Mission: Anomena exists to ensure best practices for improved livelihood and quality of life by increasing access to clean energy sources to promote household safety and environmental sustainability, while pursuing integrity, excellence, professionalism and reliability in service delivery. It stimulates the provision of training for women in technologies to enable them become effective energy entrepreneurs as well as develop skills to reduce poverty through general trading and service provision. HIV/AIDS education is undertaken in collaboration with other institutions.
Anomena commits to improve health, livelihood and quality of life by increasing access to clean, safe household, institutions, street food vendors’ and community energy technologies. Based on this initiative street food vendors and women entrepreneurs operating from homes have been supplied with LPG stoves to empower them economically and save them from smoke inhalation as well as have clean working environment.
Contact Information
Our Focus
Dissemination of LPG stoves has been started. Education on Gender and HIV/AIDS has been initiated in target communities. The initiative targets households using traditional forms of fuel and all street food vendors in Ghana without improved stoves starting from Tema. Women agro-processors in rural communities have also been targeted. These women play major roles in the small-scale sector not just as employees and self employed part time workers, but as entrepreneurs who cater indirectly to the bulk of workers in the formal sectors. They cook from the homes and carry the food for sale outside the homes. The operations of these women could be strengthened through the provision of improved clean energy sources. The stoves are provided and payment is done by installment. Awareness on climate change issues for rural/urban women has been done for fifty women and some have received LPG stoves already. Thus fifty women street food vendors and heads of households were sensitized with the support from the Ministry of Local Government.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
A number of socio-cultural factors prevent integration of women entrepreneurs and their transition from the informal to the formal sector of Ghana's economy. The women have been encouraged to use improved stoves to cut down on the use of biomass fuels. Most rural women involved in this pilot project have no regular income and the low income they earn, is inadequate to meet the needs of their households. Awareness on climate change issues for rural/urban women has been done. The promotion of clean energy businesses impacts the life of women and children who are mostly affected by the use of traditional energy sources such as firewood. The use of improved cook stoves saves women the time, fuel cost and stress in using traditional stoves which are less efficient. Consumers of clean energy have improved lives, save time and cost of fuel while enjoying a more efficient energy service/product free from smoke inhalation.
Women basically lack access to credit and the savings needed for the equity payment required to purchase improve stoves for their work. Lack of land and physical infrastructure hinders their access to loan but our experience has shown that the women are able to payback when they are given the stoves and allowed to pay by installment. Illiteracy and lack of business and marketing skills hinders the work.
Women have less access to formal channels that provide comprehensive skills training in the use of stoves. They use family or neighborhood channels to obtain informal skills training thus a targeted approach must be used in gender mainstreaming at the initial level. They do not have adequate time to invest in training because of unequal distribution of labor within the household. Sequential gender sensitisation prorammes are used to sensitise them and impart in them the sense of self confidence and assertiveness.
Facilitation of women's equal access to resources, markets and trade could be done through paying special attention to women's needs when disseminating market, trade and resource information with the requisite training in these areas. Women's existing time schedules must be taken into consideration when planning such programmes. The forum of networking has been used effectively to enable the women who acquire knowledge to share with their colleagues. Strengthening of women's economic capacity and commercial networks is achieved by promoting technical and commercial links.
Technology standardisation enables the development of women friendly and affordable technologies in collaboration with relevant agencies. Standardisation reduces the amount of biomass fuel used. Smoke is eliminated and a lot could be cooked within a shorter time interval. Any knowledge transfer in technology standardisation would be appreciated.
Follow ups and data gathering is used. Capacity building in monitoring and evaluation will be appreciated.
Relevant Publications or Studies
A publication on the basic concepts of gender has been developed.
Our Contribution to the Partnership
ANOMENA is capable of handling gender sensitisation programmes in households and communities using the improved stoves as well as institutional gender mainstreaming of local authorities in the targeted areas to enable the LA support of the work of women. Construction of the improved stoves could be done and others copied to suit local demands. Linkage with international agencies.
