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

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.

The discussion was also conducted with the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Energy and Minerals Committee Hon. Dastan Kitandula.  The meeting discussed the policy issues, market barriers, and the need for tax reforms for clean electric cooking appliances such as Electric Pressure Cookers.  One of the outcomes of this meeting was another future advocacy meeting that will attract more participants from energy and minerals, TAPAFE, and finance and planning committees.

The workshop of 23 May 2023 with Parliamentarians on Clean Electric Cooking was opened by the Chair of the Energy and Minerals Committee and the Chair of Finance and Planning. Three papers were presented to parliamentarians on the Clean Cooking Energy Situation in Tanzania, Efforts to Promote the Use of Electricity for Cooking, and Efforts to Achieve Widespread and Sustainable Use of EPCs.

Recommendations of stakeholders to parliamentarians were as follows:

• Along with various ongoing efforts made by the government in supplying electricity, deliberate efforts to integrate electricity and cooking efforts are needed to reach 80% of households that use clean energy for cooking by 2033.
• The opinion of the stakeholders for the MPs is to continue to give great inspiration and priority to ensure that electric energy becomes reliable in the country and provide education to the public and voters in the states about the importance of abandoning unclean cooking fuels.
• Members of Parliament should cooperate with the government and private media to continue to inspire large numbers through large national programs to educate ordinary citizens so that they understand and change attitudes, behaviours, traditions, and customs towards clean electric cooking energy.
• Ensuring that EPC is available in large quantities and at low cost to rural areas.
• The members of parliament were asked to support efforts to persuade the government to reduce or eliminate the tax on efficient electric appliances including
• Members of Parliament to persuade the Government and stakeholders of financial institutions to create an enabling environment that will allow people with low income to get EPC on concessional terms.
• Currently the consumers of cooking electricity are middle- and high-income households who pay in cash.
• To build capacity and enable women's groups, and entrepreneurs to be able to lend to each other through social groups.
• The MPs should supervise and direct the government to achieve the implementation of the vision and the national strategic plan for clean cooking energy that is prepared fully and as early as possible.
• The parliamentarians were asked to encourage the Government to prepare and implement a strategic plan for cooking with electricity as it is now for our neighbouring countries of Kenya and Uganda.
• Members of Parliament to persuade the Government to achieve various opportunities including the stakeholders of clean cooking energy to continue to provide adequate education at various levels,
• Parliamentarians should give inspiration to policymakers so that they thoroughly understand the concept of electricity and cooking and develop and implement policies and strategic plans that will help EPC to be widely and sustainably used.
• Members of Parliament to supervise the Government so that it continues to control the illegal entry of non-standard stoves, and their existence, and manage national and international quality standards, this will ensure the safety of the user and the certainty of the value of his money (TBS, FCC, TRA, and others will be involved).
• Members of Parliament to oversee the government to create an enabling environment that will lead to the establishment of factories to produce EPCs in the country.
• Capital, expertise, and money are needed to produce, import, and distribute
• This will help to increase the availability and reduce the costs of EPC "availability & affordability”.
• It will contribute to the increase of employment and industries.
• Parliamentarians should make efforts to obtain expertise from countries that produce or have expertise in making these appliances and teach young people in the country to start assembling them and finally produce
• Members of Parliament should encourage the Government to combine efforts to distribute electricity to the people concurrently with the motivation to use that electricity for cooking.
• Members of Parliament are urging the Government through the Electricity Corporation TANESCO to have programs to connect its customers and provide them with
• Establishing a "special tariff for cooking with electricity", to attract many citizens to use electricity.
• TANESCO to introduce an "on-bill financing model" and enable customers to pay credits little by little through this financial model".

The following are the outcome of the visit of TaTEDO-SESO to the Parliament  

• Informing MPs, Ministers, and other decision-makers different means of moving communities in Tanzania from biomass to electric cooking
• Marketing more than 300 electric pressure cookers to the MPs, visitors, and parliament staff,
• The appropriate approaches for ensuring electric cooking appliances will penetrate the large section of urban and rural communities,
• Request from parliament staff to extend the exhibition of electric pressure cookers for staff to get the opportunity to buy them,
• Awareness of the EPCs (their affordability and efficiency) by MPs and Ministers for them to change the mentality of inability to use electricity for cooking,
• The opportunity to undertake advocacy with MPs which will lead to the writing of an open paper for discussion in the Parliamentary Sessions.
• Requested the document for requesting tax exemptions to follow it up with the appropriate authorities in the Government.

• Prev
• Next

Tweet