Publications & Resources

In the communities where TaTEDO-SESO has worked for over three decades, cooking is never just cooking. It is the first task of the morning and often the last of the evening. It is the invisible labour that keeps families alive, the smoke that darkens lungs, the wood that must be collected before dawn breaks. And, as a growing body of evidence now makes unmistakably clear, it is one of the most powerful levers we have to advance gender equality in Tanzania.

Tanzania has entered a decisive and structurally significant transition phase in clean cooking. Since the 2022 MECS market assessment, the landscape has been transformed by the National Clean Cooking Strategy (NCCS 2024–2034), rapidly expanding electricity infrastructure, and installed generation capacity now stands at 3,404 MW, anchored by the 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project, and proven Electric Pressure Cooker (EPC) technology. Tanzania is now recognised as one of the highest-potential eCooking markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

TaTEDO SESO in collaboration with her partners (The Government of Tanzania, the Tanzania Natural Resources Forum, and the European Union) assigned a team of three experts to review and analyze related policies and legal frameworks hindering sustainable charcoal value chain promotion in Tanzania from Mid-June to the end of August 2024. T

The United Republic of Tanzania, which comprises of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, brings forth her Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) guided by both national and international contexts. These INDCs were prepared in consistence with decision 1/CP.20, and will be implemented by 2030.

The completion of this important PURE Investment Prospectus is a contribution of joint efforts from a range of individuals and organizations. We wish to express our deepest gratitude to the Mott Foundation for its contribution of project financial resources and the World Resources Institute (WRI) for providing the platform and support for this project. We are particularly indebted to our technical advisors, Eng Estomih Sawe (TaTEDO SESO CEO), Mr. David Njugi (Productive Use Specialist-WRI), and Mr. Anderson Ngowa (Finance Associate-WRI), for their valuable guidance, constructive feedback, and unwavering encouragement throughout the implementation of this project. Their expertise was instrumental in shaping the direction and quality of this work.

Climate change is serious global challenge threatening humanity and achievement of the local, national and global development plans including the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Modern energy services are a powerful engine of economic and social development. It is a foundation stone of the modern industrial economy and provides an essential ingredient for almost all human activities: it provides services for cooking and space/water heating, lighting, health, food production and storage, education, mineral extraction, industrial production and transportation.

TANESCO (Tanzania Electric Supply Company) is the government-owned power utility in Tanzania, and is responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. This briefing note explains the opportunity TANESCO has to take an integrated electricity access and modern energy cooking approach. TANESCO can increase its revenue and the demand for surplus electricity in the future by promoting and accelerating customers’ transition to electric cooking (eCooking) on energy efficient appliances. At the same time this would affect the health and wellbeing of their customers, mitigate carbon emissions, and protect the local environment from deforestation. TANESCO’s planning processes can encourage grid-connected customers to efficiently use electricity for cooking at affordable costs. This is a win-win scenario where the financial sustainability of the utility, and the wellbeing of customers and the environment can all be positively affected through a strategic approach to integrate electricity access and modern energy cooking, as is being pursued in neighbouring Uganda and Kenya. We recommend a pilot of energy efficient cooking appliances to pursue this objective and can offer support in this endeavour.

TaTEDO-SESO Team acknowledges the financial support from UK Research and Innovation-Global Challenge Research Fund, which made it possible for the team to undertake mini-grid field visits in nine regions of Tanzania namely Ruvuma, Njombe, Iringa, Dodoma, Morogoro, Pwani, Tanga, Kilimanjaro, and Kigoma.

Tanzania is a nation of approximately 60 million people with most households using biomass as the primary source of cooking energy. Firewood is the most common fuel in rural households and charcoal is the most common fuel in urban and peri-urban households.