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Fuel-efficient stoves for Darfur: The social construction of subsistence marketplaces
in post-conflict settings☆
Samer Abdelnour ⁎, Oana Branzei
Richard Ivey School of Business, the University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street North, London ON, Canada N6A 3K7
abstractarticle info
Article history:
Accepted 1 April 2009
Keywords:
Subsistence marketplaces
Critical discourse analysis
Development interventions
This paper explores the development of market roles and transactions in fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur
from 1997 to 2008 as a grounded example of how subsistence markets are socially constructed in post-
conflict settings. Using a combination of archival tex ts, interviews, and real-time discourses by
protagonists, this study explains the who, what, why and how of emergent marketplaces by showing
how development interventions come to imbue market participants and transactions with socially (re)
constructed meanings. The fitful emergence of subsistence marketplaces for fuel-efficient in Darfur is
punctuated by development interventions which at times under- or misrepresent market participants and
by successes and failures in bringing together trainers, producers, sellers, consumers and users of fuel-
efficient stoves. Subsidies and handouts delay and distort the emergence of grassroots demand, choices,
and prices; a plurality of competing development interventions re-shape the supply. By the end of 2008,
the subsistence market for fuel-efficient stoves catches momentum, engaging over 52% of the Darfuri
communities in market transactions for the product. As market participants gain voice and influence they
reshape the market to favour mud stoves over metal stoves. Reports by several development organizations
suggestthatamongfuel-efficient stove users, 90% use mud models, and 49% of women who own both mud
and metal stoves prefer mud stoves.
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Globally, 3.7 billion people are largely excluded from formal
markets (World Economic Forum, 2009); collectively they earn an
annual incom e of US$2.3 trill ion a year and their income is growing a t
about 8% annually. By 2015 their aggregate income pool could exceed
US$4 trilli on. Some 2.6 billion people worldwide –more than half of
the world's population –continue to subsist on less that US$2 a day;
of these, 1.6 billion earn between US$1–2 per day, and one billion
people live in extreme poverty, earning under US$1 per day. Despite
being resource-poor, barely having sufficient resources for day-to-
day living (Viswanathan and Rosa, 2007) and despite being often
shut out of formalized market transactions (Karnani, 2007), the poor
engage in vibrant market exchanges (Viswanathan et al., 2008a,b).
Recent reports estimate the collective purchasing power of sub-
sistence consumers at US$5 trillion, with assets of US$9.3 trillion
(World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2008:48).
Subsistence consumers “cope with difficult circumstances: low and
fluctuating incomes, domestic constraints, and a lack of information.
Yet, they are committed to improving their lives and will extend
themselves to take on opportunities for growth and advancement”
(World Economic Forum, 2009: 10). Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Peace
Prize Winner, challenges researchers and practitioners to develop
new questions and solutions to improve lives in subsistence
marketplaces (Prasso, 2007).
A growing number of studies advocate the importance of
stimulating indigenous economic activities in subsistence market-
places (Jackson et al., 2008; Peredo and Chrisman, 2006). Engagement
in such activities encourages experimentation with locally-fit business
models (Branzei and Peneycad, 2008) and creates a self-reinforcing
cycle of empowerment (Abdelnour et al., 2008). Stimulating sub-
sistence marketplaces is essential, and challenging, in post-conflict
Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
☆The order of authorship is alphabetical because the authors contributed equally. The
authors extend special thanksto their Sudanese collaborators, BabikerBadri, Widad Abdel
Rahman,and Mohamed Majzoub,for their insightful suggestionsand timely feedback.The
authors sincerely appreciate the guidance of the Special Issue Editors, José Antonio Rosa
and Madhu Viswanathan, acknowledge stimulating comments from Srinivas Sridharan
and Tima Bansal, and thank the two Journal of Business Research reviewers for their
constructive comments. Prior versions of the manuscript were presented at The Second
Subsistence Marketplaces Conference: Sustainable Consumption and Commerce for a
Better World, The Growing Inclusive Markets Forum, and the 2008 World Conference of
the International Council for SmallBusiness. The research received financialsupport from
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and a 2007–2008 Canadian–African
Capacity Building Grant for Private Sector Development Research in Africa co-funded by
the Investment Climate and Business Environment Research Fund (ICBE RF), The
International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and TrustAfrica (Ford Foundation).
⁎Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sabdelnour@ivey.uwo.ca (S. Abdelnour), obranzei@ivey.uwo.ca
(O. Branzei).
0148-2963/$ –see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.04.027
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Business Research
settings (Fort, 2007), where torn social fabrics disrupt one-on-one
exchanges, hindering market-based approaches to post-conflict
reconstruction (Fort and Schipani, 2004). Crafting local market
exchanges can help the poor cope with the direst of circumstances
(Ayudurai and Sohail, 2006) and often provides faster recovery than
aid. Yet lessons of postwar market resuscitation are rife with myths,
set-backs, and historical baggage (Willams, 2008) which risk holding
back theorizing on how interventions that stimulate the emergence of
subsistence markets in post-conflict settings can accelerate economic
recovery (Fort and Schipani, 2004).
This study explores the social construction of subsistence market-
places in the aftermath of armed conflict. Because war disrupts social
relationships, development interventions often scaffold the creation
of subsistence marketplaces (Teegen et al., 2004). They channel
substantial resources, orchestrate local collaborations, and can shape
policy by shifting the agenda of multilateral donor agencies (Brown
et al., 2000). But many international development interventions face
criticism for tunnel-vision or short-termism, and relief from oppres-
sion, exploitation and marginalization is often short-lived (Anderson,
1999). Even market-centered development interventions which
explicitly set out to encourage local transactions often fail to promote
self-sufficiency and resilience for consumers in subsistence markets
(Karnani, 2007).
Since 2004, development interventions increasingly focus on
growing subsistence markets. Development interventions are parti-
cularly critical in post-conflict settings (Abdelnour et al., 2008); they
promote new forms of economic cooperation (Abdelnour and Branzei,
2009) and encourage social trust across fractured relationships
(Viswanathan et al., 2010-this issue). Development interventions
can help promote social change in subsistence markets and have
catalytic effects in post-conflict settings (Fort, 2007; Willams, 2008).
Yet they can also delay social change or even divert or distort
relational patterns, reifying dependence and stalling emancipation
(Cornwall and Brock, 2005; Lewis and Opoku-Mensah, 2006). The
emergence of a subsistence market for fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur
explains how these positive and negative aspects come together to
shape market roles and transactions.
As development organizations compete for funds, attention and
people (Brown et al., 2000; Florini, 2003), they often rely on discourse
as a strategic resource to gain legitimacy and enact social change
(Hardy et al., 2000). Showing that consumers can respond selectively
and adaptively to development interventions extends the field's
understanding of the evolution of subsistence marketplaces in post-
conflict settings by exploring how market roles and transactions are
socially constructed. The research also extends and complements
insights on subsistence marketplaces from a base of pyramid lens
(Karnani, 2009) and a social enterprise perspective (Peredo and
Chrisman, 2006) by explicating the social construction processes that
help market participants overcome resource and skill scarcity to
weave highly interdependent and personalized exchanges (Viswa-
nathan, 2007).
Exploring up close how subsistence marketplaces come to be
socially constructed in the aftermath of conflict yields powerful
insights for practical interventions by critically analyzing the upsides
and downsides of the discursive strategies of development organiza-
tions operating in postwar settings (Lawrence et al., 2002). The
grounded findings suggest that development interventions represent
and enable market roles and transactions; their discourses under- or
over-represent the voices of consumers in ways that may distort the
emergence of subsistence marketplaces. Understanding the social
construction of development interventions thus helps shed new light
on the early successes and early failures of development interventions
in post-conflict zones (Anderson, 1999; Willams, 20 08) and highlights
the critical relevance of nurturing consumer skills in order to enable
or hasten the emergence of subsistence marketplaces in war-torn
communities.
2. Fuel efficient stoves in Darfur
The study takes a critical approach to explore how development
interventions influence the emergence of subsistence marketplaces
for fuel-efficient stoves (FES) in Darfur over a ten-year period, 1997–
2008. The inquiry starts as the US imposes economic sanctions on
Sudan in 1997 and spans the 2003 humanitarian crisis, the signing of
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (January 2005) and the Darfur
Peace Agreement (May 2006). Development aid to Sudan triples
between 2003 and 2005, from US$609.8 million to US$1787.2 million.
The USAID portion increases six-fold over the same period, and
eleven-fold from 2001 to 2005, as USAID reengages in Sudan after a
seven-year absence.
