THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMUNITY-LED APPROACH AND DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED COOKSTOVES IN GAMO ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

In most developing countries, the energy requirements is heavily dependent on biomass fuels such as wood, charcoal and crop residue for cooking which is consumed in traditional way causing indoor air pollution and deforestation. These resulted in shortage of fuel wood. Due to this, devoted efforts are made which resulted in the advancement of improved cooking stoves which are fuel saving, reduce pressure on forests and indoor air pollution. Different programs promoted these improved cooking stoves in different parts of the country using different approaches such as market based, subsidy based approaches but the adoption rate is low and most of the community is still using traditional system. The vita project used Community-Led approach to increase the adoption of these stoves. Therefore, this study is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Community-Led approach in increasing the adoption of improved cooking stoves in two selected district of Gamo Zone. A cross sectional data from 384 respondents were used in the analysis. For this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was collected from both primary and secondary sources by household interview, focused group discussion and personal observation. The collected data was analyzed using STATA software. In the study area Charcoal and wood is the main energy source comprising about 60% with the adoption status of 76.04%. Participation in CLA has significant role in increasing adoption of ICS; more than 90% of the participants are adopter of ICS as compared to non-participants. In addition to this, participation in CLA is also effective in community behavior change and collective action as participants of CLA have high level of behavior (88.12%) compared to non-participants. The result of binary logistic model reveals that Sex of HHH, Educational status, number of DA contact per year, participation on training related to ICS, existence of early adopter neighbor, source of fuel wood, use of separate kitchen and CLA participation were positively and statistically significant in determining households’ use of ICS in the study area. Educational level, training & perception and participation in CLA affects the use ICS positively. Therefore, to gain successful adoption, implementers and policymakers should consider those important factors in the implementation of ICSs to the community.