Protection Empowerment Resilience
Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy (SAFE) Overview 2013
WFP/Maria Katajisto/Malawi
Background Lack of safe access to cooking fuel in humanitarian, transition and development settings has far-reaching consequences influencing food assistance outcomes, long-term food security, beneficiaries’ safety, dignity, health and livelihoods, women’s vulnerability to gender-based violence, and the environment. In March 2007, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Safe Access to Firewood and alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings (IASC Task Force on SAFE) was established to ‘reduce exposure to violence, contribute to the protection of and ease the burden on those populations collecting wood in humanitarian settings worldwide, through solutions which will promote safe access to appropriate energy and reduce environment impacts while ensuring accountability.’ The Task Force was co-chaired by WFP, the Women’s Refugee Commission, and UNHCR. Fourteen other IASC members and non-member agencies took part in creating guidance material on how to develop a coordinated, multi-sectoral fuel strategy for humanitarian settings. Participation of multiple agencies and areas of expertise at the highest interagency level was meant to ensure responses across multiple sectors of intervention, long-term sustainability, and implementation. At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December 2009, WFP committed to ‘work with its partners to make safe access to firewood and alternative energy a reality for half of its displaced beneficiary population through the Safe Access to Firewood and alternative Energy (SAFE) initiative by targeting WFP beneficiary households and WFPassisted schools’.
To date, SAFE has reached more than 2 million people in Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda
WFP’s SAFE Approach
Protection: safety and dignity
Fuel-efficient stoves and alternative cooking fuel solutions — combined with alternative livelihood opportunities — help to protect women and their families by reducing their need to collect firewood in unsafe areas where they are at risk of rape and violence.
Livelihoods
Firewood collection and charcoal burning and selling are risky unsustainable livelihood options often conducted by women in settings such as camps for displaced people. SAFE introduces alternative livelihoods through training and job creation, and it promotes sustainable agriculture practices leading to selfsufficient and resilient households.
Gender
Women and girls in settings such as refugee camps or living as internally displaced people (IDPs) are often responsible for collecting firewood to be used for cooking purposes and as a source of livelihood. They are often at risk of gender-based violence (GBV). SAFE not only helps to reduce exposure to risk of GBV, but also empowers women and girls through a set of activities for a safer, more productive, and sustainable way of life. It frees up time for women to focus on family -caregiving and income-generating activities to achieve food security and resilience in the household.
Health and nutrition
Indoor air pollution from burning solid fuel is one of the top ten global health risks according to the World Health Organization causing an estimated 1.6 million deaths per year. Fuel-efficient stoves drastically limit the amount of indoor air pollution created by cooking and protecting the health of families. They are also much less likely to burn women and children or set fire to homes.
Thanks to the combination of fuel-efficient stoves, alternative cooking fuel options, and income-generating activities, SAFE beneficiaries are less likely to sell, trade or undercook food rations.
Environment
Fuel-efficient stoves, alternative sources of energy, and livelihoods other than relying on firewood collecting reduce the need for fuel, thereby helping to mitigate the negative impacts of firewood collection on the environment. SAFE promotes environmental activities such as tree planting.
Education
In some parts of the world, including Darfur, it is common for children and their families to be asked to contribute cash or firewood for school meal preparation. Wood gathering can expose children to the risk of violence, while the cost of cooking fuel can be an obstacle to education. SAFE stoves in schools mean that children can focus on education instead of worrying about meeting these requirements. They also help to reduce firewood consumption and environmental degradation.
Printed: March 2013
Photo: front cover: WFP/Maria Katajisto/Malawi School Meals; back cover: WFP/Pia Skjelstad/Malawi Winter Cropping in Kasung District
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World Food Programme Via C.G. Viola, 68/70, 00148 Rome, Italy wfpinfo@wfp.org wfp.org/stories/darfur-women-graduate-safe-stoves-project