2(a). Combatting poverty (Chapter 3)
2(b). Promotion of education, public awareness and training (Chapters 4 and 36)
2(c). Global action programme for women to achieve sustainable and equitable development (Chapter 24)
2(d). Promotion of sustainable human settlements development (Chapter 7)
2(e). Population dynamics and sustainable development (Chapter 5)
2(f). Protection and promotion of human health (Chapter 6)
2(g). Strengthening the role of non-governmental organizations (Chapter 27)
In most cases, household energy is used in kitchens. Everywhere in the world, the kitchen is the domain of women and girls, who are thus the most important protagonists in household energy projects. A significant percentage of their working time and energy involves obtaining and using firewood. However, other segments of the population and a few trades also use fuelwood to a significant extent and also profit from the support and advisory services provided by household energy programmes. These include bakeries, restaurant operators (often women), smithies, and others. It is above all the poorer segments of the population who can improve their living conditions through improved supply and utilization of household energy.
Chapter 3 of Agenda 21 designates the fight against poverty as a priority task for all countries. The United Nations, international and non-governmental organizations, are called upon to prepare integrated country-specific programmes and to create framework conditions that will be favourable to the fight against poverty. For the most part, the principles and measures specified in Agenda 21 on combatting poverty already form a part of the design or implementation of household energy programmes and technical cooperation today, as they include:
* participation by the population at local decision-making level;* creation of employment;
* promotion of the informal sector;
* identification of major target groups for poverty-fighting measures (e.g. women, landless, refugees, small craftsmen).
The energy policies of most countries are primarily concerned with electrification or substitution with gas or kerosene. Other simple technologies such as solar plants and wind energy technologies are sometimes also included, but none of these energy supply options is within the reach of poor population groups, and only rarely can they use such technologies to address their main energy need, which is for cooking. Improved stoves, on the other hand, are a simple technology which the poor can fall back on in order to cover their demand for energy more efficiently.
Appropriate stoves and ovens already exist in many countries. In most cases it is sufficient to optimize existing stove types to make them more energy-efficient. Local artisans or women stove users have already mastered techniques of building stoves out of mud, clay, ceramics or metal. They round out their knowledge in training courses or workshops on production, marketing and price calculation for their products. The exchange of information and expertise about the procurement of materials, transport and trade with improved stoves and ovens helps the artisans to secure their incomes. Household energy programmes create more jobs if these trained artisans expand the scope of their profession and provide training to others. The decisions over whether to use user-built or artisan-built systems, stove design and construction materials, have to take fully into account both economic aspects and the sociological base. Another means of alleviating poverty lies in monetary savings due to lower fuel consumption. Such savings may be as high as 30-70%, depending on the stove type and mode of utilization. This is particularly true of cities and densely-populated areas where firewood has a high monetary value due to scarce supply, long transport routes and heavy demand. In the northwest region of Pakistan, for example, a family has to spend about 30-40% of its income on firewood purchases.
Aside from private households, small-scale enterprises can also reduce their fuelwood costs. This is the case with fish-smoking operations, bakeries, breweries, etc., which usually have very high fuelwood consumption rates.
Poor families not only save money but time as well - especially in rural segments of the population. Time can be saved at various levels. Distances that need to be covered for wood-gathering are shortened as less wood is cut and more biomass is left to grow back near the villages. Fewer and shorter trips are required to collect the wood. The use of metal stoves shortens cooking times. Women can make use of the time they save for productive activities which thus raise the family's income.