This study examines data over a ten-year period, providing a
unique window into the fitful emergence of subsistence marketplaces
in post-conflict settings. Local and international development orga-
nizations intervene in the design, production, marketing, diffusion,
adoption and utilization of FES in Darfur, Sudan. They use discourses
strategically (Hardy et al., 2000) to gain legitimacy and attract
resources. The study examines the social construction of market
participants and market transactions through and across the evolving
discourses of development organizations engaging in post-conflict
interventions in Darfur.
The focus on Darfur is motivated theoretically and empirically.
Theoretically, severe disruptions in social relationships and patterns of
transactions among Darfuri internally displaced persons (IDPs)
creates an exchange vacuum that offers a baseline for studying the
emergence of subsistence marketplaces. As Darfuri IDPs reweave a
subsistence economy, fuel-efficient stoves are one of the very first
market-based development interventions. These interventions pat-
tern the gradual emergence of trainers, producers, sellers, consumers
and users by discursively promoting and contesting specific relation-
ships and exchanges. The discourses of development organizations
initially under- and later over-represent the voices of consumers and
users of fuel-efficient stoves in an effort to gain attention, legitimacy
and resources for FES projects. Tracking these discourses as they
unfold makes clear the important role of social construction in the
early development of subsistence marketplaces. Empirically, the
accessibility and transparency of multiple texts provides a rich and
reliable account of the technology and the market exchanges as they
evolve over time, enabling rich contextualization and triangulation of
evolving market roles and transactions from multiple standpoints.
3. Subsistence marketplaces in conflict settings
Three research streams on the base of pyramid, social enterprise
and subsistence marketplaces tackle complementary aspects of
market exchanges in impoverished communities. Collectively, the
streams grapple with the shared challenge of engaging the poor as
producers and consumers in ways that overcome “traditional stereo-
types and mindsets about who they are and what they can
accomplish”(World Economic Forum, 2009: 8).
Base of pyramid (BOP) arguments (Prahalad and Hart, 2002;
Prahalad, 2005) portray the poor as resilient and value conscious
consumers. They draw attention to the untapped potential of
subsistence marketplaces to encourage disruptive innovation that
addresses unmet needs (Walsh et al., 2005) and creates new markets
(Rangan et al., 2007; World Economic Forum, 2009). Critical views
suggest that BOP arguments “romanticise”the poor (Karnani, 2009),
mistake wants for needs (Karnani, 2007) and overlook literacy and
resource barriers (Viswanathan and Rosa, 2007). This consumer-
centric view informs theoretical and empirical research on stable
subsistence marketplaces, such as India, but is problematic in conflict
settings on two counts. First, consumptions arguments rely on
product/service offerings and ongoing market transactions, yet in
the aftermath of war both social relationships and economic
618 S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
transactions are fractured. New forms of exchange and economic
cooperation emerge (Abdelnour et al., 2008; Abdelnour and Branzei,
2009) as greater attention is placed on market linkages —finding
alternatives for transaction bottlenecks and drawing on social
resources to assemble substitute connections (Viswanathan et al.,
2010-this issue). Second, in post-conflict settings, gaps in supply and
distribution networks render consumer-centric arguments powerless
(Ayudurai and Sohail, 2006). Without suitable investment in govern-
ance and infrastructure, the promise of demand-driven reconstruction
is a mirage (Karnani, 2007).
Social enterprise solutions to poverty alleviation (Seelos and Mair,
2007) take a closer look at grassroots models of economic develop-
ment with twin goals of social betterment and economic emancipa-
tion. Growing interest in understanding barriers and facilitators of
indigenous entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces suggest
that social enterprise may offer at least a working ground for
experimenting with new templates, roles and collaborations in stable
settings (Jackson et al., 2008). Evidence from micro- and informal
enterprises (Branzei and Peneycad, 2008; Willams, 2008) and/or
community-based enterprises (Peredo and Chrisman, 2006) suggest
that specific market transactions help anchor social enterprise
models —as these transactions unfold, the social enterprise models
morph and serve as replication templates (Abdelnour and Branzei,
2009). A handful of case studies document how entrepreneurs design
models that overcome resource constraints to enable market transac-
tions, but comparatively little is known about the genesis of socially-
minded economic activities in the aftermath of war or social
disruption (Abdelnour and Branzei, 2008; Ayudurai and Sohail, 2006).
Research on subsistence marketplaces takes us one step closer by
mapping the unique constraints and opportunities of market transac-
tions among resource-strapped, low market literacy customers.
Several studies theorize the behavioural aspects of economic
exchanges, often embedded in rich, culture-specific, pre-existing
traditions (Viswanathan and Rosa, 2007) and social networks which
gradually nurture consumer and entrepreneurial skills (Branzei and
Peneycad, 2008; Viswanathan et al., 2008a,b). Findings suggest that
buyers and sellers are interdependent: deep, pervasive and highly-
social one-on-one relationships scaffold their market transactions
(Viswanathan, 2007; Viswanathan and Sridharan, 2009).
Research on subsistence marketplaces provides an important point
of reference for new theorizing on the social construction of market
transactions in post-conflict settings by drawing attention to the
socially-embedded, highly-personalized interactions that build, moti-
vate, and sustain exchanges. Subsistence market contexts are “thriving
environments, devoid of technology but teeming with relationship
energies, and often invisible to the literate resource-rich world”
(Viswanathan and Rosa,2007: 6); individuals and communities struggle
to meet the most basic needs, and to do so they engage in ubiquitous
vibrant and beneficial exchange, their lack of capabilities or resources
notwithstanding. Extending research on subsistence marketplaces to
post-conflict settings, with extreme levels of uncertainty and lack of
control, helps explain further the role of market transactions.
Furthermore, driven by the twin engines of consumption and
entrepreneurship, subsistence marketplaces rely on tightly knit rela-
tionships which in turn require high levels of social trust. Because
conflict often damages this social fabric, 1-to-1 interactions help “pave
the wayfor the creationof reciprocal obligations andprivate information
conduits”(Sridharan and Viswanathan, 2008: 457) which in turn help
rebuild market and relational infrastructures (Lawrence et al., 2002).
Prior research argues that marketing exchanges with poor consumers
are unfavorably unbalanced (Alwitt, 1995)—“the economic choices of
the poor are constrained by their market environment”(Banerjee and
Duflo, 2007: 154). Furthermore, by under- or over-representing
consumers, development interventions can hinder the emergence of
subsistence marketplaces in post-conflict settings (Lawrence et al.,
2002). The study takes a critical look at unfolding development
interventions to encourage the emergence of subsistence marketplaces
and show that their social construction influences the emergence of
roles and transactions among market participants. The study takes
critical lens (Cornwall and Brock, 2005) that helps unpack the meaning
of specific actions and reactions by market protagonists (Heracleous,
2006). Critical management theorists argue for an “eclectic approach
that favors rich diversityover rigorous contingencies”(Adler et al., 20 07:
155) and thus encourage the exploration of points of disagreement and
divergence in ways that contribute critically but organically to social
change (Adler et al., 2007:156–157).
4. Method: Critical discourse analysis
This study relies on social interactions and discursive dynamics
(Alvesson and Deetz, 2006) to shed light on the social construction of
subsistence marketplaces, shows how market participants (re)define
their roles across market transactions, and reveals how development
interventions may enable or hinder the emergence of subsistence
marketplaces in post-conflict settings. Based on the core premise that
“our experience is largely written for us by the multitude of conflicting
discourses of which we area part,”such analyses unpack the “discourses
that accompany the interventions and the complex processes of social
construction that precede it”(Phillips and Hardy, 2002: 2). A critical
discourse analysis methodology focuses inquiry into the processes of
social construction and heightens attention to social embeddedness by
drawing on geographically- and contextually-specificlanguage(Fair-
clough,1992). Studies of social interactions have used such analyses in a
wide range of contexts (e.g. refugee systems in the U.K., Phillips and
Hardy, 1997; refugee camps in occupied Palestine, Lawrence et al., 2002;
aboriginal communities in Canada, Phillips and Hardy, 2002).
Discourse analysis is a structured and systematic study of texts –
includingtheir production,dissemination andutilization –as a means to
understanding the complex and evolving relationships among prota-
gonists as they engage individually and collectively in the creation of
social reality through discussions, debates, and rebuttals (Phillips and
Hardy, 2002; van Dijk, 1997). “Discourses are shared and social,
emanating out of interactions between social groups and the complex
societal structures in which the discourse is embedded”(Phillips and
Hardy, 2002: 4). Discourses are not autonomous but linked with other
discourses in cooperative or antagonistic ways (Heracleous, 2006).
Discourses can be used strategically (Hardy et al., 2000)and
symbolically (Heracleous, 2006); they are fluid and often contradictory.
A core premiseis that development organizations deliberately alter their
discourses to craft and attribute meaning to market participants and
transactions (Anderson, 1999; Hardy et al., 2005).
