Influencing and Awareness Creation on Clean Electric Cooking Solutions at the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania

Category: Blog
Published: Wednesday, 14 February 2024 14:48
Written by Jensen C. Shuma
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Tanzania is a nation of approximately 60 million people with most households using biomass as the primary source of cooking energy. Firewood is the most common fuel in rural households and charcoal is the most common fuel in urban and peri-urban households.

TaTEDO-SESO through the project for awareness campaign and influencing decision-makers for electric pressure cookers aimed to support the governments and parliament with policy and strategic advice, such as on sector policies, strategies, regulatory aspects, and quality assurance. TaTEDO-SESO team through a component of Influencing decision-makers conducted several activities at the parliament including, a meeting with the speaker of the parliament, Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Youth, Employment, and People with Disability), Hon. Jenista Muhagama, demonstrations, and a workshop with the Parliamentary Committees for Energy and Minerals and Budget and Finance and Tanzania Parliamentarians Friends of the Environment (TAPAFE).

The logistics which were managed by the Tanzania Support Programme (TSP) started on the 18^th to 20^th of April 2023 by meeting with the Speaker of Parliament, Hon Tulia Akson, The Minister of State in the President’s Office for Public Service Management, Policies, and Good Governance Hon Jenista Mhagama, and the Chair of the Energy and Minerals Committee Hon Dastan Kitandula. It was agreed to meet the committees of Energy and Minerals, Budget, and Finance and TAPAFE on 23 May 2023. SESCOM and TaTEDO managed to put their pavilion at the parliament compounds.

The representatives from SESCOM and other partners also held a meeting with the Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Youth, Employment and People with Disability), Hon. Jenista Muhagama to discuss current efforts of clean cooking by private sectors and CSOs with support from DPs.

The meeting also discussed how to foster an enabling environment (policy issues), employment opportunities, and other efforts for the transition of urban and rural communities from cooking by biomass to clean cooking with electricity, some past research, and how these efforts will feature in the recent environment minister’s statement of banning charcoal and firewood from January 2024.