Towards an energy transition of the informal food sector
Led since 2015 by the University of Cape Town (South Africa), MARGE (Rwanda) and the NGO Enda Energie (Senegal) and coordinated by the University of Twente, the research program “Gender and productive uses of energy in the informal food sector in South Africa, Rwanda and Senegal”, made it possible to collect quantitative and qualitative data on gender and energy. This program is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and is part of the global gender and energy research program led by ENERGIA.
The research results were presented on May 15, 2018 during an information sharing workshop organized by Enda Energie. This study, which focused on 275 businesses in Senegal, 55% of which are run by women, revealed that most of these businesses in the informal food sector use more charcoal and butane gas for cooking. The survey also showed that the main source of energy that companies would like to use remains renewable with the solar photovoltaic system.
The idea was to see the types of energy used in these companies which cook food but also process other types of agricultural products. And this, with a view to identifying energy needs, the ways and means of satisfying them and the possibilities of energy transition.
This study allowed Senegal to have empirical and reliable data on an under-documented sector. Senegal's energy balance is dominated by wood and charcoal and energy surveys do not often focus on this type of informal sector which often escapes national statistics. This research program allowed us to have disaggregated data on the gender and energy sector from an energy transition perspective.
