The project was launched in 1999 to bring fuel efficiency training to women in rural areas of southern Madagascar. The project benefited from inputs and collaboration from The Peace Corps Volunteers based in Ambovombe, Ampanihy and Tulear.
Fuel Efficiency Program for Southern Madagascar
News Flash - Tree-planting Initiative
The National Lottery Charities Board (now Community Fund) have agreed to fund Projet Energie for the next 3 years. The new phase of the project began in December 2001.
As part of the new project, we are hoping to begin a new initiative of tree-seedling planting with family and community groups who are already involved in the fuel-efficient stove project. We are currently raising funds to assist us with this work. For further project and funding information, please go to Energy Proposal.
Project Factsheet
Project Factsheet in French
Project Factsheet in Malagasy
The project was launched in 1999 to bring fuel efficiency training to women in rural areas of southern Madagascar, in particular to train them to build a fuel efficient stove - the 'Toko Mitsitsy' (TM ) - which can produce fuel savings of up to 65% whilst also reducing the amount of time spent by women searching for wood, or family income spent purchasing wood.
The TM is built from local natural materials, including red earth, or termite mound, grass and ashes - with mixes varying according to region. It is therefore accessible to all and additional stoves can be built easily. During an eighteen month pilot phase, followed by a 5 month interim collaboration funded by WWF, the project delivered trainings across the region.
15 partnerships were built in the region to create synergy on energy issues and increase access to stove trainings, including WWF, PNEBE (Ministry of Mines and Energy) and World Food Programme. The project benefited from inputs and collaboration from The Peace Corps Volunteers based in Ambovombe, Ampanihy and Tulear, who helped to deliver training in the region as well as to incoming Peace Corps volunteers based around the island.
The energy program worked with its sister project, ALT Projet Radio, to market the stoves via radio broadcast across the region and ensure full participation at group trainings, namely:
* 8033 women (and men) were trained by the ALT team and volunteers in 309 target villages across the south (from Amboasary to Tulear)
* 7480 stoves were counted as completed by villagers.
Follow up supports and training ensures a further sharing of this simple technology between households and communities. With successful methodologies developed during the two initial phases, the project is developing a three-year expansion (again funded by the UK Community Fund) which will aim to popularise the stove in 40 communes between Tulear and Fort Dauphin. The project will also initiate urban commercialisation of the stoves and a tree planting pilot scheme within its new initiative.
Benefits anticipated (and verifiable from results already gained):
* 30-65% savings in firewood use
* 30-70% savings in cooking time
* 20-60% costs savings in purchase of firewood
* TM is easy to use and accepts a variety of fuels eg maize husks
* TM can boil water in a quarter of the time of traditional open stoves
* TM reduces the number of visits a woman makes to the forest to collect fuel.
* Time saved increases economic opportunities for women eg increased income from additional weaving each month
* Wood saved per 2500 stoves in use is accruing at approximately 5,342 tons per annum
Project History
The pilot-phase of Projet Energie was funded by the National Lottery Charities Board (now Community Fund)(£66,126) from 1999 to 2001.
Following a research and development phase, this project has taken off with great popularity, bringing training to villagers in how to build a simple fuel-efficient wood stove- Toko Mitsitsy.
The project aims to empower local people, in particular women - who spend up to a quarter of their time or family income collecting or purchasing wood - to manage their natural wood resources more sustainably. Projet Energie does this simply by giving them a technology that can reduce their domestic fuel consumption of wood by over half.
The stoves are built from red dirt or termite mounds, chopped grass and zebu manure and are hardened with a coating of ashes. Villagers are taught the simple measuring and building methods and given support for maintenance and repair of the stoves. Many have already adapted the stove to their requirements and added metal and stones to the oven doors in order to strengthen them.
Building Capacity and Sharing Simple Technology
With assistance from Peace Corps volunteer, Heather Bryant, the project has trained 5 core stove trainers and two outreach workers who, in turn, have trained over 1500 women between them in 154 village communities and urban centres in the Ambovombe, Amboasary and Tshiombe areas.
The project aims to popularise the stove so that it will replace the traditional open metal triangle on which most villagers currently do their cooking. Training has been designed to use simple measuring techniques and is delivered in local language directly in the village setting.
