By Amrat Haji, AUBA Zanzibar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Efforts to expand access to clean cooking energy across Africa are gathering momentum, with Tanzania emerging as a key driver of change in a sector long dominated by charcoal and firewood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across much of the continent, millions of households still rely on traditional fuels for cooking, a practice linked to deforestation, indoor air pollution, and serious health risks. Women and children are disproportionately affected, spending long hours exposed to smoke from open fires and inefficient stoves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the United Nations, reliance on polluting cooking fuels remains widespread in Africa, contributing to respiratory illnesses and environmental degradation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has placed clean cooking energy at the center of her development agenda in Tanzania, promoting the use of gas and improved cookstoves as part of a broader push toward sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking in Dar es Salaam, she emphasised that the government is working to strengthen policy and legal frameworks, particularly to support small-scale food vendors known locally as mama lishe<\/em> and baba lishe<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government will continue to create a supportive policy and legal framework to recognise and support this group,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Authorities say the transition is intended not only to improve health outcomes, but also to ease the economic burden on households and reduce environmental pressure caused by deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of this initiative, the government has allocated more than 94 billion Tanzanian shillings to support small businesses, many of them led by women working in the informal food sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Fatuma Mohamed Salum, a food vendor in Zanzibar, the shift to gas cooking has changed the rhythm of her daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince I started using gas, I cook faster and serve customers on time. This has increased my earnings,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n What once required hours over a charcoal stove is now completed in less time, allowing her to serve more customers and reduce costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The impact of Tanzania\u2019s campaign is beginning to spread beyond its borders. In Goma part of Eastern DRC, one woman describes how radio awareness campaigns influenced her decision to switch to gas cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI used to spend a lot on charcoal, but now I use gas and spend less. I hope these campaigns reach rural areas as well,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Her story reflects a quiet but growing shift across parts of the continent, where information, rather than infrastructure alone, is beginning to change long-held habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across Africa, governments and development partners are increasingly investing in clean cooking solutions as part of efforts to address climate change, public health challenges, and gender inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the transition remains uneven. In many rural areas, access and affordability continue to slow adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, momentum is building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for many women, the change is deeply personal. It is not just about switching from charcoal to gas, it is about breathing cleaner air, saving time, and reclaiming energy for other parts of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Amrat Haji, AUBA Zanzibar Efforts to expand access to clean cooking energy across Africa are gathering momentum, with Tanzania emerging as a key driver of change in a sector long dominated by charcoal and firewood. Across much of the continent, millions of households still rely on traditional fuels for cooking, a practice linked to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17734,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17732\/revisions\/17734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auba.africa\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tanzania\u2019s policy push<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Women at the centre of change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A ripple effect beyond borders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The wider African reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n