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ITDG's cooking stove experience Improving technology choice In order to reach a range of income groups, programmes must ensure that various technologies are available to meet their requirements. During the course of 1993/1994, ITDG's Rural Stoves West Kenya (RSWK) programme shifted from a primarily field orientation towards a regional „dissemination" focus. The RSWK project had focused on working with women potters as stove producers in order to deliver benefits to stove users. The logic of the work was that establishing a supply of Upese (also known as Maendeleo) stoves has major benefits for many women in terms of reduced fuelwood costs or collection time, savings in cooking time, improved health through lower smoke emissions, etc. The shift in focus was designed to secure greater benefits for groups beyond the potters, and it also concentrates on informing and influencing other agencies in order to increase the effectiveness of household energy projects in East Africa. The RSWK project could be criticised for providing a narrow choice of technology in focusing mainly on one product for potters (although this was an additional product to their existing ones) and one stove (or a narrow range) for users. There is now a recognition that improved ceramic stoves do not reach the poorest who are either not using fuelwood or could not afford the capital cost. In a survey of users, it was found that only 2% of their user sample was among the poorest and 39% were relatively rich. The project is widening the range of technologies available to ITDG, and, in particular, looking at low-cost, user-made stoves. New designs such as the Upesi Lira seek to enter more inaccessible markets and simpler production equipment is enabling more potters to take up production. Strategies for reaching the poor Dependence on wood for fuel is a feature of relatively poor households. A study carried out in five medium-sized towns in Kenya in 1987 showed that fuelwood use decreases as income increases across the population with 82% of the poorest families using fuelwood as their main source of cooking fuel and less than 10% of high income families opting for fuelwood. The average percentage of families using fuelwood across the group classified as low-income was 58%. IT Kenya has accepted the logic that the organization is unable to work with the very poorest of the poor, who have few assets, little access to resources and highly constrained risk-taking capacity. However, the Stoves and Household Energy (SHE) Programme has adopted a strategy which aims to reach as many poor people as possible, particularly those whose income level places them as only slightly better-off than the poorest. The principles of this approach are: * emphasis on working with women; * a focus on West Kenya as one of the poorest regions of the country; * improving the choice of available technologies; * regarding indirect benefits as important aspects of reaching the poor; * informing and influencing a range of individuals and organisations to raise their capacity and commitment to stoves work. Indirect Benefits Clearly the poorest people will find it very difficult to take the risks associated with a new business or a new product and thus are unlikely to be part of the women's potter groups that ITDG is working with. Some of the women's groups who manufacture stoves are, however, employing others to mind children, carry out domestic chores or collect clay. These employees will be from poorer sections of the communities. The principle of reaching poorer people through the secondary effects of the work is presently undervalued. An in-depth knowledge of the chain of events brought about by a change in employment within a household is critical to understanding how stoves work can positively affect groups which are poorer than the direct beneficiaries. - ITDG |
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Stove Programmes and the Poor - Suggested Indicators of Impact The list below contains a few of the indicators that might be used to measure impact on the poor. It is not exhaustive. Changes may be positive or negative and some of the indicators may be more difficult to measure than others. In most cases, measurement could be „scientific" and quantitative, or based on user perceptions and qualitative. In several cases the categories will overlap and in all cases monitoring should measure change. Financial/Economic Changes in income Health/Nutrition/Welfare Incidence of disease and sickness Institutional Attendance at group meetings Sustainability Operating profitability in enterprises - ITDG |
Education and the creation of environmental awareness are important items on the agenda of all household energy programmes. In the chapters on the promotion of education and changing consumption patterns, Agenda 21 calls for awareness-raising and the education of consumers and the public, and mentions several measures which are implemented in household energy projects.
In household energy programmes, people are made aware of the consequences of their actions for the environment, such as cutting wood for fuel. The educational and environmental activities of such programmes are not limited to the specific problem of fuelwood scarcity and its ecological effects, but projects also endeavour to instill and develop a broader understanding of the impact from human intervention on the natural environment. In order to reach as many people as possible, radio and TV spots in local languages call people's attention to the programme activities and the advantages of improved stoves.
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Marketing and Dissemination IT Kenya has explored ways in which to disseminate marketing messages about stoves to poorer groups - the use of radio rather than TV, advertising in the vernacular, using traditional sayings to highlight the benefits of improved stoves. Promotion through regular meetings called by churches and chiefs is also being employed in order to reach more households. ITDG has also begun to recognise the efforts of poorer groups to copy the Upesi stove in their own homes. Where ITDG has partners working on stoves programmes, such as in the HER project, the challenge is to prevent or redirect inappropriate interventions and to influence the design of stoves programmes to improve their poverty focus, particularly through technical interventions that reduce costs of technologies. Examples would include recent work on mud stoves and a study on solar cookers (which identified very limited benefits for the poor). Closely linked to issues of dissemination, the lack of appropriate, usable information in rural areas is a barrier to the spread of improved stoves and to the access of poor families to better cooking technologies. IT Kenya is placing increasing importance on producing information for policy-makers who influence the rural development process. In particular, increasing the commitment of other agencies as well as their capacity to implement stoves programmes is a vital part of the strategy. IT Kenya has 75 partners comprising other NGOs, women's groups, multilateral and bilateral agencies, government bodies and individuals and range from agencies which are already active in rural energy to community groups which have only recently taken on the energy issue. Drawing on the experience of projects and then adapting the information to the differing needs of these partners can be effective in ensuring that the design of household energy programmes manages to reach as many poor families as possible. One powerful example of this effort is the development of guidelines for best practices for the provision of energy for refugees so as to avert environmental and health disasters associated with the provision/lack of biomass energy in refugee camps in the region. - ITDG |
Experience with resource conservation and environmental protection has shown that a basis for sustainable environmental awareness can and must already be instilled in children at school. At home, the children then tell their parents what they have learned in school. With this in mind, household energy projects either give their own courses in the schools or advise Ministries of Education in the development of curricula and teaching materials.