4.1. Data
The study explores the social construction of fuel-efficient stove
transactions in Darfur by analyzing written discourse (annual reports,
special focus reports, consultancy reports, commissioned reports),
periodic information sharing (newsletters, topic specific disclosures,
advocacy and policy papers, newsletters, press releases, information
posted to official websites, humanitarian emergency updates, funding
proposals, concept papers and conference presentations), interviews,
pictures and videos, and product schematics and technology descrip-
tions (Grant et al., 1998). Overall, the data include over 450 documents
and encompass over 3000 pages.
Data collection is organized around the key protagonists, introduced
in Table 1. International Technology Development Group (renamed and
rebranded Practical Action in 2005, ITDG/PA) is the first development
organization to actively promote fuel efficient stoves in Darfur. In late
2004, CHF International (previously known as the Cooperative Housing
Foundation), Refugees International (RI), Oxfam, USAID, the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratories (Berkeley Lab), and the Aprovecho
Research Center (Aprovecho) joining ITDG/PA to actively reshape
619S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
ongoing debates on FES interventions in post-conflict Sudan. In 2006,
the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC)
gives voice to women IDPs; that same year, the Jewish World Watch
(JWW) begins working with Darfuri refugees in Chad. The protagonists'
discourses revolve around the FES users, the FES technology, and the FES
market transactions; development organizations with Darfur-based
projects reference debates within and among several international
organizations including the UNDP, World Bank, FAO, and The Working
Group on Climate Change. Corroborating and contradictory discourses
selectively motivate and legitimate specific standpoints on the users,
consumers, producers, trainers and sellers involved with FES projects in
Darfur from 1997 to 2008.
For each protagonist, the variety of texts ranges from public relations
releases to internal documents, and from large-scale assessments by
arms length third parties to in-house reflections, self-published news-
letters, blogs and documentaries, and formal and informal orchestrated
public interactions. The analyses sort these texts by intended audience
and content. Some of the texts explore global triggers and global
implications of local actions or engage international organizations in
legitimating processes for local needs and asks (macro-discourses);
other texts uncover proximal interactions and local priorities of the FES
market participants to illustrate their evolving exchange relationships
(micro-discourses).
4.2. Analyses
Fig. 1 outlines the key local and international development
interventions aimed at promoting FES in Darfur between 1997 and
2008, on the backdrop of the conflict escalation in 2003 and the signing
of the peace accords in 2005 and 2006.
The FES technology evolves fitfully during this period (Appendix A
describes the sequential introduction of FES in Sudan, and compares the
designs,costs and prices acrosscompeting technologies). Darfuri people
traditionally cook using a three-stone fire. Reliance on increasingly
scarce wood and the dangers to health from smoke inhalation, however,
make improvements in fuel design and efficiency a widely desirable
option. The mud stove, which relies on local labour and material,
emerges early as a popular technology. Early FES efforts (1997–2004)
champion mud stoves for three reasons. First, production is inexpensive,
making mudstoves affordable for Darfuri IDPs. Second, their design and
production deliberately involves Darfuri women IDPs who become the
producers and the users of these mud stoves; interventions thus mesh
user and producer roles and boost the supply of mud stoves. Third, as
user-producers begin developing manufacturing capabilities, they can
pass those skills on through a “train-the-trainer”approach that pro-
motes local capacity building and helps ensure a recalibration of supply
and demand along the value chain.
The standard mud stove design can be produced and transacted
locally for US$1–3. In the mid-2000s, the ITDG/PA initial mud stove
technology undertakes several changes in design. New features are
added to further improve its fuel efficiency. By 2008, several models of
mud and clay stoves are being exchanged in Darfur, with the latest
design –the AviIII –costing approximately US$2.5 and selling for US$4.
The design of the brick stoves is almost identical to the mud and clay
stoves—except that its bodyis made of 6 bricks (Abdelnourand Branzei,
2008). By 2008, the mass-produced brick stoves, later known as the
Rocket or magic stove, sell for as little as US$1–3 in Darfuri camps.
Early on, ITDG/PA also experiments with an alternative fuel
technology by introducing Liquid Petroleum Gas cookers, which cost
about US$10 a stove. Despite successes elsewhere, however, in Darfur
Table 1
Market protagonists and fuel efficient stove milestones in Darfur.
Focus FES technology
ITDG/PA The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) was
founded in 1966. In 2005, ITDG changed its name and brand to
Practical Action (PA). Its approach is people-centric, engaging
community members as partners in technology projects so that
they shape and control technology for themselves.
1997–2008 Introduces mud stoves
1997–2005 Provides training support for all Darfur-based
FES interventions
2003–2005 LPG stove project
CHF The Cooperative Housing Foundation (now known as CHF
International) was established in 1952 as a catalyst for long-lasting
positive change. CHF now works in the areas of disaster relief,
environmental management, infrastructure rehabilitation, economic
development, civil society development, and post-conflict response.
2006 Partners with the Berkeley Lab to produce metal
stoves (Berkeley Darfur Stoves, BDS)
2007 Funds Nyala plant to produce BSD
2008 Introduces Darfur FES (DFES)
USAID Founded in 1961, and now active in over 100 countries, the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID) has five goals:
supporting transformational development, strengthening fragile states,
supporting U.S. geostrategic interests, addressing transnational problems,
and providing humanitarian relief.
2004 Indirectly promotes metal stove interventions by
supporting CHF launch in Sudan
2007 Endorses the Rocket stove
Berkeley Lab Founded in 1931 by Noble Laureate Ernest Orlando Lawrence, the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has been a leader
in science and engineering research for more than 70 years.
Its Environmental Energy Technologies Division performs analysis, research
and development leading to better energy technologies and reduction of
adverse energy-related environmental impacts.
2004–2008 Designs efficiency improvements to the ITDG
mud stove (the Avi models)
2006 Berkeley Darfur Stoves Assessment Report promotes
metal stoves (BDS) based on superior efficiency
Lifeline International Lifeline Fund (Lifeline) aspires to make every one of its dollars
count by eliminating waste, promoting cost-effective technologies and
emphasizing appropriate interventions, which give needy individuals the
tools and wherewithal they require to lift themselves out of poverty and
become more productive members of their societies.
Mid-2006–2008 Promotes brick stoves —rocket stoves
and magic Stove models (approximately 10,000 stoves
distributed in Darfur)
Aprovecho Aprovecho Research Center is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to
creating effective and widely usable appropriate technology solutions to
problems, e.g. cooking and heating with biomass (wood, charcoal, dung, and
crop residue).
2005 Darfur Humanitarian Stove Project Assessment
promotes brick stove technology
WCRWC The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC) is an
independent affiliate of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) founded
in 1989. It serves as a watchdog and an expert resource, offering solutions and
providing technical assistance.
2008 CHF and WCRWC workshop promotes metal stoves
(DFES) and mud stove (Avi models)
JWW A member of the Save Darfur Coalition, Jewish World Watch (JWW) was
established in October 2004 as a Jewish response to horrors perpetrated by
human beings against others. In addition to education and advocacy, JWW's
refugee relief projects alleviate the suffering of survivors and victims of genocide.
2006 Solar Oven Project with KoZon Foundation and Solar
Cookers International (SCI) introduces solar cookers to
Darfuri camps
620 S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
the diffusion of LPG cookers remains limited. Another alternative
technology, the metal stoves,modelled on the Indian-made Tara metal
stove, becomes a strong contender to mud stoves once CHF
customizes its design to the harsher conditions in Darfur. CHF also
redevelops the initial model –i.e. the Berkeley Darfur Stove (BDS) –in
partnership with the Berkeley Lab (from late 2004 through June
2007). Then, starting in 2007, CFH develops the Darfur FES (DFES)
through collaborations with local NGOs.
Until 2005 ITDG/Practical Action promotes mud stoves and provides
the training and the base technology in all of the Darfur-based FES
international development interventions (Fig. 1). Starting in 2005, its
interventions focus on either mud or metal stove technologies, with the
former upholding a stringent local focus (promoting engagement and
skill building by women IDPs): “The work undertaken by Practical
Action Sudan is aimed at improving the livelihoods of poor c ommunities
in selected areas of the country through building the capacity of small-
scale producers and their institutions”(Practical Action Sudan, 2008),
and the later emphasizing superior efficiency, monetary gains and
labour savings: “Implications of full adoption of the [metal stove,
Berkeley Darfur Stove] throughout Darfur include […]monetarysavings
of US $222 perfamily per year forIDPs who buy fuel woodor a savings of
18hours of labor effort per week for IDPs who currently collect fuel
wood.”(Amrose et al., 2008:4).
