Women and Energy

Where do the coffee husks for the briquettes come from?

Dry coffee husks are a byproduct of natural, sun-dried coffee production and are available everywhere in the region due to production of local wild coffee. Before the project, this resource had not been utilised in Bonga and its surrounding areas. The husks were simply burnt on the premises of the processing plants, releasing harmful smoke, greenhouse gases and pollution which entered the groundwater.

With our project, briquettes made of carbonised coffee husks from small family businesses were not only promoted in local and regional markets, but also found their way into everyday businesses of street food vendors, coffeeshops, homesteads and civil society organisations. The family-run businesses that produce the coffee husks have contracts with the Coffee Union in Bonga.

Through creating awareness and changing everyday habits from burning wood to coffee husk briquettes as fuel, NABU contributed to the sustainable development of the region and made Bonga a role model in alternative energy production and waste management.

What are the benefits of using coffee husk briquettes?

Increasing the use of coffee husk briquettes automatically reduces the need to use firewood and thus lessens the anthropogenic pressure on forests. In this way, greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation can be reduced. The project increased awareness around the importance of forest protection and alternative energy sources. 

What role did women play in the project?

As in many places on the planet, women are the primary user group interacting with natural resources in Bonga and surrounding areas. Therefore, local women played a key role in promoting coffee husk briquettes and are hence key stakeholders in the introduction of coffee husk briquettes to society.  

Beneficiaries were selected based on criteria jointly developed with local stakeholders from civil society, government and traditional social institutions.

136 women received training on environmentally friendly, sustainable and alternative energy usage, business creation and management. 71 women who showed high potential and interest to incorporate the briquettes into a business were selected for extra support to create their own micro-enterprise. Members of the Bonga Birhan Tesfa HIV Positive Association (19 women and 3 men) were selected as promoters of coffee husk briquettes.

What did we achieve with the project?

The project was highly successful, contributing to the strengthening of local (women's) associations and structures, supporting awareness-raising for renewable energy use among more than 8,000 people from all parts of society, and contributing significantly to the implementation of the Ethiopian government's green development strategy (including Climate Resilience and Green Economy Strategy, CRGE). It also supports the fulfilment of national guidelines, especially in the field of environmental and energy policy, which aims at green development with zero carbon emissions by 2030.

During the project period, NABU collaborated intensely with other actors in the region. Bonga's population nowadays is an outstanding example of high acceptance of and demand for briquettes from coffee husks. In other regions, amid similar problems with energy sources and usage, the unfamiliarity of these briquettes have made attempts to use coffee husks as a sustainable energy source difficult.