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Solid biomass collection such as firewood rests mostly on women and children in settings where traditional fuels dominates household energy choices. A 2015 World Health Organisation (WHO) report estimated that 3.5 million people globally rely on solid biomass for cooking and heating using traditional and inefficient cookstoves. The report identified the practice as the major cause of indoor air pollution responsible for 4.3 million premature deaths globally and 70,000 deaths estimated in Nigeria. The study will discuss results from ongoing qualitative research investigating enablers for the uptake of improved cookstoves (ICS) in Benue State, North Central Nigeria. The researchers used interviews and household questionnaires to gain an understanding of gendered cooking responsibilities at the household level. The paper will highlight fuel choice and wider household responsibilities that affect the use of ICS. It further discusses households' sources of income and what duties are performed by spouses in the study area. Household decision-making regarding stove purchases and cooking preferences influencing the types of stove used for preparing food will be highlighted. The results suggest that households with shared responsibility for cooking and fuel choice help to enable women to make decisions on household energy use and have access to some basic financial resources. These appear to be important drivers for clean energy use. The study indicates that the inclusion of gender perspectives within energy policy has potential to promote the uptake of ICS with greater energy use efficiency and reduced levels of household air pollution among Nigeria's rural and urban population.

Around 2.7 billion people globally and 80% of households in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on solid biomass fuels for cooking and heating. This results in high levels of exposure to household air pollution (HAP); the second most common cause of death in eastern, central and western sub-Saharan Africa. Top-down technology-oriented initiatives seeking to promote the uptake of »improved« cookstoves (ICS) have had limited success to date. Drawing on participatory cooking events in the UK, Malawi and Zambia plus in-depth field-based research in Nigeria, we discuss our use of participatory engagement activities that gave voice to (and encourage emic understandings of) end-user priorities regarding fuel and cookstove use. We argue that such approaches can be effective in promoting two-way knowledge sharing between ICS producers, promoters and end-users. We also suggest that community-wide participatory approaches used in sanitation initiatives have potential to be adapted within ICS interventions to help deepen understandings of locally specific cooking preferences and integrate community and scientific knowledges about the causes of health issues linked to solid fuel use.

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