Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review

Three quarters of the population in Sub Saharan Africa lacks access to modern energy, and relies instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The environment and health implications of the use of biomass fuel has been widely documented in the literature, and has raised the topic of energy acces...

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Autores principales: Sola, P., Ochieng, C., Yila, Jummai Othniel, Iiyama, Miyuki
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94150
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author Sola, P.
Ochieng, C.
Yila, Jummai Othniel
Iiyama, Miyuki
author_browse Iiyama, Miyuki
Ochieng, C.
Sola, P.
Yila, Jummai Othniel
author_facet Sola, P.
Ochieng, C.
Yila, Jummai Othniel
Iiyama, Miyuki
author_sort Sola, P.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Three quarters of the population in Sub Saharan Africa lacks access to modern energy, and relies instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The environment and health implications of the use of biomass fuel has been widely documented in the literature, and has raised the topic of energy access in various policy and development arenas. Still, the impact of energy access on food security at the household level has not been explored in detail; consequently the two sectoral policies remain unaligned. Our aims for this review were to document how lack of access to energy can impact on food security through influence on dietary choices and cooking practices; and how reallocation of household resources from food to energy procurement causes a switch to biomass energy forms of lower grade. We searched the literature for published peer-reviewed articles available through major online publication databases, initially identifying 132 articles but finally reviewing a set of 19 that met our criteria. While most studies suggested that fuelwood scarcity can affect food security through three hypothesised pathways, very few of them provided empirical data to support this argument. Overall, the review found coping measures for woodfuel scarcity to be highly contextual and influenced by geography, household economy and labour availability. Due to the limited number of studies with detailed data, it was not possible to perform a comparative analysis that could support or refute a hypothesis that lack of access to energy can impact on food security. More rigorous studies on this topic are needed which could provide evidence for policy action.
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spelling CGSpace941502025-06-17T08:23:50Z Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review Sola, P. Ochieng, C. Yila, Jummai Othniel Iiyama, Miyuki energy consumption fuelwood food security nutrition Three quarters of the population in Sub Saharan Africa lacks access to modern energy, and relies instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The environment and health implications of the use of biomass fuel has been widely documented in the literature, and has raised the topic of energy access in various policy and development arenas. Still, the impact of energy access on food security at the household level has not been explored in detail; consequently the two sectoral policies remain unaligned. Our aims for this review were to document how lack of access to energy can impact on food security through influence on dietary choices and cooking practices; and how reallocation of household resources from food to energy procurement causes a switch to biomass energy forms of lower grade. We searched the literature for published peer-reviewed articles available through major online publication databases, initially identifying 132 articles but finally reviewing a set of 19 that met our criteria. While most studies suggested that fuelwood scarcity can affect food security through three hypothesised pathways, very few of them provided empirical data to support this argument. Overall, the review found coping measures for woodfuel scarcity to be highly contextual and influenced by geography, household economy and labour availability. Due to the limited number of studies with detailed data, it was not possible to perform a comparative analysis that could support or refute a hypothesis that lack of access to energy can impact on food security. More rigorous studies on this topic are needed which could provide evidence for policy action. 2016-06 2018-07-03T10:57:02Z 2018-07-03T10:57:02Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94150 en Open Access Springer Sola, P., Ochieng, C., Yila, J., Iiyama, M.. 2016. Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa : an exploratory review. Food Security, 8 (3) : 635-642. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0570-1
spellingShingle energy consumption
fuelwood
food security
nutrition
Sola, P.
Ochieng, C.
Yila, Jummai Othniel
Iiyama, Miyuki
Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title_full Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title_fullStr Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title_full_unstemmed Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title_short Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review
title_sort links between energy access and food security in sub saharan africa an exploratory review
topic energy consumption
fuelwood
food security
nutrition
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94150
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AT iiyamamiyuki linksbetweenenergyaccessandfoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaanexploratoryreview