Using a food-energy nexus lens to explore people's experiences of the cooking journey in African informal settlements

Abstract

Solid fuels are still used by over 3 billion people worldwide, including many residents of informal settlements. Most interventions designed to improve people's solid fuel-related health have failed or fallen short of their ambitions. Often, this is because implementers have not fully understood the contexts, cultures and behaviours of the places and people they are working within and with. To address this, our study used a food-energy nexus lens to explore people's experiences of the cooking journey, i.e., decision-making regarding which fuel to use, obtaining fuel and then cooking using that fuel. We videoed ‘go along’ interviews with residents of two African informal settlements during their cooking journeys. Interviews with 15 participants in Mukuru (Kenya) and 15 in Ndirande (Malawi) were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants' decision-making regarding fuel use was complex, dynamic (considering short-to-long timescales) and context-specific. Participants were aware of some of the household air pollution (and other solid fuel-related) health risks, though there were some misconceptions. The use of waste materials in solid fuel cooking – particularly during ignition – was common. The ‘cooking journey’ framing in this study highlighted the range of risks and challenges experienced across the food-energy nexus beyond household air pollution, including terrain, the built environment and gender-based violence. Broader approaches to understanding the contexts, cultures and behaviours of fuel users in informal settlements, such as our ‘cooking journey’ approach, can support better intervention design, and therefore enable progress towards sustainable development goal 7 - access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.