This thesis explores the sustainability impacts of energy-efficient cookstoves in Madagascar provided by the Non-Profit Organization ADES Solaire (Association pour le Développe-ment de l'Energie Solaire). Madagascar, one of the world's poorest countries, faces a major environmental crisis of massive deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate vulnerability, intertwined with high economic disparity and growing social inequalities.
Grounded in a mixed-methods approach incorporating Social Practice Theory (SPT), Systems Thinking, and Participatory Action Research (PAR) the study assesses the role of improved cookstoves, both as a practical intervention for sustainable development and as a factor shaping the local human-environmental system. The methodology com-prises active collaboration with stakeholders while respecting and aligning with the diverse social practices in communities. Through qualitative interviews and workshops (18 inter-views and two workshops with 6-7 participants) I have analysed how cookstoves reshape social practices, promote economic emancipation, enhance environmental conservation and drive system transformation.
My findings reveal that the cookstoves deliver significant environmental, economic and social benefits such as reduced CO2 emissions and biofuel consumption, increased household savings, and improved livelihoods. They also significantly transform cooking practices, but its role in driving system transformation remains limited. The systemic effec-tiveness depends heavily on the stoves’ interconnections to other factors, such as distribu-tion and availability, affordability, cultural integration, and community awareness. By visu-alising reciprocal influences of such factors, the research highlights pathways for effective interventions that foster transformation of the broader human-environmental system in concrete local settings.
Based on such considerations, the offer of cookstoves could be improved: enhanc-ing affordability, optimising supply chains to prevent delays, enhancing the stove’s durabil-ity, increasing community engagement, as well as promoting awareness of its broader ben-efits for higher adoption (fire safety, time savings, environmental gains, and entrepreneurial opportunities).
In view of achieving and measuring the greater impact of cookstoves on sustainable energy usage in Madagascar, I propose a perspective that links locally tailored solutions with overall dynamics of the human-environmental system. Current development projects and impact measurement frameworks often overlook systemic feedback loops and socio-cul-tural nuances of local contexts. Improved methodologies that incorporate local perspec-tives and track long-term environmental and behavioural changes are needed.
Future research addressing clean cooking solutions should consider the role of climate shocks in a country with lacking infrastructure and public services, as well as national poli-cies related to clean energy and resource protection. Finally, NPOs specialised in technical niches and depending on carbon finance need to consider questions of competition and collaboration vis-à-vis organisations with cheaper and mass production of clean cooking solutions.
