A Systematic Review of Clean Cooking and to Whom Does the Clean Cooking Agenda Belong? Empirical Evidence from East African Community

Abstract

Today, about three billion people, including those in Tanzania, still cook using traditional methods and solid fuels. This practice, which primarily affects women and children who cook in many developing nations, contributes to serious health risks and forest degradation. Every year, household air pollution is responsible for over 34.4 million preventable deaths worldwide, with about 346,600 of those deaths occurring in East African Community and the Nile Basin. Even though switching to clean cooking technologies is a global health priority, adoption is still low in the East African community, and little is known about the factors influencing this change. To determine the factors driving East Africa’s energy transition to clean cooking, this study conducts a systematic review and looks at the history of the research agenda. A total of 308 articles were found using the Scopus database; 62 of these were chosen for analysis based on important search terms such as solar, biogas, firewood, charcoal, LPG, and electric stoves. Even though traditional fuels continue to be the most commonly used in the regions, the empirical analysis showed a focus on clean cooking technologies like electricity, improved cookstoves, and LPG. The clean cooking agenda appears to be primarily externally driven by European and USA researchers, which may have an impact on local adoption and relevance. It is noteworthy that authors from outside the region constituted 63.6 percent of publications on clean cooking in the East African Community.

Keywords

Wood energy / Clean energy / Cooking stove / Clean cooking agenda

Acknowledgments

The author extend their gratitude to the Moshi Cooperative University for their invaluable support, particularly through access to library services, private workspaces, data resources, and provided time throughout this study. The author also appreciates the University of Lusaka for the in-kind contributions that significantly facilitated the research process.

Author Contributions

Y.J.K. participated in the conception and design of the study; data cleaning; data analysis; interpretation of the findings; and drafting and revising the manuscript and The University of Lusaka and Moshi cooperattive University contributed on material access, workspaces, and time.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable. This study did not involve humans or animals that require ethical approval.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The databases used are detailed in the cited text and are publicly available.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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