The ‘rocket stove’ technology is spreading in institutions such as schools and prisons throughout southern Africa with thriving stove production businesses in Lesotho, Malawi and Uganda.

Southern Africa is not alone in the challenges it faces in terms of severe deforestation, soil erosion and food insecurity. However, in this region these challenges are particularly acute due to high population density and large areas being dedicated to growing crops such as tobacco which is dried using vast amounts of fuel wood. Cooking on open fires and using fuel wood inefficiently as most of the population do is no longer a sustainable option.

To address this issue, in 2003 ProBEC (Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation) on behalf of GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) approached Peter Scott, a leading stove designer from Aprovecho, to design commercially viable institutional stoves, tailored to the cooking practices of six sub-Saharan countries.

The aim of this programme is to dramatically cut fuel wood use in the region by developing and commercialising locally adapted fuel-efficient stoves that can be used by large institutions such as schools, hospitals and prisons.

Peter has based these designs on the highly innovative Aprovecho ’rocket stove’ concept that ensures efficient combustion (through an ’internal chimney‘) and efficient heat transfer (through a narrow passage under the pot where the combustion gases must travel). For this to work, it is critical that the stove fits the cooking pot so Aprovecho has been developing different designs in collaboration with users and producers in each country to ensure that this is the case.

The ‘rocket stove’ is now spreading throughout the region creating, in the words of Peter Scott,“ An African cook stove revolution”.