A stove for Darfur

When we began reporting on stove projects we didn’t realize how important these would turn out to be for IDP populations around the world, especially in Africa.

IDP stands for Internally Displaced Person. They are people forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees, remain within their country’s borders. We reported in December on Mercy Corp’s stove project in the IDP camps near Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

About 1500 miles to the north of Goma is the hot, austere, dry landscape characteristic of the Chad-Sudan border. It is in this inhospitable corner of the Sahel where more than two million Darfuris have sought refuge from the conflict back home.

Faced with unique environmental and cultural conditions, we set off to learn more about a stove that has brought much needed relief to this IDP population.

The Darfur Stoves Project and its partner organizations have already provided 5,000 stoves to Darfuri refugees. Distribution of an additional 9,000 stoves has already started. But the 14,000 stoves that will have been distributed by mid 2010 fall far short of the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 stoves that are needed.

Earlier last week we had a chance to speak with Andree Sosler, the Executive Director of the Berkeley-based Darfur Stoves Project.

A safety stove

Some of the things she told us surprised us. For example, the driver for the stove project in Darfur was not the traditional concern for environmental, public health, or poverty alleviation. It was all about increasing the personal safety of women.

Sosler explained that at the height of the emergency, women had to sometimes walk as long as seven hours to find firewood outside the refugee camps. The women were frequently the victims of rape during these treks.

Putting the best minds on the job

Faced with these threats, the US government in 2004 turned to Berkeley Lab scientist Ashok Gadgil to help find a solution to the problem. The Berkeley-Darfur Stove is the response devised by Ashok, his colleagues, and the women of Darfur.

In laboratory tests, the stove uses an astonishing 72% less fuel wood than the traditional three-stones-and-a-pot cooking method. “It’s all about the efficiency. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve it,” says Sosler. The stove is today in its 14^th iteration.

And because the improved stove requires much less wood than a regular stove, Darfuri women are more safe, they can save money, and have more time to dedicate to other activities.

The unit price for each stove is about $15. Of this, $13.60 goes towards manufacturing and shipping. The rest goes towards assembling the stove. Sosler is not certain what the final price will be for the new batch of stoves. Whatever it is, it will have to be subsidized, she says.

We asked Sosler where indoor air pollution fit into their calculations. She says a lot of people cook outside the home, so indoor smoke may not have the same impact as in other places. Still, the project, which was hatched at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is taking steps to learn more about the health and environmental impact of the stoves.

Very little rain falls in the region, which made us wonder, why not use solar stoves? “They wouldn’t be adopted by the women there,” says Sosler, adding that “the solar stoves are more like ovens, which is not suitable for cooking typical Darfuri dishes. Their food needs to be stirred vigorously. Plus, the solar stoves take a while to get going in the morning and people need their food at the crack of dawn before they head out to work.” The Berkeley-Darfur Stove on the other hand is specifically tailored to the windy conditions, pot sizes, cooking styles, and sandy ground of Darfur.

I asked Sosler about using alternative fuels or biomass briquettes? There really isn’t that much discarded biomass to draw from, she says. Manure is not available in sufficient quantities. Gas stoves are being promoted and the people love them. But the gas is expensive not always available. Only the better off can afford it.

Made in India. Built for the desert.

It is an article of faith in the development community that local is best. So it came as a surprise to learn that the Darfur stoves are being manufactured… in India. Sosler explains that efforts to manufacture the stoves locally and in the capital city failed to deliver the necessary quality, cost, and volumes. Sourcing the stoves in India is cheaper, faster, and delivers a better product.

More than 100 million Africans live in the Sahel region across Africa. We thought they would make an ideal customer base for Berkeley-Darfur Stove, which is designed to work in the region’s dry sandy environment. Although there is a small pilot project being carried out in neighboring Ethiopia, Sosler says the focus for now is on the mission: to get as many stoves as possible to those who need them most.

For more information or if you want to make a gift, visit: http://darfurstoves.org