Several concomitant attempts to improve fuel efficiency help
reconstruct the role of market participants and FES transactions, in
ways that gradually separate the design and production of the stoves
from their users. Experiments with prices further unhinge consumers
from users by proposing alternative approaches to pay for the FES. The
scalability of user-benefits becomes one of the central motivations
that supports this efficiency drive: “A Darfur refugee household
receiving a Berkeley Darfur Stove immediately experiences a doubling
of their disposable income (or earning capacity). The 2.2 million
refugees in Darfur need about 300,000 stoves, so the challenge (and
the opportunity) is to set up multiple full scale assembly shops”(The
Blum Centre for Developing Economies, 2008).
The emphasis on scalability distorts the emergent subsistence
marketplace on two counts. First, via price subsidies, since interven-
tions project stove prices at a target scale of production: “Our current
best estimates for the cost of producing [a metal stove] is less than
1000 SDD (US$4 November 2005 US) per stove when mass-produced.
Custom-made single stoves cost 2000 SDD (about $9 November 2005
US) from a local sheet metal worker in El Fasher”(Galitsky et al., 20 06:
31). This means that some development organizations heavily
subsidize the higher production costs for the early runs. Second,
demand forecasts stem from consumer needs instead of their ability
or willingness to pay for the stoves: “A Darfur factory which would
build 100 stoves per day (25,000 stoves annually) […]Annual output
of this factory will provide $30 million to the Darfur refugees in
avoided wood fuel costs, or income earned from other remunerative
activities, and also help the local and global environment”(Darfur
Stoves Project, 2007: 24). Together, price subsidies and inflated
demand forecasts widen the gap between supply and demand.
Fig. 1. Fuel efficient stove development interventions in Darfur.
621S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
As projects proliferate, growing tension ensues between user-centric
and efficiency focused interventions. ITDG/Practical Action argues that
“The CHFapproach is not moving towardssustainability. IDP housewives
will return home without the knowledge of manufacturing the stoves,
the best way to utilises their stove and the best cooking practices”
(Practical Action Sudan, 2007: 2). CHF counters, claiming that “ITDG
(Practical Action) Mud stove was the worst performer, using almost 90%
of the fuel that the 3 stones fire consumed and emitting significantly
more smoke”(Practical Action Sudan, 2007: 1). These contradictory
discourses prompt the social (re)construction of roles and transactions
in the FES marketplace, and has emergent consumers, sellers and
distributors seeking a better balance between the high production costs
on one side and the low paying ability of consumers on the other.
As new technologies such as brick stoves and solar stoves are
introduced in Darfur and to Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad,
and as increasing global attention to FES interventions motivates
larger-scale projects by incumbents and newcomers, micro-discourses
become increasingly fragmented. Market roles and transactions are
iteratively contested and reconciled. As technology alternatives
multiply (Fig. 1), conversations between incumbents (ITDG/Practical
Action, CHF, The Berkeley Lab, and Aprovecho/International Lifeline
Fund) and newcomers (JWW, WCRWC) bring the consumer to the fore
and emphasize complementarities among different technologies.
According to the Director of Darfur Peace and Development's Solar
Cooker Project “There should not be any real comparison of the solar
cooker and the wood stove. They are partners not competitors. When
there is sufficient sun, use the solar oven. When you don't have a
sunny day, use the wood stove. If it is night or evening and you must
cook then a solar oven will not work. Both types of stoves when used
together will reduce the consumption of fuel.”(Email correspondence,
May 6, 2008).
Several alternative market models emerge. ITDG/Practical Action
focuses on the user of the stoves (Darfuri women cooking for their
households). By promoting awareness about fuel efficiency and
alternative stove technologies, ITDG/Practical Action encourages
users to build both production skills and consumer acumen. CHF
focuses on the supply of stoves by channelling investments to a plant
to produce metal stoves locally and experimenting with selling the
stoves at different price points (albeit all below production costs).
CHF's then partner, the Berkeley Lab, emphasizes the technology. “We
are on to Version-11 (‘V11’); different from V5 in that it: comes as an
“Ikea”style flat-kit of pre-cut sheet-metal; can be built entirely with
hand tools without electricity; has internal insulation, and has built in
protection against wrong assembly”(Gadgil, 2008).The Berkeley Lab
seeks to fund production cost externally and experiments with new
models of leasing and distribution (Abdelnour and Branzei, 2008).
When CHF and the Berkeley Lab amicably dissolve their partnership in
the summer of 2008, CHF efforts shift towards greater involvement of the
consumer and greater engagement of groups representing the users and
buyers of fuel efficient stoves in Darfur. On September 25, 2007, CHF
facilitates a participatory workshop with Women's Commission for
Refugee Women and Children for 30internally displaced women from all
three El Fashir-area camps (Abu Shouk, As Salaam and Zam Zam) on the
subject of FES. The workshop takes plac e at the offices of the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in partnership with the
Women's Commission/International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The growing plurality of development interventions increases users'
awareness of fuel efficiency and enables greater discretion in their
consumption choices. However, this plurality also distorts the supply of
stoves by subsidizing production runs on stove designs which continue
to rely on non-indigenous materials. Externally funded distribution
programs disconnect supply from demand through production
Table 2
Who benefits? Interlacing macro- and micro-discourses.
1997 2002 World summit 2005 UN interagency report 2008 USAID FES evaluation report
Stage 1: “The Killer in the Kitchen”Stage 2: “Reduce Risk of Rape”Stage 3: “Building an Economy”
Macro-
discourses
Examples “The most visible impact of the fuel-
efficient stove is related to improved
kitchen management, hygiene
improvement, and savings in fuel wood,
time and effort as well as improved
social relationships.”(UNDP, 2002:6)
“FES programs are critical […] for reducing
their vulnerability to gender-based violence
during trips outside the camps to collect
fuelwood.”(USAID, 2006a:2)
“The “rocket”stove, designed by the
International Lifeline Fund […] costs
just $3 to make and can reduce firewood
consumption by up to 75 percent.”
(USAID, 2007a:6)
Texts ITDG/Practical Action report Killer in the
Kitchen: Indoor Air Pollution in Developing
Countries (2004); The Working Group on
Climate Change and Development
(June 2005, Oct 2006)
USAID report (Sept 2006); Oxfam Magazine
(2005); Refugees International Bulletin
(October 2005)
USAID Darfur FES report (Dec 2008)
WCRWC report (Feb 2006)
USAID report (2006); USAID Energy Update
(2007); Aprovecho report (Jan 2008)
FAO/USG report (May 2007)
CHF, 2007 Annual Report (March 2008)
WCRWC conference (Dec 2008)
Micro-
discourses
Example “Smoke in the home is one of the world's
leading child killers, claiming nearly one
million children's lives each year.”
(Warwick and Doig, 2004:6)
“The risk of rape and mutilation for those
who collect fuelwood would be reduced
by three-quarters.”(Amrose et al., 2008:4)
“Monetary savings of US $222 per family
per year for IDPs who buy fuel wood or a
savings of 18hours of labor effort per week
for IDPs who currently collect fuel wood.”
(Amrose et al., 2008:4)
Texts Darfur stoves, http://darfurstoves.lbl.gov/ Berkeley Lab report (Feb 2006, May 2006,
May 2007); Reuters (Aug 2007);
CHF Program Report (March 2006,
May 2007)
SCI-DPAD workshop report (June 2007)
CHF Program Reports (April 2005, Sept 2005);
CHF press release (July 2005); CHF project
report (Dec 2005)
JWW evaluation report (Oct 20 07)
CHF information sheets (Oct 2007, Feb 2008);
CHF project presentation (May 2008)
Interlacing
discourses
Examples “Today, nearly every NGO engaged in protection
runs fuel-efficiency programmes”(Pantuliano
and O'Callaghan, 2006); “Over 80 organizations
are working together to increase the use of
clean, reliable, affordable, efficient, and safe
home cooking practices that reduce people's
exposure to indoor air pollution in developing
countries.”(Bryden et al., 2005)
“Protection is a growing field. More and
more agencies are interested in protection
and are viewing it as part of their role.
[...] Fuel-efficient stoves reduce the need to
venture into unsafe areas to secure cooking
fuel, reduce fire hazards, generate livelihoods,
and create logistical savings.”(USAID, 2004,
November: 43, 66)
“Most implementing agencies don't even
consider FES as a project, but as an activity
line within their normal projects. In the best
situation, FES is considered as a sub-project
within a main project like livelihood support.
[...] In more than 80 per cent of FES-related
projects...implementing agencies merely start all
over again, ignoring the lessons of the previous
Implementers.”(Stone et al., 2008:2,3)
Texts nef: Africa —Up in smoke?: Report of The Working
Group on Climate Change and Development (June
2005); Barbara Grovers's Darfur FES Documentary
“Sexual violence and firewood collection in
Darfur”in Forced Migration Review
(Patrick, 2007)
Alternative Fuels Take Root in Refugee Camps
(Dec. 2008); Jewish visionary awarded Bronfman
Prize for helping Darfur women, YnetNews.com,
(March 2008)
622 S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
subsidieswhich keep prices artificially low,often handing out the stoves
for free. By 2007, multiple designs are available at different price points
(Appendix A). Production costs range from US$1–27, with prices from
US$1–22.5. Most stoves sold and bought continue to be heavily
subsidized —for example, the BDS costs as much as $27 to produce
but is sold for as little as US$7 (Branzei and Abdelnour, 2008).
