From Fuel to Pot: an interdisciplinary partnership to address the role of solid fuel use in food preparation in the household in Kenya and Malawi

在这个项目中，我们想了解为什么肯尼亚和马拉维的贫民窟和定居点的人们使用固体燃料，如木材、木炭、煤和动物粪便做饭，因为这对他们的健康有害，这样我们就可以制定干预措施来改善这种情况。这是粮食系统的一个关键方面，因为世界上有30多亿人使用固体燃料做饭，因为固体燃料往往是唯一可用的燃料或他们唯一负担得起的燃料。受影响最严重的是那些贫民窟和定居点的穷人，他们负担不起连接电网以满足烹饪需求的费用，并且生活在通风有限的拥挤空间中。世界上每年有380万人死于室内空气污染，5岁以下儿童中50%的肺炎死亡是由室内空气污染造成的。这是因为孩子们做饭的时候经常和妈妈呆在一起。获取燃料——例如，采摘大捆木头——也有可能损害他们正在生长的身体，并使年轻人无法上学和社交。妇女和女孩受到的影响尤其严重，因为她们是家庭中通常收集做饭用燃料（如木材）的人，也是大多数低收入国家做饭的人。迄今为止，大多数研究都采用了改进的炉灶（需要较少木材或木炭的炉灶）来减少固体燃料的使用，但干预措施往往失败，因为它们没有考虑到使用固体燃料烹饪是一个复杂的问题，与当地社区、文化和社区历史中公认的行为和信仰有关。该项目将通过在英国、肯尼亚和马拉维建立跨学科伙伴关系来填补这一空白。通过社区成员、政府代表、非政府组织、传统领导人的这种伙伴关系，我们将确定使用固体燃料烹饪的哪些方面对当地社区最重要，以及可以在哪些方面作出一些改变，以改善人民的福祉和健康。我们将进行这些活动：活动1侧重于团队内部相互学习，并培训肯尼亚和马拉维的当地研究助理，了解活动2中使用的各种研究方法。我们还将会见活动2的两个目标社区（即穆库鲁贫民窟（肯尼亚内罗毕）和恩德兰德非正式定居点（马拉维布兰太尔））的酋长和社区代表。我们将举办建立伙伴关系的活动，与政府代表、决策者、地方酋长、宗教领袖、学者和非政府组织等相关利益攸关方讨论问题。活动2将使用各种研究方法来了解Mukuru和Ndirande“燃料到锅”的信仰和经历。各种方法包括使用照片和步行采访来捕捉日常烹饪经历，测量烹饪时的空气污染以及“点”摄影，即在照片上使用光点来显示烹饪时产生的烟雾浓度以及它如何损害你的健康。在活动3中，将总结活动2中收集的数据并反馈给Mukuru和Ndirande的社区成员，通过各种技术以更直观的方式（人们受教育程度较低的地方）展示数据，并激发进一步的讨论，例如由当地艺术家制作的海报/图纸的弹出式展览、视频、点摄影。在活动1中确定的相关利益相关者也将被邀请分享和参与活动3的讨论。活动4包括在肯尼亚和马拉维举行的伙伴关系会议，与活动1中确定的相关利益攸关方和任何新的利益攸关方讨论调查结果和下一步设计干预措施，与非正式住区社区一起，解决与使用固体燃料烹饪有关的最紧迫问题。这将导致该伙伴关系申请其他资金，在肯尼亚和马拉维发展和试点干预措施，以改善这些社区的生活。

In this project, we want to understand why people in slums and settlements in Kenya and Malawi cook using solid fuel like wood, charcoal, coal and animal dung, given that it is bad for their health, so that we can develop interventions to improve the situation. This is a key aspect of the food system because more than 3 billion people in the world cook with solid fuels, since they are often the only fuel available or the only one they can afford. The people most affected are poor people in those slums and settlements who cannot afford to connect to the grid for their cooking needs, and live in crowded spaces with limited ventilation for cooking. 3.8 million deaths every year in the world happen due to household air pollution (HAP) and it is also responsible for 50% of pneumonia deaths in children under 5. This is because children often stay close to their mothers when they cook. Getting fuel - e.g., picking large bundles of wood- also risk damaging their growing bodies and takes young people away from schooling and socialising. Women and girls are particularly affected as they are the people in the household who usually collect fuel ( e.g. wood) for cooking and also those who cook in most low income countries. Most studies to date have introduced improved cookstoves ( stoves that require less wood or charcoal) to reduce solid fuel use, but often interventions fail because they do not take into account the fact that cooking on solid fuel is a complex issue related to the accepted behaviours and beliefs within the local community, culture and community histories. This project will fill this gap through building an interdisciplinary Partnership across the UK, Kenya and Malawi. With this Partnership of community members, government representatives, NGOs, traditional leaders, we will identify which aspects of cooking on solid fuels are most important to local communities and where some changes can be made to improve people's well being and health. We will carry these activities:ACTIVITY 1 focuses on learning from each other within the Team and training to local research assistants in Kenya and Malawi on the various research methods to be used in Activity 2. We will also meet with Chiefs and community representatives of the two target communities for Activity 2 (i.e. Mukuru slum (Nairobi, Kenya) and Ndirande informal settlement (Blantyre, Malawi)). We will hold partnership building events to discuss the issues with relevant stakeholders: government representatives, policy makers, local chiefs, religious leaders, academics and NGOs. ACTIVITY 2 will use various research methods to understand the beliefs and experiences of the 'fuel to pot' in Mukuru and Ndirande. The various methods include using photos and walking interviews to capture daily cooking experiences, measuring air pollution while cooking and 'dots' photography, which uses dots of lights on photos to show the smoke concentration produced while cooking and how it can damage your health.During ACTIVITY 3 the data gathered in Activity 2 will be summarised and fed back to the community members of Mukuru and Ndirande, through various techniques to show data in a more visual way ( where people are less literate) and stimulate further discussion, such as pop-up exhibitions of posters/drawings made by local artists, videos, dots photography. Relevant stakeholders identified in Activity 1 will also be invited to share and participate in the discussions in Activity 3. ACTIVITY 4 consists of partnership meetings in Kenya and Malawi to discuss, with relevant stakeholders identified in Activity 1 and any new ones, the findings and next steps to design interventions, together with the informal settlements communities, to address the most urgent aspects related to cooking with solid fuel usage. This will lead to the partnership applying for other funding to develop and pilot the intervention in Kenya and Malawi to improve the lives of those communities.