Impacts of results-based financing improved cookstove intervention on households' livelihood: Evidence from Ethiopia

Renewable energies are essential policy discourses based on their dual capacity to enhance livelihoods, forest management, and climate change mitigation. This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of improved cookstove (ICS) dissemination on the improvements of households' livelihood from the results-based financing (RBF) mechanism under reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) intervention program in the Gedeb Asassa district, Ethiopia. Data were collected from 190 households through household survey, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The results revealed that the RBF scheme brought a reduction in fuelwood collection time and consumption, lessened fuel expenditure, income improvement, saved cooking time, educated youth, diminished indoor air pollution, and improved health conditions. Results from propensity score matching indicated that dissemination of the ICS through the RBF scheme had significantly boosted the livelihood of the ICS user households over non-user households on annual income by Ethiopian Birr (ETB) 10,411.56. The program reduces average fuelwood consumption by 1.80 kg and fuel expenditure by ETB 34.77 of user households over the non-user households. Landholding size, distance to forest, distance to market, and awareness had significant effects on the adoption and use of ICS. The finding recommends that ICS dissemination through RBF programs should consider and incorporate forest access areas into their strategies intersecting with local contexts. The study further suggested the consideration of alternative livelihood for forest-dependent communities in the energy and forest policies.