By 2008, the subsistence market for FES becomes increasingly active
and more and more fragmented. Despite continuing debates about the
efficiency of the mud stove, supply and demand for this technology
continues to grow. So does demand for brick stoves: International
Lifeline Fund (Lifeline) distributes the “magic stove”foras little as US$1;
Aprovecho contracts with a Chinese factory to import and sell a version
of the “Rocket”at a similar price (Tabl e 1). CHF and their partners
continue to aggressively promote metal models; their interventions
have supply rapidly outpacing demand for metal stoves, even at (still)
heavily subsidized prices. A partnership between JWW with Solar
Cookers International raises over $1 million to outfit over 300,000
households with solar stoves at a price of $15 per stove, estimating 2
stoves per household. Solar models are distributed for free and used
alongside mud and/or metal stoves.
5. A stagedmodel of social construction of subsistence marketplaces
Discourse analysis suggests that subsistence markets for FES in
Darfur progresses through three distinct, sequential stages: the first
stage focuses on the direct health benefits of the technology; the second
stage grapples with the indirect benefits to women IDP, whose exposure
to violence may decrease as fuel efficient stoves limit their trips outside
the camp; the third stage explores ways to build an economy in Darfur
by deliberately (re)structuring market roles and exchanges of FES. All
three stages focus on women in Darfuri camps, but emphasize different
needs: health in stage 1, protection against violence in stage 2, and
empowerment as market participants in stage 3. The labels for these
three stages were “The Killer in the Kitchen”(introduced by ITDG/
Practical Action), “Reduce Risk of Rape”(embraced early on by USAID
and legitimated by the UN in 2005), and “Building an Economy in
Darfur”(emphasized since 2006 by new FES protagonists seeking to
establish their complementarity to ongoing efforts). Three key events
punctuate the transitions among these stages: the 2002 World Summit
acknowledges the risk of smoke inhalation; the 2005 UN Interagency
report recommends FES as a rape risk reduction measure; and the 2008
USAID FES Evaluation report recognizes the emergence of a subsistence
marketplace. Protagonists repeatedly cross-reference these three
events. Although their own micro-discourses evolve more gradually,
both in anticipation of and in response to these changes in macro-
discourse, all the development organizations in the study refer to these
events as the critical milestones in the evolution of FES projects in
Darfur. The respondents also explain how eachevent triggers alternative
patterns for producing, distribution and selling FES to target users.
Before elaborating on thesepatterns, two clarifications are in order. First,
these events represent shared milestones: they apply both to local and
international organizations. Second, the high visibility of the shifts in
macro-discourse and their influence on subsequent funding priorities
motivates protagonists to adjust their own micro-discourses and to
selectively reference these macro-discourses. Some embrace these
changes fully or partially; others contest the new themes and reference
their prior positions in contrast to the anticipated changes.
Table 2 provides several examples of the interlacing discourses of
global donors and the development organizations active in Darfur
between 1997 and 2008, as the subsistence marketplace for FES takes
shape through discursive action and reactions across the three stages.
Excerpts from texts describing the development interventions in each
stage show how development organizations collaborate and compete
over the best way to help women in Darfur. Some participants seek to
empower Darfuri women in spite of trade-offs in efficiency and income
gains (e.g. ITDG/Practical Action), while others seek to protect women's
well beingeven if the interventions has the Darfuri women increasingly
dependent on outsiders and imported technologies (JWW, Lifeline).
Table 3 presents the staged social construction of the subsistence
marketplace for FES in Darfur by unpacking the construction of who
would benefit from development interventions. The target benefici-
aries are construed in ways that mitigate health-risk, reduce rape-risk,
or promote fuller engagement in market transactions. The develop-
ment of subsistence marketplaces is further shaped by strategic use of
discourse to motivate development interventions, i.e. explaining why
donors should attend to the needs of women IDPs in Darfuri camps.
Their reasons shift from arguments to reduce death risk due to smoke
inhalation, to pleas to reduce rape risk due to time spent on wood
harvesting trips, to claims about time savings that enabled gainful
engagement in rebuilding the economy. Development organizations
also outline what they would do to address the needs of women in
Darfur, such as “empowering women by reducing the time, effort,
risks and expenses involved in collecting, chopping and using
fuelwood”(UNDP, 2002: 5), giving women a choice to not venture
outside the camps (USAID, 2007b) and infusing income and market
skills through the production and commercialization of stoves (Darfur
Stoves Project, 2007). The analyses further explain how development
organizations set out to influence the emergence of subsistence
marketplaces for FES in Darfur. Specifically, in stage 1 development
interventions help women using the stoves become aware of the
benefits of improved fuel efficiency. In stage 2, FES projects seek to
change the habits of women, as users, producers and buyers of stoves
and fuel in ways that keep them safer. In stage 3 development
organizations take greater interest in grassroots models that empower
women and facilitate their engagement in market transactions, often
in the multiple roles of producer, distributor, or consumer of fuel
efficient stoves.
5.1. Stage 1: “The Killer in the Kitchen”
Stage 1 positions FES interventions as a way to improve the lives of
women and children by reducing the health toll of smoke inhalation
due to inefficient stoves. ITDG/Practical Action description of this
intervention makes repeated reference to the 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (August 26–September 4,
2002), specifically the Global Partnership for Clean Indoor Air then
launched by ITDG/Practical Action along with UN partners and the
World Health Organization (WHO). The partnership aspires “to
reducing the mortality related to indoor air pollution in targeted
areas by 50%”(Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, 2007). ITDG Smoke
and Health Report up-plays the intersection between WHO's macro-
discourse linking FES with health hazards (claimed to kill more than
three people each minute worldwide, Table 3) and ITDG's micro-
discourse which articulates the health benefits accruing to the women
working in the kitchen and their children.
By May 2004, ITDG/Practical Action starts the first “Smoke and
Health Project”in Darfur: it introduces a Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG)
stove and begins transferring some best practices from similar
projects in Kenya and Tanzania to Sudan. ITDG reports the introduc-
tion of LPG stoves to 167 households; they distribute 112 more and
enlist demand for another 137 (ITDG Sudan, 2005). International
organizations endorse these early indoor air pollution efforts with
links to gender-based violence in Darfur (WHO/UNDP, 2004). Several
years later, more than 80 development organizations adopt the WHO
macro-discourse and reference ITDG's early LPG intervention to
motivate FES interventions in developing countries.
Few stoves are sold in Stage 1. At $10 each, LPG stoves are too
expensive for most target users and a subsistence market for LPG
stoves never emerge in Darfur. However, the women who use the LPG
stoves become increasingly aware of the importance of fuel efficiency.
Most stoves are made by their users, from mud and using simple
designs (Appendix A). ITDG offers basic skills in manufacturing mud
623S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
stoves using locally available and affordable materials. This enables
users to become producers, creating local supply and demand for FES.
5.2. Stage 2: “Reduce Risk of Rape”
The 2005 UN inter-agencyreport calling for the promotion of FES “on
a massive scale”, in an attempt to stem the attacks against displaced
women, ushers in a second stage of social construction of FES
subsistence marketplaces. This second stage is anchored by a shared
objective to mitigate rape-associated risk for women IDPs in Darfur.
Starting in 2004, USAID actively promotes FES as a rape risk-reduction
intervention. This macro-discourse enhances emerging micro-dis-
courses by several Darfur-based INGOs. CHF International launches
into Darfur post-crisis to run a nine-month fuel efficient stove program
funded by USAID (September 28, 2004 to June 28, 2005). The final
program report states that “fuel efficient stove production was intended
[…] to reduce fuel consumption and female exposure to violence and
rape while collecting firewood”(CHF, 2005:8).
The “Reduce Risk of Rape”mandate takes prominence among Darfur-
based interventions. JWW, for example, estimate that 90% of rape in
Darfur is associated with trips for collecting firewood outside the camps
(Table 3). By 2005, two out of three significant FES interventions in Darfur
with displaced women involve CHF: one in Zam Zam camp and another
(a joint project with ITDG) in Abu Shouk camp. By 2007 USAID reports the
training of over 50,000 women in Darfur. Refugees International's 2005
bulletin, titled Sudan: Rapidly Expand the Use of Fuel Efficient Stoves in
Darfur argues that, “By reducing the need for wood and emission of
smoke, a switch to simple, more fuel-efficient stoves could ease
environmental stress and improve health, while reducing the time
women spend collecting wood, a task that exposes them to the risk of
rape and other forms of gender-based violence”(Wolf, 2005:1).
