Currently consulting for the SADC Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation (ProBEC) in Southern Africa that is promoting efficient use of biomass energy. In the project, I am providing services to the regional project and also serving as the Zimbabwe national coordinator. I am therefore involved in planning, implementation and monitoring of the biomass energy conservation projects. I also offer training in technolody selection, adaptation, production, dissermination and marketing. In all work we emphasize gender orientation and intergration of HIV/AIDS issues. I also do efficiency testing and emmission monitoring of improved cooking technologies and promote efficient cooking technologies and techniques (improved kitchen and firewood management and issues of indoor air pollution).
Contact Information
The initiatives with ProBEC are in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. These initiatives target the low income population in the urban and rural areas of the partner countries.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
We have had a lot of experience in this area and we have managed to get a lot of information by engaging the members of the community in socio- cultural barrier discussions. We conduct interviews and hold infromal discussions with different members of the communities, including traditional leaders and village leadership. These barries are very important and they may determine the acceptance of a technology and/or technique to a large extent. It is always good to know these before deciding on how, what, where and when to promote a particular technology and/or technique.
We are currently working with east Africa, particularly Kenya to develop a market for improved cooking technologies in Southern Africa. Support is needed to develop the market and we are working on a model where we support market development by enhencing information dissermination including the individual, local and global benefits. We would like to avoid subsidising the technology itself but supporting relavant araeas in the process of the target group finally acquirring the efficient device. A financing mechanism will be initiall reqired and we are also looking for experiences from others on different financing scahemes especially micro- finances.
We have just started to look at possibilities to standardise the cooking technologies that we are promoting. We have trained low cost clay and mud stove producers on quality control aspects where they maintain the optimum dimensions for critical dimensions on their stoves and also ensure that there is good air circulation for good combustion and improved cooking environment where the smoke produced goes out. We are also working towards standardising a particular insulated metal stove design for household and institutional use.
The programme is working actively in this field and has established a biomass test centre at a research institute in Zimbabwe. The centre is not yet fully utilised but I have used the centre to conduct simple efficiency and exposure tests with the available instruments. In the project areas, good ventilation and better combustion of biomass are major issues that the project adresses. As such, the project promotes improved kitchen and firewood management where we particularly look at the cooking environment (usually a kitchen), the fuel used (what type of fuel, is it dry, cut, split etc) and the type of technology used (how far is it efficient, both combustion and heat transfer). We have not carried out any health monitoring project but we will be interested to learn how we could do this and be involved if possible.
Relevant Publications or Studies
Economic analysis of fuelwood saving technologies in ProBEC supported Biomass energy conservation(BEC) demonstration projects in Zimbabwe
Our Contribution to the Partnership
We can share information with other individuals and organisations, participate in relavant workshops/discussions/studies/surveys etc, and offer training in areas of expertise. Our contribution will be in the form of experience exchange; training in stove design and dissemination principles; strategy development for biomass energy conservation; etc. ProBEC also holds various training workshops where partnership memebrs could be invited to attend. They would however in most cases need to cover their travel, accommodation and meals but no workshop fees will be charged.
