The second goal formulated by the United Nations for sustainable development seeks to “End hunger by 2030” (sdg tracker)
By their definition this relates to the “prevalence of undernourishment” and “eradication of malnourishment” as the main indicators of this goal. Especially children in crises affected areas and refugee settlements are affected by these factors, which are defined and measured in terms of as “stunting” (“being too short for one’s age”), “wasting” (“being dangerously thin for one’s height”) and “underweight” (“low weight-for-age children”). (ourworldindata)
For children under the age of 5 years these numbers are extremely high in Central and East African countries. Taking Uganda as an example, though numbers have been decreasing, latest data from 2016 still shows that 28.9% of under 5 year olds in Uganda are stunted, and 3.5% are wasted. (sdg tracker)
How can the ECOCA electric solar cookstove help to achieve this goal?
Before receiving the ECOCA many families had to sell parts of their food rations in order to buy fuel such as wood, charcoal or diesel in order to make fire for cooking. This puts families in the situation to have to make a choice to trade food for the ability to cook. Because the ECOCA does not require any fuel, and is completely powered by the attached solar panel, families can 1) keep all food rations, providing more overall food for the family, and 2) do not need to buy fuel, which saves overall income that can be invested in more food or other household supplies.
2. Creates opportunities for sustainable agriculture
Furthermore, the access to an ECOCA solar cookstove contributes to indicator 2.4.1 “proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture”, as well as indicator 2.3. that measures the volume of agricultural produce per hour of labour, under target 2.3 “Double the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers”. Due to time (about 30 hours per month) and money saved from buying fuel and collecting firewood for making fires, families can use this time and money to grow own crops on their properties, helping to cultivate the land in a sustainable way, and supplying their families with a bigger variety of vegetables than the basic resources such as rice, covered by humanitarian aid organizations.
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