We Need to Carefully Consider Gender Roles as UPCHAIN Promotes Green Charcoal Access and Adoption in Northern Uganda

I am one of the beneficiaries of the UPCHAIN project at Gulu University, having mid-2022 won a grant for my Master of Arts (MA) in History. As part of this MA, I am researching gender relations in cooking, with a focus on strategies to advance green charcoal acceptance in Northern Ugandan households through learning from people’s experiences with previous and existing cooking fuels.

UPCHAIN – Unlocking the Potential of Green Charcoal Innovations to Mitigate Climate Change in Northern Uganda – is primarily looking at the production and use of briquettes (also known as green charcoal) from agricultural waste as a cleaner and more environmentally friendly alternative to black charcoal and firewood.

In September 2022 UPCHAIN organized a field trip to Amuru District for all the grant beneficiaries and project implementers first of all for the group to meet with the different stakeholders of the project, but also for it to get a feel of the impact of the demand for cooking energy on livelihoods and the environment.

A closer look at Amuru from the onset of the trip seemed to indicate why it is a crucial area identified for the implementation of the UPCHAIN project: Heavily loaded charcoal trucks, some of them disguised as cargo vehicles, and businesses operating along the roadside, gave a clear indication of the whole charcoal business chain in the area.

What is surprising, however, is that the main sellers are women. They sell charcoal either in small quantities (basins, polythene bags) or sacks. Most of them spend the entire day there, under the unpredictable weather, with their infants. This makes one wonder what role gender plays in the entire process: Are men involved only in the production process and women are left to do the selling; and who controls the proceeds from the sale of charcoal? These are some of the questions my research will have to find answers to.

Also, where the charcoal is taken, in urban and peri-urban areas, the focus on gender roles in cooking seems to be mainly on women when it comes to procurement and use of solid cooking fuels – because, typically, they are the ones who go to the market for the fuels and also do the cooking. There is, definitely, no doubt that in many households, men determine the amount of money spent on purchasing charcoal for example, but we also need to understand clearly how they influence the choice of fuel to be used for cooking and what the factors behind that are.

There are already clear observations of traditional or cultural gender roles in rural areas like Amuru when it comes to cooking and access to energy for cooking. Women and girls fetch the firewood and do the cooking. What role do men and boys play in the household when it comes to cooking, and access to energy for cooking? What about in urban areas? What do the females do and what do the males do when it comes to the kitchen? How are the different sexes affected by their gender roles in cooking and access to energy for cooking? These are questions we need to answer.

In rural areas, it is clear that most girls and women spend a lot of time looking for firewood. The setting (urban or rural) may differ but definitely, the girls on the rural side are more disadvantaged, since their households heavily rely on firewood for cooking. Besides the environmental risks that the continued use of these solid fuels poses, health risks, mainly to the users, are alarming. Similarly, the long hours spent on collecting such fuels and the encroachment on school time for the children (girls) should be of public concern.

Another debatable issue is whether men or women should be considered more when introducing and advancing the use of a new or more advanced form of cooking fuel, in this particular case green charcoal, in order for it to be adopted quickly. Green charcoal is made from available local resources such as maize cobs, coffee husks, groundnut shells, and wood residues among others. A visit to Aywek ki Mone Aoyo & Sons Millersin Pabbo Sub-County showed how these so-called ‘wastes’ are readily available.

With the establishment of one of the green charcoal production sites at Bungatira, the surrounding households seem to be embracing innovation. This is more so because, in comparison to black charcoal, green charcoal (of good quality) burns for a longer period, produces less ash, and almost no smoke while cooking.

It is inevitable to consider both men and women as the household heads who make choices for the type of energy to be used. But which of these two categories is more likely to openly and fully embrace the actual production and use of briquettes?

It is against this background that I propose a critical consideration of gender relations in cooking, and in particular, the gender roles in relation to access and choice of cooking fuel, to advance green charcoal acceptance and use in both urban and rural households in Northern Uganda.

The writer, Simon Okello, is pursuing his MA in History at Gulu University with support from UPCHAIN.