Lao PDR – Pathways to cleaner household cooking in Lao PDR : an intervention strategy, 2013.
Tang, Jie; Tuntivate, Voravate; Toba, Natsuko. World Bank,
Today the vast majority of households in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) rely on solid fuels, primarily firewood and charcoal, as their main source of cooking energy. Census data show that household use of firewood and charcoal for cooking declined only 3 percent between 1995 and 2005. Over that period, a sizeable portion of households, particularly those in more economically advanced urban areas, switched within the fuelwood category, from firewood to charcoal. But as of 2005, close to 90 percent of rural households and well over half of urban ones still depended on firewood to meet most of their cooking needs.
The proposed intervention for scaling up the use of improved cookstoves in Lao PDR relies on market-based mechanisms, supported by technical assistance and capacity building for the public and private sectors. It is widely thought that a market-based approach in commercializing improved stoves is the best way to ensure efficiency of interventions and sustainability of programs.
