Energy Efficiency, Women Empowerment, and Food Security : The Case of Improved Cook-Stove in Ethiopia

Addressing the problem of food insecurity in a sustainable manner requires leveraging innovations that contribute to food and nutritional security without compromising the environment. One example of such innovations are improved cook stoves (ICSs). Studies have shown that these technologies result in reduction of carbon emissions and deforestation. ICSs have also a potential to improve food and nutrition security. Yet, empirical evidence that links ICSs with food and nutrition security is limited. Using a large household dataset, we explore linkages between ICS and food and nutrition security and identify possible impact ways. We instrumental variables method to establish causal relationship. Households that own an ICS have better nutritional outcomes. ICS is linked with increased access to food, consumption of food groups rich in vitamin A and decreased incidence of food insecurity. Consonant with the extant literature, we found that adoption of ICS decreases women’s work burden and allows women to engage in paid work, suggesting the impact, at least partially, is driven by women empowerment channels. These results are robust to controlling for individual-specific covariates, district fixed effect and estimation methods. We conclude that energy efficient technologies that reduce women's home labour can also contribute to household food security