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Environmental Education in a Household Energy Project - The Example of Mali Environmental education in schools is one of the main issues of the GTZ-supported Household Energy Project in Mali. From its beginning in 1988, project activities included sensitization of pupils in different school systems. Project animatrices went to schools, talking about causes and effects of deforestation and the possibilities of combatting such damage, and demonstrating the advantages of improved stoves for the users and their families. Besides these activities, which reached thousands of pupils in the project area, project staff developed a lesson on improved stoves which was to be integrated in the environmental education curriculum. Staff also organized a drawing competition in the capital Bamako, in which more than 2000 pupils participated. The ten best pictures on the topic „stove use" received prizes and were published in the local newspaper. These selective measures were accompanied by regularly ongoing sensitization activities, such as the organization of football „coup foyer ameliorè", advertisements on radio and TV, cooking demonstrations, and so forth. The effect of such activities is expected to be two-fold: on the one hand the product (the improved stove) is made well known to everybody, and on the other hand the youth as the „development agents of tomorrow" are already today sensitized and can develop a consciousness of the environment which forms the basis of its protection and re-establishment for the future. - GTZ |
At the Rio Conference, it was stated that women must be integrated into programmes and projects with their specific needs and interests. They play a key role in important economic, social and ecological areas in developing countries, yet are still disadvantaged and live under conditions which place extreme burdens on them. In the household-energy and other related areas such as health, nutrition, agriculture, trade and child-care, women do most of the work and bear the greatest share of responsibility. They have to bear most of the worries and most of the burdens.
A successful household energy programme plays a major role in improving women's health and reducing their workload. As women and girls are the main victims of household energy supply and use problems - as they are mainly responsible for procuring fuel and cooking - programmes to mitigate these effects meet several requirements of Chapter 24. Health and household energy programmes can meet the recommendations of Para 24.3(d), which recommends that governments „...promote the reduction of the heavy workload of women and girl children at home and outside the home,... the sharing of household tasks by men and women on an equal basis,...the provision of environmentally sound technologies which have been designed, developed and improved in consultation with women."
Increasing women's involvement, knowledge and capabilities through such activities also meets the requirements of Para 24.3 (i), which recommends programmes "...to eliminate persistent negative images, stereotypes, attitudes and prejudices against women, through changes in socialization patterns, the media, advertising, and formal and non-formal education."
Health and household energy work contributes to several recommendations concerning gender-sensitive data generation, information systems, and action research, for example:
* Analysis of the structural linkages between gender relations, energy, environment and development.* The integration of the value of unpaid work, including work that is currently designated „domestic" in resource accounting mechanisms, in order better to represent the true value of the contribution of women to the economy..."
* Measures to develop and include environmental, social and gender impact analyses as an essential step in the development and monitoring of programmes and policies.
* Develop programmes to create rural and urban training and research and resource centres, in developing and developed countries, that will serve to disseminate environmentally sound technologies to women.
Fuelwood-acquisition forms an important part of women's workload. As resources become increasingly scarce, distances that have to be travelled to collect wood grow longer, curtailing the few breaks women have in what is already a very tedious and long working day. Carrying heavy loads also has negative effects on the backs and joints of women, who in some cases have to go as far as 20 km in order to find fuel.
Improved stoves and kitchen systems can reduce the time it takes to gather fuel. Shorter wood-collecting distances automatically alleviate the physical burdens associated with wood-gathering. Housework in the kitchen - cleaning pots and pans, for example - is also labour-intensive and strenuous. Improved kitchen design saves labour, whilst improved stoves keep pots from becoming sooty because the wood bums well and there is no need for tedious scouring of blackened pot bottoms. „Free" time can be used for productive purposes such as work, as well as for relaxation or better care for the children. The benefits to a woman in terms of health and well-being extend to her family as a whole.
