The Darfur Stoves Project (DSP) seeks to improve the safety and livelihoods of women by providing fuel-efficient stoves which reduce firewood requirements, limit women’s exposure to violence during firewood collection and decrease the use of money and food rations to obtain fuel.
The Darfur Stoves Project is the first initiative of our parent organization, Technology Innovation for Sustainable Societies (TISS). The mission of TISS is to link research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and private distributors to increase the availability of affordable, appropriate technology to help improve the quality of life and create employment in places affected by poverty and conflict.
Contact Information
Our Focus
With our previous partner, 5,000 stoves were disseminated in Darfur. The Darfur Stoves Project and its current partners, Oxfam America and the Sudanese organization, Sustainable Action Group (SAG) plan to distribute at least 9,000 additional stoves by the end of 2010.
By the end of the year, Berkeley-Darfur Stoves will also reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 18,000 tons annually and assuming all families buy all of their wood, current production will save displaced persons $1.8 million per year.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
Our approach has been to specifically tailor our product to meet the needs of women in Darfur. We modified the Indian Tara stove, adapting it for the type of food, pot shapes, windy conditions and sandy terrain in Darfur. At the end of our initial pilot test with 50 women, all 50 chose to purchase a prototype of the Berkeley-Darfur Stove for $5.
We chose to adopt a user-centered design approach based not only on our own conviction, but also based on the observations of our initial fact-finding team that other fuel-efficient stoves that had been distributed in Darfur were not valued by the women. For example, our team saw some stoves being used for storage or refuse rather than for cooking.
We would like the Berkeley-Darfur Stove to be sold to users at least above the price of scrap metal. We have found this to be a difficult proposition in a humanitarian crisis setting like Darfur, because people are used to receiving aid for free. We are still testing out the potential for market development in this setting.
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We are currently working with our partners, Oxfam America and the Sudanese NGO, Sustainable Action Group (SAG) to conduct a follow-up survey of the stove recipients who were interviewed in our baseline survey last fall. Stay tuned for updates!
Relevant Publications or Studies
None noted
Our Contribution to the Partnership
We would like to exchange ideas, share learning and collaborate with other members.