Interventions focus on reducing trips outside the camp by changing the
cooking habits of Darfuri women through promoting the use of (more)
fuel efficient stoves (Tabl e 3). A subsistence market for FES begins to
emerge; although the majority of stoves are still handed out for free, more
community members get involved in producing and distributing mud
stoves (Appendix A).
5.3. Stage 3: “Building an Economy in Darfur”
In late 2004, the Berkeley Lab partners with CHF International and
starts working on FES design as part of a USAID-funded project
(Fig. 1). The stated goal emphasizes the efficiency gains stemming
from better desig n. The Berkeley Lab hastens to si ngle out ITDG's mud
stove as “the worst performer, using almost 90% of the fuel that the 3
stones fire consumed and emitting significantly more smoke”
(Practical Action Sudan, 2007: 1), a claim contingent on a handful
of field tests. The focus on efficiency resonates with Aprovecho,
which after completing a more comprehensive assessment of the FES
in Darfur between August 29 and September 16, 2005 in partnership
with the International Lifeline Fund, argues that ITDG's “basic stove
has reportedly resulted in a reduction in wood and charcoal
consumption of approximately thirty to fifty percent […]Never-
theless, for all local variations of the ITDG model, the fuel efficiency
rate “can be improved up to 70% savings, a rate already achieved
in the IDP camps in Northern Uganda”(Aprovecho, 2005: 10, 15).
ITDG/Practical Action Sudan discourses rebut these direct attacks
claiming an average of 50% savings and accusing the Berkeley Lab of
Table 3
The social construction of development interventions in subsistence marketplaces: who, why, what, how?
Stage 1: “The Killer in the Kitchen”Stage 2: “Reduce Risk of Rape”Stage 3: “Building an Economy”
Who “Prolonged exposure to biomass smoke
is a significant cause of health problems,
including acute respiratory infections
(ARI) in children, chronic obstructive
lung diseases such as asthma and chronic
bronchitis, lung cancer and pregnancy-
related problems. […] ITDG Sudan's Smoke
and Health Project is the first of its kind in
addressing these issues.”(ITDG Sudan, 2003:4)
“All IDPs are affected by violence, but the
needs of women and girls affected and
threatened by rape and gender-based
violence stand out. Many attacks take place
when women —putting themselves at risk of
attack, rather than their husbands and sons,
who might be killed –are collecting firewood
outside the camps.”(UK HOC, 2005: 28)
“To date, 10,000 families living in crowded
camps have received fuel-efficient clay
stoves produced by IDP women who have
been trained and provided with jobs in
production of the stoves”(CHF, 2007:2)
Why “More than a third of humanity, 2.4 billion
people, burn biomass (wood, crop residues,
charcoal and dung) for cooking and heating.
[...] The smoke from burning these fuels turns
kitchens in the world's poorest countries into
death traps. Indoor air pollution from the
burning of solid fuels kills over 1.6million
people, predominately women and children,
each year. This is more than three people
per minute.”(Warwick and Doig, 2004:6)
“Inasmuch as 90% of the rapes of the women
in Darfur occur while the women are foraging
for firewood outside of the camps.”
(JWW, 2006:4)
“The stove provides an estimated average
savings of $160 year per household, a
significant amount of money in Sudan,
where per capita income is $640/yr. [...]
time currently spent collecting fuelwood
(over 7hours per day) can be spent on
other income-generating activities.”
(Booker et al., 2007:3)
“A switch to simple, more fuel-efficient stoves
could [reduce] the time women spend collecting
wood, a task that exposes them to the risk of rape
and other forms of gender-based violence.”
(Wolf, 2005:1)
What “By improving the efficiency of the wood
burning stove, the amount of toxic smoke
produced can be reduced and health risk to
the family minimised. Improved stoves can
provide a number of benefits by saving energy,
reducing indoor air pollution, increasing
household saving capacity and empowering
women by reducing the time, effort, risks and
expenses involved in collecting, chopping and
using fuel wood.”(UNDP, 2002:5)
“Venturing from the relative safety of the camp
increases a woman's chance of harassment and
abuse, yet those who decide not to leave the
confines of the camps have little choice but to
spend a portion of their family's income or food
rations on firewood at the local markets.”
(USAID, 2007a:5)
“Annual output of this factory will provide
$30 million to the Darfur refugees in avoided
fuel wood cost, or income earned from other
remunerative activities, and also help the local
and global environment.”(The Darfur Stoves
Project, 2007: 24)
How “More time spent collecting fuel can mean less
time growing or preparing food so that quality
and quantity of food diminish. Malnourished
women become more vulnerable to smoke
pollution which damage their lungs, eyes,
children and unborn babies. But improved
stoves can cook faster and burn fuel more
efficiently, which lowers levels of exposure
to biomass smoke and releases time for other
activities.”(ITDG, 2005:9)
“The terrible human rights and humanitarian
crisis that has displaced some two million
Darfur villagers has ironically provided the
international community with a unique
opportunity to assist them in a way that can
have a positive, permanent and profound effect
on their livelihoods.”(Wolf, 2005:2)
“The program approach differed from
organization to organization and from region
to region. Some organizations used indigenous
materials [...] while others imported materials
abroad for their stoves. Some organizations
made the stoves and distributed them.”
(Martin, 2007: 22)
624 S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
inadequate research and invalid comparisons (Practical Action
Sudan, 2007:2).
New entrants take advantage of growing interest from women IDPs
and international donors topromote complementary offerings. The new
stove designs, often handed out for free, focus either on technology (e.g.
JWW partners with Solar Cookers International and Darfur Peace and
Development to promote solar cookers), users (e.g. WCRWC starts
representing the interests of women IDPs as informed users of fuel
efficient stoves), or a combination of users and technology (e.g.
International Lifeline Fund's introduction of brick stoves encourages
consumers by increasing stove efficiency and affordability).
Taken together, these three stages show how a subsistence market-
place for fuel efficient stoves can be socially constructed in post-conflict
settings through ongoing, interlacing conversations between global fora
and local and international development organizations. Interventions in
stage 1 promote the localized production of FES by Darfur-based stove
users. Interventions in stage 2 enable users to take on new market roles
by participating in the design, manufacturing and distribution of
increasingly sophisticated models of FES in Darfur but fall short of
scaling up stove buying and stove selling by Darfuri IDP. Furthermore,
market roles remain somewhat disjointed because development
interventions in this second stage often attend to users' need by
increasing the supply of stoves. Interventions in stage3 seekto stimulate
market exchanges by helping users take on a consumer role. As these
users are gaining awareness of the standalone and comparative fuel
savings, stove life spans, and social and economic benefits for different
stove models they gradually emerge as central market participants. By
2007, their choices increase the popularity and the demand for specific
FES models. Women's engagement also accelerates the emergence of a
subsistence market for specific models, by driving down their price and
stepping in to fill market intermediation roles.
By the end of 2008, the subsistence market for fuel efficient stoves
builds momentum, engaging over 52% of the Darfuri communities in
market transactions for FES. As market participants gain voice and
influence, a subsistence market emerges around the more affordable
stove models (the mud/clay stoves and the brick models —the Rocket
and the magic stoves). Selling for a few dollars and lasting up to
36 months, these fuel efficient stoves meet women's needs and
emergent consumer preferences (Branzei and Abdelnour, 2008).
Reports by several development organizations suggest that, by 2008,
90% of FES owners use mud models; 4 9% of the women who own both
mud and metal stoves prefer the mud stoves. Although market
transactions still represent a small fraction of the stoves being used,
the emancipation of Darfuri women as active participants in the
production, distribution and especially the consumption of fuel-
efficient stoves motivates new efforts by development organizations
to keep driving down the cost (Appendix A).
5.4. Enabled and emergent market transactions
By unpacking the corroborating and contradictory micro-dis-
courses of development organizations promoting FES in Darfur, the
findings begin to demystify why some development interventions
successfully enable subsistence marketplaces while others delay or
distort them. Table 4 illustrates their positive and negative outcomes
across discursive stages.
In stage 1, development organizations construe FES as a means to
combat “The Killer in the Kitchen”. By reducing smoke inhalation,
Table 4
The fitful emergence of subsistence marketplaces for fuel efficient stoves in Darfur.