The importance of lightening women's workload should not be underestimated. Women stove-builders and stove-users have the experience of working together and freely articulating their thoughts and ideas in the framework of meetings and educational events. This helps raise their level of self-esteem and they are able to tackle other situations and tasks with more self-assurance.
Organizations for women are also an important source of reinforcement. Stove activities often provide a specific reason for women to organize informal or formal groups. Stove-building is then often followed by other topics and tasks to be tackled by the women in their groups. Household energy can thus serve as an introduction to further development processes. In sum, health and household energy programmes can be related to issues of women's time, women's workload, women's status, women's health, women's educational opportunities, women's integration into the development process, and women's empowerment. They thus provide a broad platform through which integrated development can be achieved.
The urban share of the population of developing countries has risen sharply in recent years and is still on the rise. The rapid growth of urban areas leads to environmental pollution and health risks as well as social problems. In Rio, the international community was able to agree on the kinds of measures that should be taken.
The design and construction of dwellings is of prime importance, with clean and efficient energy use, and appropriate local construction materials being important considerations. Improved kitchen systems are an important factor. They must not only meet the needs of women in terms of hygiene and ergonomics, but also take their particular food and cooking habits into consideration. Local women must be involved in the design and planning processes.
What has been learned from household energy projects about kitchen ventilation and the use of certain building materials is only slowly finding its way into the planning and design of housing construction programmes. The cooking process - the individual work-steps, from food preparation to dish-washing - is not taken into account often enough in the architectural planning of simple settlements, and greater investment in education at all levels is needed, as is a need to develop research and training within a - multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral framework.
Integrated kitchen systems make food preparation easier - hot, heavy pots do not have to be lifted from the floor when stoves are installed at table-level, kitchens are easier to keep clean, and the women do not have to stand over an open fire while doing the cooking.
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Lund University's Work on Sustainable Settlement Development and Energy The School of Architecture at Lund University works with sustainable settlements development in terms of research, training and education. Research has highlighted the importance of developing an understanding of the relations between energy demand, architectural design, building materials and indoor climate. The aim has been to obtain an acceptable indoor climate and air quality without extra energy input. The approach integrates data from the following areas: * Building materials - their insulating and ventilation qualities and the energy needed to manufacture and/or transport and mount them. Careful analysis is needed of cost and durability, and the benefits and multiplier effects to be obtained for local economies from local production. * The design and orientation of a building and how the building itself can affect air quality, indoor climate and energy consumption. Research in Tunisia, Algeria and Vietnam aims at designing buildings in which the residents do not need to use auxiliary energy for heating and cooling. * The amount and modes of energy use in the daily lives of the householders, and studies on how that energy interacts with the living environment. The Kitchen - a Key Issue The kitchen is a centre of both energy use and indoor pollution in the home, and in developing countries it will usually be the part of the house consuming the most energy. Studies have shown that women and children suffer from sooty, smoky and dirty kitchens and have highlighted the health effects of indoor air pollution. The placement of the stove in the kitchen and the placement of the kitchen in the home are key factors for a good indoor environment, but so far very little attention has been paid to them by residents or builders, architects or climatologists. The need is to find a combination of economical stove, a user-friendly kitchen and healthy indoor environment. A laboratory in Hanoi has been established, with an experimental building consisting of twin flats that permit realistic and comparable tests of kitchen systems. The results of the studies are the base for upgrading the Vietnamese building regulations and the introduction of a kitchen standard. - LCHS |
In over-populated areas, the basic human necessities are at especially high risk. For this reason, Agenda 21 calls for:
* more intensive analysis and information regarding the reciprocal effects of population dynamics and sustainable development;* the formulation of integrated national environmental and development policies with consideration for demographic factors and trends;
* the implementation of integrated environmental and development programmes at local level with consideration for demographic factors.
A special problem in this connection is posed by heavy flows of refugees, which may suddenly take shape as a result of war or environmental disruptions, putting massive pressure on the ecosystems. Millions of refugees have been displaced in developing countries. They usually settle in neighbouring countries with poverty-related problems similar to their own.
Refugee camps with hundreds of thousands of people have sprung up in parts of Africa and Asia. The level of resource consumption is extremely high, and the ecosystems have only a limited capacity to withstand this pressure. More efficient fuel-firing can help to cover basic needs related to heating and cooking for longer periods of time, while alleviating the pressure on biomass resources at the same time. Emergency relief provided by GTZ includes household energy measures, since the high population pressure can drive the household energy demand in the camps up to a scale on the order of a medium-sized town, with stocks of wood and biomass in the immediate vicinity being quickly depleted.