13 local organisations have been trained who have gone on to share training with their target groups
Results
Following a three month research and development period, over twelve months of village trainings, two months of technical assessment and a full external evaluation, the project has been able to report a conservative estimate of 2631 fuel efficient stoves built
If a village family is calculated as 8 people (women, children and at least one elder) then the number of people benefiting from the stove project to date is 21, 048.
70% of stoves are still in use 6 months after training and, thanks to adaptations that have been included during the pilot phase and an estimation of stoves built after training and by other partners, the project calculates approximately 2500 working stoves currently in the target area.
Efficiency of the Toko Mitsitsy stove
The stove has proved immensely popular with local communities and the projects' independent evaluation, carried out in February 2001 has born out their observations of the savings and efficiency that the stove brings:
* 30-65% savings in firewood use
* 30-70% savings in cooking time
* 20-60% costs savings in purchase of firewood
Furthermore, villagers report that:
* TM is easy to use and accepts a variety of fuels (e.g. maize husks)
* TM can boil water in a quarter of the time of traditional open stoves
* TM reduces number of visits a woman makes to the forest to collect wood
* TM frees up women's time during the cooking process
* TM frees up women's time for other economic activities
* TM is safer in the kitchen - less smoke and reduced accidents with children
It is clear from the research and from the project evaluation that the TM is able to impact positively on the ability of local populations to reduce their consumption of wood and manage this resource more sustainably.
With approximately 2500 women currently using the Toko Mitsitsy we can calculate that wood savings are accruing at 5,342 tons per year against the targets achieved during this pilot phase.
Other Savings calculated during the pilot phase include:
* wood gathering time @ 3 hrs per week, women days: 37,500
* time saved in tending fires @ 1.5 hrs per day, women days: 131,000
* cash value wood saved on regional average 0.0035 £s per kilo: 18,700
* cash value on time saved @ 6700 fmg (67p) per day min wage: 88,000 £s
A good example of how time saved by the TM has benefited women is women weavers who have tripled their output of mats generating income of up to 140,000 FMG per month (14 pounds sterling) -an excellent income for a local weaver. (average family income is approximately £23per month)
Getting the message out
The project has produced training materials and a radio marketing campaign to promote trainings and the use of the stove in the region. The radio promotions are made in collaboration with a sister project, ALT Projet Radio - which currently reaches up to 60,000 people in over 160 villages and three main urban centres in the south of Madagascar (Fort Dauphin, Ambovombe, Amboasary).
Providing Support and Encouragement
'Double' stove adapted by a local women
After an initial preparatory visit, the team returns to the village and trains 12 or more women at a time, paying attention to find one or two women who will be particularly dynamic at passing on the technology to others in the village. The trained women then receive a further two visits from the team, after two weeks and again after six months. These visits enable the team to review the training process, monitor the number of women using the stoves, how many additional stoves have been built and new women trained, and to take measurements about changes in domestic fuel use, gathering time and family expenditure on fuel.
The trainers offer support and discuss maintenance of the stove. Sometimes they are shown adaptations to the stove suggested by the villagers themselves, which is a positive measure of the ownership of the stove and the accessibility of the new technology.
Collaboration
The project has actively sought collaboration and partnership with a number of other NGOs working in the energy sector in the region in order to develop synergy and maximise the benefits to local populations.
Meetings have taken place regularly with WWF and PNEBE (Ministry of Mines and Energy) who represent the most consistent interest in fuel resource management in the south. The project has also developed relations with Program Alimentaire du Monde (World Food Program) to develop a means of providing 'food for work' at trainings.
Peace Corps continue to provide volunteer support to the project. Fifteen new volunteers were trained in TM building techniques this year. They will go to sites around Madagascar and four will remain designated to the project in Ampanihy, Bekily, Ambovombe and Tulear.
The evaluation confirmed the team's willingness and success at building local links and clearly identified ALT's Projet Energy as the main fuel efficiency project in the south. WWF continue to actively support the project and have provided a number of trainings, including MARP techniques to help improve the village survey and research techniques of the team.
…and the future
Furthermore, a grant from WWF 'Women and Environment' will support a Projet Energie collaboration to deliver stove trainings in the Ankidada area, targeted by the WWF Dry Forest Ecoregion Program, until October 2001
The project has submitted a three-year development proposal to the Community Fund to expand the project across the region, and aims to popularise the Toko Mitsitsy with an uptake by at least 50% of the target population, to create substantial future benefits for the people and the environment in the south.
