Improved Cookstove Adoption and Disadoption

Investigator: 
Carlos Gould
Advisor: 
Robert Bailis
Start Date: 
September, 2014
Description: 

My senior thesis is to analyze factors surrounding improved cookstove adoption and disadoption using Proyecto Mirador in Honduras as a case study. Using their comprehensive database of interventions dating back 10 years with geospatial components I will analyze changes within the NGO as well as regional and temporal differences as they relate adoption and subsequent disadoption of stoves. While 3 billion people around the world still cook with biomass and there is indisputable evidence citing this as an issue not only for health but also in terms of rural energy scarcity, cookstove interventions still fail regularly. Studying the reasons for adoption and disadoption with a particular eye to spatial reasons and mapping data could prove fruitful for Proyecto Mirador in addition to other NGOs.