies, co-operation and intervention by different disciplines - nutrition/health, family planning, household energy, agricultural techniques, afforestation - is absolutely essential and demands a comprehensive approach.
In 1994, following its guidelines for integration, the GTZ Household Energy Programme (HEP) began with a needs assessment and an analysis of the socio-economic and ecological living conditions of the target group. The findings identified immediate measures to be taken, such as:

introduction of fuel-saving household energy technologies and
reduction of smoke hazard and other health risks due to traditional cooking techniques

as well as long-term measures:

planting of fuel wood by women's groups (fast-growing species) to replace the use of dung as fuel;
growing vegetables and fruit trees and fast-growing species for woodfuel production at the household level;
improvement of the economic situation in the household through income-generating activities such as soap production, stove building, etc.;
advice on improved kitchen management and nutrition and
advice on health and family planning questions.

Some of these measures were already part of the IFSP; they are being strengthened through intensive advisory services and sensitisation activities by HEP and linked with other project measures.
Another important part of HEP's engagement in the Programme is sensitisation and involvement of policy- and decision-makers, together with establishing and maintaining working co-operation with both governmental and non-governmental organisations. For sensitisation and advisory measures in the sector HHE/health, for example, HEP works together with the extension service staff of the Ministry of Agriculture. To transfer the know-how of HHE technologies, HEP conducted training courses in the different technological, advisory and administrative aspects and adapted sensitisation and awareness-raising material to the specific situation for the extension personnel of all involved institutions. To ensure genuine participation of the target groups, a committee of policy- and decision-makers at the regional level was formed, with representatives of the most important sector ministries and planning offices. This committee, which has decision-making powers, participates in defining the concept and the means of implementation of the project.
Comparable approaches of HHE integration in sector projects are underway in Gambia (forestry project), Ethiopia (biomass project) and in Zaire (Regional Rural Development Programme), which due to the political situation is not operating at present.

Back to contents

Home - About ENERGIA - Strategies - Resources - Related Links - Sitemap

Updated on 17 February 2006