* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Clean cookstoves are the latest must-have in humanitarian response, but many models don't meet people's needs
There's a war or a natural disaster. Families lose their homes and put together makeshift shelters. Then the aid worker lands on the scene and hands out a relief item favourite: the clean-energy cookstove.
But can a solar model, for example, provide enough energy to prepare rice or beans? Not really, experts say, urging relief agencies to tailor their assistance to better fit the practical needs and cultural settings on the ground.
"You can't tell a woman how to cook her meals," Daniel Wolf, executive director of the Washington-based International Lifeline Fund, said at a panel discussion last week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week NYC.
"(It would be like) telling an Italian woman how to cook pasta - that from now on she has to cook it in the microwave," said Wolf, whose organisation has delivered fuel-saving stoves for emergencies in Africa and Haiti.
Currently, 500 million households around the world do not have access to clean, safe energy, experts say.
Energy is crucial for communities affected by war or natural disasters to ensure their self-resilience and safety. Children need light to do their homework at night and most refugee camps are dark and potentially dangerous after sunset.
Clean cookstoves are meant to help people get back on their feet cooking meals, but many models do not cater to the needs posed by different humanitarian settings and emergencies.
"We're inundated with cookstoves, but we haven't figured out yet what works best for refugees," Alexander Aleinikoff, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees told the panel.
DANGEROUS, DIRTY DUTY
In many communities in the developing world, gathering firewood and water for cooking is a woman's duty, and is rife with risk, particularly in conflict zones.
Women get exposed to the "most incredible dangers" and are often raped while collecting firewood, said Sarah Costa, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group, the Women's Refugee Commission.
These responsibilities are also a major hurdle to keeping girls in school, as girls are often tasked with these chores or forced to stay home to look after their siblings while their mothers collect fuel.
Smoke from cooking fires not only causes outdoor pollution, taking a toll on the environment, but also produces indoor pollution, which is one of the top five killers of children, said Susan Bissell of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The panellists pressed the humanitarian world to rethink the way it provides clean energy to people affected by emergencies.
One way to bring innovative solutions to the challenges posed by cookstoves would be to enlist assistance from researchers, Bissell said.
Experts also highlighted the need to make safe and clean energy programmes more marketable and profitable in order to attract more private sector investment.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