Stage 1: “The Killer in the Kitchen”Stage 2: “Reduce Risk of Rape”Stage 3: “Building an Economy”
Development
intervention effects
Positive “FES programs can produce stoves at
a cost of about one dollar per unit,
most of which goes toward training
since they are made entirely from
inexpensive indigenous organic
materials.”(Wolf, 2005:2)
“Participants reported that the previous
need for near-daily fuel wood collection
has been reduced to two to three times
per week.”(USAID, 2005a:2)
“There is widespread support for a fuel-
efficient stove initiative. The improved
mud stove has the highest uptake so
far −80–99% of the people targeted by
the FES projects, use them frequently”
(Cole and Wroe-Street, 2008)
Negative “Many of the improved stove projects
across the world have had limited
success, even with subsidies to the
adopters.”(UNDP, 2002: 5);
“The United Nations Population Fund
reported that in 2006, FES programs were
available in 52 percent of sites (communities
and camps) throughout Darfur, up from 31
percent in 2005. The humanitarian community
sponsors trainings and distribution campaigns
of FES to IDPs living in camps and host
communities.”(USAID, 2006a:)
“The use of FES has resulted in targeted
beneficiaries using between 40 to 80
percent less fuel for cooking food. This
translates into many fewer trips needed
to gather wood for cooking, but has not
necessarily resulted in less time devoted
to fuel collection, because women will
make extra trips to collect wood to make
money for household and personal needs.”
(USAID, 2006a:)
“Overemphasis on technology,
without concurrent work on
behavioral change, market access
and health impacts, resulted in
limited results and unsustainability
of many projects.”(USAID, 2005b:7)
Subsistence
marketplace transactions
Enabled “The community is actively involved
in the manufacture and promotion of
stoves, which are sold commercially on
the open market. [...] The annual
production is estimated at 10,000 to
11,000 stoves, and the profit generated
by the stoves provides artisans with a
higher than average rural wage. As a
result, the women involved have gained
status, self confidence and financial
independence.”(ITDG, 2001:9)
“To date, Oxfam-UK has trained 6000 IDP
women in manufacture and use of the three
stove models developed, and some are now
selling stoves in the local markets.”
(USAID, 2005a:2)
“They won't be handing the stoves out as
charity —“Giving something away turns
the recipients into beggars,”Gadgil says—
but at $25 apiece, the devices are out of
the reach of most families. Gadgil favors
some sort of leasing plan, allowing families
to rent the stove for about 50 cents a week.
The ultimate goal is for the refugees to take
over the program, from manufacturing to
distribution, which would mean jobs and
income.”(Sheridan, 2007)
Emergent “A scaling-up strategy was developed
with the Women's Development
Associations (WDAs) and other
partners and stakeholders. This
enabled women to buy ovens and gas
cylinders by establishing a revolving
fund, managed by the women who also
contributed to it financially. The Gas
Agent in Kassala agreed to supply
cylinders on an instalment basis.”
(Practical Action Sudan, 2005)
“Women's groups have been offering
support in mobilising and monitoring
participation at the camp and community
levels. This role has necessitated the
discovery of new leaders from among the
women. Through ‘learning by doing’a
lot of the women are now able to train
others to produce stoves and they can apply
these skills in other disciplines.”
(Stone et al., 2008:3)
“Fuel-efficient stoves are manufactured in
camps for less than $3 using local materials,
including clay, sorghum stems, dung,
aluminum, and water.”
(USAID, 2006b:3)
“More market-based accountability needs
to be introduced to the stove distribution
process —entrepreneurs should be
encouraged.”(Hood, 2008:17)
625S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
interventions imbue stove users with specific skills associated with
the use and local production of stoves. A train-the-trainer model
where women learn to manufacture their own stoves by relying on
inexpensive local materials and then train others to do the same helps
encourage market transactions in several ways: keeping costs
affordable (less than $1 per unit), empowering women to take on
new roles as artisans that manufacture and could promote and sell the
stoves themselves, thus recalibrating supply and demand as FES
gained popularity among the Darfuri women. Post-hoc assessments
show that several other roles stem from these FES interventions. Some
interventions also have unanticipated effects. For example, subsidies
to adopters (to fund training, materials, or production costs) initially
distort the supply of stoves and the expectations of users. However,
early interventions under-represent the voice of consumers and fail to
model the emerging demand for FES. This raises questions about their
sustainability and scalability.
In stage 2, FES interventions focus on reducing the risk of rape by
cutting down the number of trips outside camps (Table 3). Controversy
ensues about the acclaimed success of these interventions in changing
wood collection habits among Darfuri women. USAID reports in 2005
that the number of trips was cut at least twofold, from near daily to only
2 or 3 times per week (Tabl e 4). Later reports suggest that women
continue to take risks in order to earn additional income on the
secondary market for firewood; some reports even suggest that the time
savings might have fueled the growth of this secondary market
(Abdelnour and Branzei, 2008). These interventions enable some
stove buying and selling in the local markets. As thousands of women
are trained in the production and use of various models, several new
roles emerge. Womenlearn by doing, then takea lead in training others;
women groups come to mobilize and monitor exchanges of FES stoves
(Tabl e 4). Development interventions scale up from 31% of the Darfuri
communities to 52% —yet theystill only cover halfof thecommunities in
need. Their limited geographic coverage delays the evolution of
subsistence marketplaces for FES in the remaining communities,
which continue to rely on the traditional three-stone fire, despite global
recognition of health risks and low fuel efficiency.
In stage 3, field reports suggest that mud stoves continue to gain
popularity, and at least 80% of the IDPs owning a mud stove use it
frequently. However, because multiple interventions often target the
same consumers, some have several idle stoves, while others receive
none. Efforts to bring together supply and demand by subsidizing
costs with the goal of scaling up local stove production delay or distort
the emergence of local exchanges. Consumers grow expectant of
charity, and increasingly critical of the new designs in spite of their
continuously improving efficiency (Abdelnour and Branzei, 2008).
Experiments with alternative market transactions, such as Berkeley
Lab's proposal to rent the stove at about 50 cents a week temporarily
tilt the pricing structure. Stoves become available at prices ranging
from $1 to $27 a piece; yet most users can opt to manufacture their
own FES for about $3 or wait for new programs to hand out free stoves
or introduce new technologies (Branzei and Abdelnour, 2008).
Despite the fitful progress in structuring FES exchanges, consumers
gradually gain market experience and take increasingly active stakes
in the emergent marketplace —often by fulfilling overlapping roles
and responsibilities as producers and distributors. Many of their skills
in producing and commercializing FES are beneficial to other market
transactions (Table 4).
These findings offer at least two practical implications. First,
development interventions are necessary but not sufficient in the
aftermath of conflict of crises —development organizations can
discursively (re)construct market participants and promote specific
transactions, but their efforts are a double-edged sword. Because such
interventions are often a first step towards restoring self-sufficiency in
post-conflict settings, unpacking their influence on the early devel-
opment of subsistence marketplaces is critically important. This study
suggests that development interventions may under- or misrepresent
the voice of consumers in ways that delay or distort the emergence of
market transactions.
Second, the analyses underscore the need to monitor and
recalibrate development interventions to the evolving and idiosyn-
cratic needs of their beneficiaries. Most development organizations
heed shifting funding priorities, and adjust their discourses strategi-
cally —and these changes pattern their actions. This study shows that
development organizations deliberately draw attention to specific
beneficiaries, advocate specific reasons for interventions, target
specific areas of impact and take specific actions. Taken together
these stimulate some market roles and transactions while short-
changing others. In so doing, development interventions may at times
engender more vibrant economic exchanges while at other times they
may delay or distort the emergence of subsistence marketplaces
by favoring either the supply or the demand side, or promoting
divergence or convergence between supply and demand.
The silver lining is that collectively these interventions gradually
affirm new market roles and transactions on which subsistence
marketplaces can start to flourish. Moving forward, the findings
suggests that in order to fully understand the upsides and downsides
of developmental interventions in stimulating subsistence market-
places (Cornwall and Brock, 2005) and accelerating post-conflict
reconstruction (Fort and Schipani, 2004; Willams, 2008), under-
standing how supply meets consumers' is necessary but not sufficient.
One needs to ask how development interventions help nurture more
aware and more resilient consumers, how they can seed and stabilize
emergent transactions, and how they can help (re)align fragmented
roles in a way that helps demand keep pace with and (re)shape supply
to meet evolving consumer expectations.
6. Contributions
The study explores the social (re)construction of subsistence
marketplaces through development interventions. By unpacking
discursive interplays among protagonists to tease apart the staged
evolution of their target beneficiaries, reasons, focus and actions, the
analyses shed new insights on the early emergence of subsistence
marketplaces in post-conflict zones to show why development
interventions are necessary, yet not sufficient. Prior studies suggested
that subsistence consumers may be initially disadvantaged (Alwitt,
1995; Banerjee and Duflo, 2007), yet gradually build the skills and
social resources necessary to sustain vibrant marketplaces (Sridharan
and Viswanathan, 2008).