GTZ's activities in refugee camps in Kenya focus on activities which are beneficial for the refugees not only while they are in the camps but also after they return to their homelands, while benefitting the local population at the same time.
In view of the minimal purchasing power on the part of refugees, a system has been developed in which the acquisition of improved household technologies and kitchen management methods are linked to other modalities of exchange (trees for stoves), which, in turn, are linked as much as possible to rehabilitation of the environment. Resource conservation measures (establishing tree nurseries, live fencing around the camps, experimental plantations and greenbelts, production centres, etc.) have been designed and organised in such a way that they can be integrated into the local development planning process and eventually continued by the indigenous population.
FAO is providing technical assistance to several governments for the sustainable production and efficient use of woodfuel for refugee camps from Rwanda and Sudan. A large number of activities are undertaken in this area focusing on forest management, charcoal production, woodfuel distribution and marketing for refugees.
Within Agenda 21's Chapter 6, Section E calls for „Reducing Health Risks from Environmental Pollution and Hazards". Section E stresses that in many areas of the world, the general environment, workplaces, and even individual dwellings, are so badly polluted that the health of hundreds of millions of people is adversely affected. It goes on to specify that national action programmes, with international assistance, should address issues of indoor air pollution through research, intervention, and health education. The overall approach to the promotion of health stresses prevention rather than alleviation or treatment of illness and disease. Children, young people and women are especially at risk from negative environmental effects. The poor state of health is attributable to poverty, substandard living conditions and difficult working conditions. Household energy programmes demonstrate various ways of protecting health. Improved stoves, ovens and kitchen systems help to prevent illness and injury.
When the three-stone fire is utilized, the air in the kitchen is often filled with smoke, which can lead to eye infections and respiratory diseases. Infants and toddlers usually stay close to their mothers in the kitchen and breathe in the same polluted air. This is especially hazardous to the health of children, and may lead to increased susceptibility to acute infections of the respiratory tract - one of the most frequent cause of death in children in developing countries. Toxic fumes have an especially deleterious effect on unborn children, since pregnant mothers cannot neglect their duties in the kitchen.
Correctly maintained and used, improved stoves reduce the side-effects of smoke because less fuel is burned, cooking times are shortened and the efficiency of combustion is improved. In kitchens with vents, or integrated kitchen systems, better ventilation reduces the amount and side-effects of indoor smoke.
A result of fuelwood shortage in a few regions is that the usual number of warm meals per day or the usual dishes can no longer be prepared, which can lead to malnutrition. Here again, women and children are the first to suffer the consequences. Nutritional deficiencies have negative effects on physical and mental development, reducing productivity and concentration.
In a few cases, women have reduced the consumption of fuelwood per meal by using improved stoves, enabling them to revert to preparing the usual number of warm meals. In these cases, families' nutrition benefitted considerably from use of the stoves, even if the consumption of fuelwood was not reduced in absolute terms.
Some projects have combined household energy consultancy with nutritional extension services. During sensitization measures and cooking events, the wood-savings achieved with improved stoves are demonstrated, and the need for a balanced diet can be pointed out at the same time. Comparative cooking demonstrations where the same dish is prepared on various stove types and on the three-stone fire are also a good opportunity to provide information about the preparation and nutritional value of the individual fresh fruit or vegetables.
Where the use of an improved stove significantly reduces the amount of energy consumed for an individual cooking process, more fuelwood becomes available for women to boil water for drinking. 200 million people in the world are exposed to the risks and effects of diarrhoea from contaminated drinking water and food. These diseases are a cause of death in over 5 million children per year, and the boiling of drinking water is a preventive measure which can help people to live healthier lives.
The same is true of physical and kitchen hygiene. Water used for washing is heated to prevent infections, particularly in hot climates. Transmission of diseases from the use of unhygienic cooking conditions and utensils can be reduced. The prerequisite is that the private households have a sufficient supply of firewood and also make use of it to heat water.
Burns often occur on the open three-stone fire when handling heavy pots and embers. Children are injured by embers or while carelessly playing near the fire. The fire hazard is high, and a fire may easily burn down a whole hut. Stove models made of mud, metal or ceramics shield the flame and also reduce the risks of fire and burns.
