Burkina Faso women direct climate funds, reduce wood use
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In Burkina Faso, women in the community of Didyr identified improved cookstoves as a priority when deciding how to spend climate funding. Since the stoves were introduced, wood consumption has decreased by approximately 30 percent and cooking times have shortened by 26 to 30 percent.
The women recognized that gathering wood for traditional stoves was time-consuming and burdensome.
These new stoves, built with local materials like banco (a raw earth) and clay bricks, retain more heat and require less wood for the same amount of cooking. The LIFE-AR initiative, led by less developed countries, prioritizes giving local communities control over climate adaptation funding. In Burkina Faso, 70 percent of LIFE-AR resources are directed to investments chosen by pilot municipalities. This approach allows communities to address specific, everyday problems rather than relying on broad, externally-imposed solutions.
Beyond simply receiving the stoves, women in Didyr are learning to construct and distribute them themselves. Participants in training programs are now teaching others how to build the stoves and are producing the necessary clay bricks locally, ensuring the project’s sustainability and reducing reliance on outside assistance. A public tender was launched in March 2025 to install solar streetlights and improved stoves, with a budget of 21.75 million CFA francs.
