Project Overview

The project sought to support World Bank and low-income country government efforts focused on sustainable cooking technologies. 

The research worked to comprehensively evaluate the Mirt improved biomass cookstove used in Ethiopia.  Mirt, which means “best” in Amharic language, is used for cooking the Ethiopian staple injera, one of the most popular low wood-using cookstoves and the focus of Federal Government promotion efforts. Approximately 90% of the Ethiopian people cook with biomass, such as fuelwood, on a daily basis, and a majority of fuelwood used in Ethiopia is unsustainably harvested.  A key long-run energy goal is to transition households out of biomass fuels and into commercial fuels, such as gas and electricity, but these require major public infrastructure investments, supply chain development and purchase of often-expensive stoves.  Relatively simple improved cooking technologies that use less biomass and require only minor changes in household cooking methods are therefore potentially important intermediate steps on the road to more efficient and clean commercial fuels.

The project, which operated between 2013 and 2018, evaluated the following outcomes of the Mirt stove within a randomized study design:

• Use of the Mirt stove and the effects of randomized monetary treatments on long run usage;
• Fuelwood savings;
• Effects of experience and learning on fuelwood savings and cooking time;
• Preferences for improved stove attributes and how preferences changed with Mirt stove experience;
• Effects of Mirt stove adoption on indoor air quality and human health.