In the past, the emphasis of environmental health work was almost solely directed to issues of water and sanitation, to the neglect of other pressing problems. The adoption of a broader „health and environment" approach since UNCED has permitted many other issues to come to the fore, among them the question of household energy supply and use, and the range of associated health issues which go beyond the respiratory diseases recognized as the main health problem associated with exposure to indoor air pollution.
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WHO'S Work on Health and Household Energy WHO is not normally a funding or implementing agency, but has technical, normative, and policy functions. However, it is timely and appropriate for WHO to answer the call to a broader interpretation of health and environment issues. This has offered the opportunity to become involved in issues of household energy, which have significant direct and indirect health impacts and require close interlinkages with work in other sectors. Work linking health issues with household energy issues has been ongoing since 1992 in two countries - Ethiopia and Vietnam. In Ethiopia, basic preparatory work has taken place in anticipation of a joint GTZ/WHO applied research and intervention programme on health and household energy. This includes training on combustion efficiency and testing, training intersectoral teams of health and agricultural extension workers on domestic energy and home improvement issues, obtaining preliminary data on indoor air pollution levels in - dung-burning households in Tigrai region, and carrying out a baseline survey of domestic fuel use patterns and health status in several villages of Tigrai. Design and production of simple education materials on health and household energy issues will be carried out by the end of 1995. All activities focus on enhancing national capacity-building in this area and developing human resources. Applied research uses a participatory approach to ensure compatibility with end-user needs. In Vietnam, the focus to date has been on health education activities, attempting to bring to the attention of broad masses of people in a state of social transition, through audio-visual and printed materials, the importance of the poorly-understood health risks associated with domestic coal and biomass use, and the choices they can exercise in making their dwellings safer and healthier places. This work has been carried out in conjunction with the Lund Centre for Habitat Studies, Lund University, Sweden. New Initiatives Since UNCED, new work on biomass fuel and domestic energy has been started in Nepal and Jordan to strengthen joint health and environment planning. Four countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region plan to hold workshops around domestic fuel and pollution issues, to focus on community-based interventions. It is hoped that this work can be carried on and extended in coming years in the form of broad collaboration with other partners such as GTZ, ARECOP, and FAO, over the researching, testing and implementation of a package of interventions for Rural Kitchen Improvement in several south Asian countries. The work is expected to start in the latter part of 1995 with a national workshop in Vietnam. The preparatory activities and findings of this workshop are expected to pave the way for similar activities in other countries of the region. Further involvement on the part of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific is expected. - WHO |
Formal and informal organizations as well as self-help movements are regarded as important partners in the implementation of Agenda 21. At the Rio Conference, the independence of non-governmental organizations was highlighted as an important quality criterion.
Household energy programmes cooperate with non-governmental organizations in various countries. Since the overall trend is moving away from execution by the funders of projects themselves in favour of consultancy, NGOs are performing the dissemination work to an increasing extent. Household energy programmes strengthen NGOs in various respects by:
* making know-how and material on household energy available;* providing advisory services in management and organization;
* networking at regional, national and international level;
* integrating the NGOs into existing structures with partner organizations, as well as regional and local authorities.
With some rare exceptions, most Southern NGOs are linked to a project financed directly or indirectly by Northern organisations. Once the project has ended, these NGOs very often face a great deal of difficulty since they rely heavily on few projects and one or two main donors.
It is necessary to ensure the sustainability of some credible and competent NGOs by helping them develop and implement a plan of action over the long term. Specific strategies need to be tailored according to the variety of southern NGOs.
The sustainability of southern NGOs is of fundamental importance since they are capable of putting pressure on states over crucial environmental issues. Biomass and household energy issues were first raised by NGOs in the late 1960s, and it is more and more obvious that this critical approach and the role of NGOs as representatives of the civic society might be lost if they are not strengthened in their day-today action.
One of the main channels should be closer cooperation. Support for local projects is just part of the overall process of development and the tasks of informing and influencing are increasingly playing an important role. Since the funding of macro policies involves northern bilateral and multilateral organisations, NGOs' points of view are all the more taken into account when influencing work is carried out jointly by northern and southern NGOs.
This necessary cooperation implies reciprocal commitments. The kind of support requested (methodological, managerial, technical, financial), should be primarily the responsibility of southern NGOs. The monitoring role remains crucial since both are accountable for money raised in northern countries.
Linkages with networks in the North as well as in the South should give more effectiveness to NGOs' networks. The identification of one or two networks on biomass energy and more systematic linkages might give more efficiency to the work carried out by these organisations.
