eCook and Gender

Today, gender equality should be integrated into the goals of all development projects. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The SDGs came into effect in 2016 and set targets to guideUN policy and funding until 2030. The SDGs are interconnected making the success of one goal dependent on solving issues in another goal.

(Leary and Batchelor, 2018) state that “Currently only 16% of Tanzanians (9 million) have access to the national grid, however only 1% (600,000) use electricity as their primary cooking fuel” while WEF(2017) ranks Tanzania 68th out of 144 countries in terms of women’s economic participation. Cooking is the main energy need of poorer households and lack of access to modern energy for cooking is a burden that falls disproportionately upon women. Achieving SDG 5(achieve to gender equality and empower all women and girls), very much depends on access to affordable and reliable energy,i.e. SDG 7.

Women especially in Tanzania are estimated to work for 14 hours a day of unpaid household chores; fetching firewood, cooking, washing,farming(they produce 60% of all food crop). Without commitments and actions to address cooking energy concerns, women in Tanzania will continue to be oppressed, discriminated against and suffer the consequences of energy poverty(TANGSEN and HIVOS, 2012).

eCook offers the potential to extend access to clean cooking to households in off-grid and weak-grid regions. As such, it directly addresses SDG 7, however it clearly has the potential to also make a significant contribution towards SDG 5. By considering the potential impacts of eCook on eachgender, we can understand how the positive impacts can be amplified and negative impacts mitigated.

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eCook and Gender

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