Evaluating the Impacts of Clean and Efficient Cookstoves on Time Poverty

The grant supported the Clean Cooking Alliance (Alliance) to conduct research on the impact that adopting cleaner and more modern cooking technologies, particularly liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cookstoves and fuel, has on women's and girls' time use and quality in Bangladesh. The study built on existing evidence that introducing labour-saving technologies, such as cleaner and more modern cookstoves and fuels, reduces the unpaid care work burden for women and girls by saving time and reducing drudgery associated with cooking with inefficient stoves and fuels. LPG stoves has been distributed to 120 study households (60 at each field site) and provided continuous supply of LPG fuel for six months, placed Stove Use Monitoring Systems (SUMS) in 40 randomly selected households (20 at each field site), and conducted post-intervention (after three months and six months) and household surveys. After switching to LPG stoves, only 15% of participants perceived cooking as their hardest daily activity, and 100% felt they spent less time cooking using LPG compared to the time required using the traditional cookstove. Approximately 94% of study participants expressed that they are likely to continue LPG use after the intervention, despite the fact that the continuously supply of LPG fuel for free will cease. At the macro level, this research study illustrated that overwhelmingly, study participants unanimously experienced significant time savings transitioning to LPG.The study also illuminated some unique findings related to unpaid work burden, health and wellbeing, and economic and livelihood benefits. The study concluded that switching from cooking with a traditional, biomass cookstove to an LPG cookstove and fuel can increase women’s time savings and improve the wellbeing of women and other household members. In addition, OPEC FUND's support has opened further research opportunities for the Alliance to explore women’s time savings in other settings.