The Importance of Time-Saving as a Factor in Transitioning from Woodfuel to Modern Cooking Energy Services: A Systematic Map

Abstract

Over half of the world’s population lack access to modern energy cooking services (MECS) and instead rely on locally harvested biomass for fuel. The collection and burning of such biomass for cooking have significant negative social, health, economic and environmental impacts and is a major sustainability challenge. The adverse development impacts from households’ continued dependence on polluting stove-and-fuel combinations are significant. Household Air Pollution (HAP) from biomass fuel use accounts for some 4.3 million premature deaths each year, disproportionately affecting women and children. Fuel harvesting and use represent a significant time burden for women and girls. Time savings can be realized through multiple pathways. Understanding the importance of timesaving as a factor in the adoption of clean cooking is thus important in informing the design of cookstove programs and their marketing approach. The systematic evidence evaluation of drivers of and barriers to adoption of modern energy systems undertaken for the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) was further analysed to create a systematic map of evidence relating to time-saving attributable to the adoption of modern energy systems by traditional fuel users. The umbrella ESMAP evaluation comprised 160 studies, of which 48 are relevant to the current systematic map. Time-saving was gained from (i) a switch from collection to buying fuel; (ii) urban market utilization; (iii) reducing collected fuel quantity; (iv) reducing the distance to fuel collection sites; (v) and reductions of meal preparation time were found as the key drivers/enablers of cleaner energy adoption across the evidence base. Perceptions and recognition of the time-saving benefits of cleaner fuel adoption across studies were reported to be understood for: (i) fuel efficiency; (ii) fuel collection time; (iii) buying fuelwood; and (iv) better household economics. Relatively few studies report on what the time saved was used for; however, those that do investigate timesaving use found that additional time was used for: (i) additional income generation; (ii) professional development; (iii) more cooking (iv) other domestic activities (e.g., learning to sew); (v) eating out; and (vi) leisure activities. While many studies speculate that time is taken away from education, none state that saved time was used for education, beyond employment opportunities or overarching claims of professional development.

Gendered time, financial & nutritional benefits from access to pay-as-you-go LPG for cooking in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya

“…This further illustrates how women's agency can influence their degree of economic gains as a result of having additional time to engage in other activites (Akter and Pratap, 2022;Nguyen and Su, 2021). We note that time savings were rarely used for educational purposes or leisure in this setting; a lack of evidence on the use of saved time for education has been documented by another study (Petrokofsky et al, 2021).…”

“…As time savings have been identified as one of the main reasons that individuals adopt clean cooking fuels (Petrokofsky et al, 2021), increasing women's awareness about the time savings and therefore increased productivity offered by cooking with clean fuels could increase their adoption faster than spreading knowledge about health or climate impacts. This is supported by the finding that the convenience of PAYG LPG was rated by nearly as many participants as a reason for recommending PAYG LPG to others (73%) as the ability to pay in smaller payments (83%); 'better health' was the least common reason (29%) stated for recommending PAYG LPG to others in the community.…”

“…Women are traditionally tasked with cooking in many LMICs (Johnson et al, 2019; Kumar and Mehta, 2016; Nguyen and Su, 2021) and may spend several hours per week collecting biomass fuels (Jagoe et al, 2020; Mazorra et al, 2020). This ‘time poverty’ is viewed as a key barrier to gender equality (Sustainable Development Goal 5) as it displaces time that women could otherwise use for employment or other productive activities (Petrokofsky et al, 2021). As informal settlements have been identified as particularly neglected in gender equality efforts (Musango et al, 2020), a transition to clean cooking fuels in these communities represents an important opportunity for empowering women (UN-Habitat, 2013).…”

“…However, how women use their newfound time savings (e.g. employment, professional development, domestic activities, leisure) is not widely researched (Petrokofsky et al, 2021).…”

The Value of Systematic Evidence Synthesis in Forestry, Land Use and Development to Improve Research, Decision-Making and Practice

“…Petrokofsky et al [12] also explore gender in their map on how the time saved in transitioning from wood or charcoal to modern energy systems is used, mainly by women, in LMICs. They find that research has done more than record the fact of time saved; very few studies have asked whether the it was spent on improving education or earning potential or reducing drudgery.…”