Combating Deforestation? - Impacts of Improved Stove Dissemination on Charcoal Consumption in Urban Senegal

The dissemination of improved cooking stoves (ICS) is frequently considered an effective instrument to combat deforestation. This paper evaluates the impacts of an ICS dissemination project in urban Senegal implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ). Based on a survey among 624 households, we examine the effects of the intervention on charcoal consumption. Given a complex cooking behavior in urban Africa with simultaneous usage of different fuel and stove types, the virtue of our data set is that it provides for detailed information on individual stoves and meals. This allows for estimating charcoal savings by accounting for both household characteristics and meal specific cooking patterns. On average, households using an ICS save around 25 percent of charcoal per stove utilization. In total, around 6.1 to 6.9 percent of the Dakar charcoal consumption is saved due to the ICS dissemination project. --Impact evaluation,deforestation,energy access,Africa,Senegal

Impact Evaluation of Productive Use – An Implementation Guideline for Electrifi cation Projects

There is a consensus in the international community that rural electrifi cation and, in particular, the productive use of electricity contributes to poverty alleviation. At the same time, eff orts to evaluate the impacts of development projects have increased substantially. This paper provides a hands-on guide for designing evaluation studies regarding the impacts of productive electricity usage. Complementary to the existing literature on evaluation methods, this guide familiarizes project managers with the concrete steps that have to be undertaken to plan and implement an evaluation. The guide comprises three modules based on enterprise surveys and on anecdotal case studies. For each module, the implementation is described on a step-by-step basis including conceptual issues as well as logistics and methodological questions.Development eff ectiveness; productive electricity use; survey design;monitoring and evaluation

Impacts of Rural Electrifi cation in Rwanda

Rural electrifi cation is believed to contribute to the achievement of the MDG. In this paper, we investigate electrifi cation impacts on diff erent indicators. We use household data that we collected in Rwanda in villages with and without electricity access. We account for self-selection and regional diff erences by using households from the electrifi ed villages to estimate the probability to connect for all households – including those in the non-electrifi ed villages. Based on these probabilities we identify counterfactual households and fi nd robust evidence for positive eff ects on lighting usage. Eff ects on income and children’s home studying become insignifi cant if regional diff erences are accounted for.Rural electrifi cation; energy access; impact evaluation; matching

Rural Electrifi cation in Rwanda – An Impact Assessment Using Matching Techniques

Rural electrifi cation is believed to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) via various channels. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of electrification on the household’s lighting usage, home studying, energy expenditures and income. We use household data that we collected in rural Rwanda in villages with and without access to mini-grids. To account for self-selection processes in the connection decision we use households from the electrified villages to estimate the probability to connect for all households – including those in the non-electrified villages. Based on these propensity scores we identify counterfactual households to determine the impacts of electrification on the outcome indicators. We find some indication for positive effects on home studying and income, but particularly on lighting usage. We conclude by highlighting the potentially profound changes in social life of rural people induced by improved lighting and call for research on impacts beyond the MDGs.Rural electrification; ex-ante impact assessment; poverty; matching

One-off subsidies and long-run adoption – Experimental evidence on improved cooking stoves in Senegal

Free technology distribution can be an effective development policy instrument if market-driven adoption is socially inefficient and hampered by affordability constraints. Yet, policy makers often oppose free distribution, arguing that reference dependence lowers the willingness to pay (WTP) and thus market potentials in the long run. For improved cookstoves, this paper studies the WTP six years after a randomized one-time free distribution in 2009. We demonstrate that the cookstoves were intensely used by the treatment group households in the years after randomization until they reached their designated lifetime. Using a real-purchase offer, we find that both treatment and control households reveal a remarkably high WTP in 2015. The estimated confidence interval suggests that we can exclude a substantial negative effect on the treatment group. The policy implication is that one-time free distribution does not necessarily undermine future market establishment and thus can be an effective policy instrument if rapid dissemination is the objective

The provision of solar energy to rural households through a fee-for-service system

This baseline report is part of an evaluation commissioned by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It belongs to a series of impact evaluations of renewable energy and development programmes supported by the Netherlands, with a focus on the medium and long term effects of these programmes on end-users or final beneficiaries. A characteristic of these studies is the use of mixed methods, being quantitative research techniques, in combination with qualitative techniques, to get insight in the magnitude of effects. The purpose of the impact evaluations is to account for assistance provided and to draw lessons from the findings for improvement of policy and policy implementation. The results of these impact evaluations will be input to a policy evaluation of the “Promoting Renewable Energy Programme” (PREP) to be concluded in 2014