Notwithstanding the important role of development organiza-
tions in enabling market transactions that help generate social and
economic value (Lewis and Opoku-Mensah, 2006; Teegen et al.,
2004), little is known so far about the socially embedded
mechanisms by which development interventions come to help or
hinder the emergence of subsistence marketplaces (Cornwall and
Brock, 2005). A critical approach that tracks the strategic and
symbolic discourses of development organizations as they unfold
show that development interventions gradually if somewhat fitfully
stimulate the development of the supply and/or the demand side.
Their interlacing actions and reactions propose, contest and validate
market configurations by providing the means and the motivation of
different market participants (designers, producers, sellers, dis-
tributors, consumers and users) to experiment with specificroles
and transactions.
Appendix A. Fuel efficient stove technology
Appendix A.1. Traditional three-stone fire
The most traditional way of cooking food in Darfur is on a wood
fire built between three large stones. Pots are placed directly on the
stones. For cooking the traditional Darfuri meal, an onion–oil stew
626 S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
(mulah) with millet porridge (assida), women typically use both a
small (16–19 cm diameter) and large (23–28 cm diameter) round-
bottomed pot.
Appendix A.2. Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG)
LPG stoves are introduced to Darfur in 2003 as part of ITDG/
Practical Action effort to reduce smoke inhalation. ITDG demon-
strates several potential smoke reduction interventions —Liquid
Petroleum Gas (LPG) burner, kerosene wick stove, and LPG kisra
(flat bread) hot plate; they organize demonstrations and awareness
sessions for women. The estimated cost of LPG stoves is $10; each
stove generates savings of $150–200 for each disability-adjusted life
year (DALY) (Practical Action, 2006). According to ITDG “In the end,
all households in the project opted for LPG as the best smoke
reduction because:
•It is locally produced and abundantly available.
•It is a clean-burning fuel, which doesn't leave soot deposits.
•It generates more heat for faster cooking than biomass fuel.
•The government has set incentives to encourage LPG use with
subsidies of 50% and exemption of LPG appliances from import tax.”
(ITDG Sudan, 2005: 6).
Appendix A.3. Metal stoves
Most high-efficiency metal stoves can be traced back to the Tara
stove, a multi-fuel, metal FES developed in India by Development
Alternatives in 1980s. “The Tara stove is designed to work with flat-
bottomed cooking pots that fit snugly into the stove body rather than
the round-bottomed pots used in Darfur. As part of the stove design
intended to work with a flat-bottomed pot, three metal pot support
brackets are fastened around the top of the Tara stove body. The lower
(L-shaped) part of each bracket supports the pot while the upper part
ensures a small (~1.5 cm) gap between the pot perimeter and stove
wall to allow flue gases to escape while improving heat transfer to the
pot. When a large round-bottomed pot is placed on the Tara stove, it
sits on top of the pot support brackets. This leaves an extended gap of
approximately 6 cm between the pot and the stove body, allowing
significant convective heat loss to occur during even a small breeze.”
(Amrose et al., 2008: 7).
The Berkeley Darfur Stove (BDS) is an adapted Tara design with
two modifications to address convective heat loss via the extended
gap: 1) the horizontal length of the upper pot support brackets is
reduced by 2mm each, allowing a round-bottomed pot to sink slightly
lower into the stove body; 2) the top of the stove body features an
erected wind-shield to block high horizontal winds from the extended
gap while still allowing flue gases to escape vertically; this also
ensures good thermal performance for a variety of pot sizes (adapted
from Amrose et al., 2008:7–8). In 2004 The Berkeley Lab estimates
that the BDS can be hand-built or mass produced in Sudan for $10;
based on field tests, the report claims that the Berkeley Tara “will save
about 70–75% of the fuelwood used by a three-stone fire”(Gadgil and
Amrose, 2006: 28); Between May 2007 and July 2008, the Berkeley
Lab produces metal stoves in collaboration with CHF, at costs ranging
from US$20 to 22.5; about 70% of the stoves are distributed for free in
eight camps; the balance is sold at prices from US$5 to 7.5 (Branzei
and Abdelnour, 2008).
Appendix A.3.1. The Darfur Fuel Efficient Stove (DFES)
After an amicable parting of ways with the Berkeley Lab, CHF
reports in a June–July 2008 report that the metal stoves can be
produced for US$10–15; 225 stoves have been sold in two camps by
the time of the report, and consumers indicate a willingness to
purchase more if the price gets lower. The DFES has an estimated five-
year span compared to only 6–36 months for a mud stove.
Appendix A.4. Mud stoves
Appendix A.4.1. Standard mud stove used in Darfur
ITDG/PA’s mud stove in Darfur is a simpler version of the Kenyan
Upesi stove. The stove is built using locally-available bricks and clay.
The stove is designed to burn wood, although it can also burn crop
waste such as maize stalks and cobs, and animal dung. The mud stove
is designed for one pot, but two or more stoves can be installed side by
side so that the cook can use more than one pot. The walls of the stove
are built around three bricks to a thickness of approximately 4 cm.
Flush with the top of the bricks, the thick walls of the mud stove can
support a range of commonly used pots, with round and flat bottoms.
However, it is unsuitable for very small pots or very wide ones
(Source: Practical Action Sudan, 2007). Mud stoves continue to be
locally produced for US$1–3.
Appendix A.4.2. The Avi stove
Named after Mr. Avi Hakim, CHF International Nyala staff, The Avi
stove follows the standard ITDG mud stove design as promoted in
Darfur IDP camps, with one retrofit proposed by Dr. Ashok Gadgil. The
Avi features a cast iron grate (bought in India for approximately US
$0.50) placed over an opening cut out of the bottom. When this stove
is set upon three bricks that lift it off the ground, air flows to the solid
fuelwood, substantially improving combustion efficiency. The grate
can also be made from pieces of locally available 0.5cm diameter steel
rod, cut into 18 cm lengths, costing approximately the same. The grate
improves combustion efficiency and reduces smoke generation. The
new design also includes vertical ventilation channels carved into the
inner walls of the stove and three mud knobs added to the top to
permit combustion air flow even when a tight-fitting large pot or a flat
metal plate is being used for cooking (adapted from Galitsky et al.,
2006,p.10–11). By July 23, 2008, CHF distributes 10 times the number
of Avi clay stoves compared with metal stoves (the Berkeley Darfur
Stove, then the Darfur Fuel Efficient Stove). In 2008, the Avi stoves are
priced at US$8 but their life-span is estimated to also be five times
shorter than the Darfur FES (Branzei and Abdelnour, 2008).
Appendix A.5. Brick stoves
Appendix A.5.1. The Rocket
“The rocket stove costs just $3 to make and can reduce firewood
consumption by up to 75 percent”(USAID, 2007a: 6). Developed with
the technical input of the Aprovecho Research Center, the Rocket is a
six-brick stove made out of local clay mixed with rice husks (which
provides insulating properties), molded into specially-shaped bricks,
and fired with wood logs using traditional clamp kilns. The brick-
makers bind the fired bricks together in clusters of six using thick
wire. One brick is cut in half to make an opening for feeding fuel. This
basic stove body can be installed in a kitchen by fixing it upright to the
ground and plastering it with mud. Women can choose to build up
thicker stove walls if they want greater strength and stability. Mass
production of the bricks helps ensure uniform sizes and shapes,
maintaining each stove's combustion chamber dimensions. Pots rest
on three small stones placed at the top of the stove to allow for
improved air circulation (adapted from USAID, 2007c:14–15).
Appendix A.5.2. The magic stove
In mid-2006, International Lifeline Fund introduces the “magic
stove”—a design which maximized efficiency through the use of an
insulated combustion chamber built out of lightweight bricks made
from a mixture of clay and other organic materials, such as rice husk or
groundnut shells. Lifeline's “magic stove”is in fact the same Rocket —
with the new catchy label, reportedly given by the users themselves
(Branzei and Abdelnour, 2008). Two years later, “Lifeline has managed
stove programs at three separate sites in North Darfur (Al Salaam,
Kebkabiyah and Tawillah). These programs have produced some
627S. Abdelnour, O. Branzei / Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 617–629
10,000 fuel-efficient stoves, which have profoundly improved the lives
of some 50,000 displaced women. In addition, Lifeline has helped two
other NGOs start their own “rocket stove”programs, which have so far
provided stoves and associated trading to an additional 5000 women
in both North Darfur (Shengal Tobayi) and West Darfur (Kereink).”
(International Lifeline Fund, 2009).
Appendix A.6. Solar stoves
In 2007 Solar Cooker International introduces “a sun-powered
cooker, made of cardboard and aluminum foil, at a cost of $15 each”to
several camps of Darfuri refugees; SCI estimates that each family
needs two solar cookers. By March 2008, when the project receives
the $100,000 Charles Bronfman prize, SCI fundraises $1 million to
fund the free distribution of the solar cookers (Tugend, 2008).
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