Why is it so hard to bring clean cookers to Africa?
Despite decades of innovation, 1.2 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa still don’t have access to clean cooking. Low-tech, affordable cookers exist, yet firewood remains the go-to fuel. Why?
Cooking with wood isn’t just inconvenient—it’s a crisis. Women and children spend hours searching for fuel. Smoke fills kitchens, damaging health. Deforestation accelerates. It’s a massive problem that, on paper, seems solvable. But it isn’t—at least, not yet.
As the population in sub-Saharan Africa continues to grow, more and more families are forced to go ever farther to collect enough firewood to cook their daily meals. This photo is from Kenya. Photo: Andreas Spohr / Shutterstock / NTB
The problem is so urgent that the International Energy Agency held a high-level summit last May to rally global action. World leaders pledged USD $2.2 billion with the goal of making clean cooking in Africa a reality.
While money is always helpful, in reality there are far more roadblocks facing researchers on the ground who are trying to make a change.
Jimmy Chaciga, a PhD research fellow at Makerere University in Uganda, is one of those researchers.
He believes the key to adoption lies in simplicity, affordability, and the ability to cook after sunset.
Jimmy Chaciga is a PhD research fellow at Makerere University, Uganda who is collaborating with NTNU researcher Ole Jørgen Nydal. His solar cooker includes two insulated drums, one that stores energy from the panels in a combination of oil and rocks, and a second that contains the cooker. Photo: Maren Agdestein/NTNU
But there’s one non-negotiable:
A solar cooker has to cook beans.
“If you can cook beans, you can cook anything,” he says.
Armed with two drums, insulation, solar panels, and a vision, Chaciga is trying to figure out how to bring his cooker to Ugandan households and institutions that need it most.
Listen to Jimmy and his colleagues share their passion—and their struggles— on the latest episode of 63 Degrees North
