Context and challenges

The Dry Zone in the center of Myanmar is home to 30% of the country’s household. Around 80% of Burmese households cook with wood on traditional fireplaces, thus putting great pressure on the forest resources contributing to the 2% annual deforestation rate. The region has low coverage of the national power grid, although the government is pushing for its expansion. Rural populations’ lack of access to modern quality energy and to sustainable energy solutions increases their vulnerability and severely constrains their socio-economic development. The use of biomass as the main source of energy is responsible for the strenuous work carried out by women as well as for respiratory diseases linked to exposure to harmful fumes.

Following participatory workshops with communities and women networks, Geres is working to expand the range of products accessible to families, namely solar home systems in non-grid-connected villages and energy-efficient appliances in grid-connected ones, as well as improved cookstoves, in order to increase the number of people with improved energy access and to disseminate even more high-quality sustainable solutions.

Objectives ans solutions

REACH project objectives are:

• Contribute to structuring an environment conducive to the dissemination of sustainable energy solutions by supporting the emergence of last-mile distributors and retailers, missing links to reach the most isolated villages
• Strengthening women’s entrepreneurship in the energy sector through the development of an innovative and inclusive distribution network, predominantly female, and building their capacity business and technical skills. The integration of women into the local economic fabric and their empowerment will allow the entrepreneurs to boost their livelihoods.
• Facilitate access to finance to ensure low-income households are capable of acquiring high-quality energy products. These products will improve the living conditions of rural households because they are safer, more cost-efficient in the long term and reduce the households’ strenuous chores, which affect disproportionately women. They will also reduce the pressure on Myanmar’s natural resources and reduce CO₂
• Capitalize and disseminate the lessons learned to policy-makers and development institutions to guarantee the increase in access to sustainable energy solutions by the most vulnerable people.

Beneficiaries

• 10 women producers and suppliers of SED
• 10,000 isolated village households by 2021
• Local authorities in the intervention areas
• 40,000 indirect beneficiaries, including 10,000 children less exposed to toxic fumes

Partners

Technical partners 

• Thazi Network
• Pollinate Energy

Financial partners 

• AFD – French Development Agency
• European Union
• Fondation RAJA-Danièle Marcovici
• Synergie Solaire

Context and challenges

According to the WHO, 3 million people die each year because of open fire or traditional biomass (firewood and charcoal) cooking devices. In Myanmar, a country of 60 million people, more than 90% of the population relies on biomass and cooks daily with inefficient and highly polluting cookstoves.

• Wood provides for more than 80% of the energy used for cooking. Almost all of the wood used as fuel comes from unsustainable and illegal logging of local forests. Forest degradation has become a major issue in Myanmar, with an annual deforestation rate of 2% (UN FAO 2007). Fuelwood use also increases the burden on women, as they are the household members primarily in charge of collecting firewood, spending more than 200 hours a year on this activity.
• Traditional cookstove production is highly fragmented and not standardized, with consumers rarely having information on the quality, performance or safety of such devices. Cleaner and more efficient alternatives, such as improved cookstoves (ICS), are not widely available.
• Given the size of the cookstove market in Myanmar, there is an opportunity for largescale dissemination of ICS in the country, contributing to the socioeconomic development of individuals and communities through livelihood improvement activities and development of local production and distribution channels.

Objectives and solutions

Building on its proven methodology which enabled the dissemination of 3.5 million ICS in Cambodia in the last decade, Geres teamed up with a local Myanmar organization, Ever Green Group (EGG), to replicate the Cambodian ICS success story in Myanmar by facilitating widescale access to cleaner and more efficient cookstoves.

• Supporting ICS sector development and working with EGG to scale up the production, supply and promotion of improved cookstoves.
• Stimulating domestic demand for ICS.
• Fostering a policy environment that is supportive of positive climate and energy action.
• Results and impact

After more than 4 years of work, SCALE achieved the following results:

• A comprehensive set of data forms the baseline for an informed and coordinated intervention;
• The development of two energy-efficient stoves: San Pya A1 model for firewood and San Pya Pathein model for charcoal. The San Pya A1 compared with an open fire is 35% more fuel efficient and the San Pya Pathein is 25% more efficient compared to a traditional charcoal stove.
• More than 40,000 ICS were produced and disseminated, 32,000 for firewood (San Pya A1) and 8,000 for charcoal (San Pya Pathein);
• 60 SMEs are engaged in the production and distribution of ICS, with sustainable business plans, and contribute to job creation;
• A policy dialog among the key stakeholders is initiated;

According to an impact study carried out at the end of the project, 92% of households indicated to be satisfied with their ICS because of the fuel consumption reduction, which led to 26 hours per year saved for each household and accumulated savings of 210,000 euros. The producers and distributors of ICS also gained an accumulated income of 40,000 euros.

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Beneficiaries

• 61 craftsmen from improved cooking stoves, including 40 women
• 70 heads of companies distributing and reselling improved cooking stoves, half of whom are women
  The employees of the workshops, i.e. about 150 people
• More than 100,000 people reached
• 4,000 households using improved cooking stoves

Partners

Technical partners

• Ministère de l’Environnement, de la conservation et des ressources forestières (MoECaF)
• Entreprise sociale EverGreen Group (EGG), Myanmar
• ENERGIA / HIVOS, PaysBas
• StovePlus, programme du Geres
• Institut de Recherche sur les forêts (FRI)
• Association Cambodgienne de Promotion des Foyers de cuisson améliorés (CESPA)
• ONG Mercy Corps, Myanmar

Financial partners

• AUnion Européenne
  Agence Française de Développement /
• FFEM Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial
• Fondation Lord Michelham of Hellingly
• Fondation Raja – Danièle Marcovici
• Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco