Brian Smyser, the first Peace Corps Master’s International student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), is serving in Malawi in Peace Corps’ environmental sector. His primary work focuses on two projects: promoting climate stewardship and sustainable entrepreneurship through improved stoves; and infusing improved building practices for sustainability in community planning efforts to build a secondary school.
Since arriving to his post in April 2011, Smyser has been coordinating with a local NGO and an ecosystem services company to establish a program to promote locally-made, energy efficient cook-stoves in rural Malawian villages. The program features the training of community-selected HIV orphans in establishing socially responsible small businesses with a focus on stove manufacturing, environmental education and entrepreneurship.
SNRE’s Peace Corps Master’s program was established in fall 2010. Masters International students receive six credits, the equivalent to a master’s project or thesis, for their work with the Corps.
Could you describe the village in which you're living?
I am nestled in the mountains of the Rift Valley in northwestern Malawi about 18 miles to the east of the Malawi-Zambia border, My village, Luviri, is situated in the Nkhamanga valley between Nyika National Park and Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, two large protected areas in Malawi and has about 1,600 people.
The area is confronted with a number of challenges that include economic, environmental and health issues. Residents rely heavily on subsistence agriculture focused on maize production, in addition to raising tobacco as a cash crop. Prices for tobacco have, however, mostly plummeted in Malawi this year placing severe strain on national, local, and household economics. Major infrastructure difficulties also exist with transportation and access to energy and water resources. The trading center of Bolero is my most accessible electricity source, about 7 miles from my village. My village is about 18 miles from the nearest paved road.
Due to the difficulties of transportation, rural areas in Malawi are confronted with higher living expenses than many more-urbanized areas, while also having fewer opportunities for income generation and jobs. Firewood is the mostly commonly used energy resourced but is rapidly diminishing, forcing people to travel high into the mountains to access fuel. These strenuous physical activities, coupled with high pollutant levels in village kitchens resulting from firewood use, have adverse health effects on a population already facing major health risks. HIV rates are about 14% in Malawi, and the life expectancy is under 40.
What is the NGO to which you are assigned?
The NGO with which I’m working is the Eva Demaya Centre, a local NGO supported by a Netherlands-based foundation. The organization is composed almost entirely of Malawians and focuses on a number of rural development projects ranging from health care to micro-credit to environmental protection. The stove project that we’ve initiated is a fusion between the Centre’s environmental protection and vocational training efforts. The Eva Demaya Centre is in its 10th year and has work closely with the surrounding community, so its reputation has helped to serve as the foundation upon which our trainees are able to build their businesses.
What's the stove project?
The stove project is aimed at decentralizing the production of improved cook-stoves in order to enhance the ability of rural villagers to access efficient, healthy, and affordable cooking technology. The project is a collaboration that I’ve spearheaded between a local NGO, the Eva Demaya Centre, and an ecosystem services company, Hestian Rural Innovation Development.
The parts for the stoves are made at a production center housed at the NGO using a manually-powered press and an improved kiln design, in which pressed ceramic rings are fired after curing. These stove parts are then sold to our independent trained stove installers. To sustainably finance the project, the parts are sold for about one-third the stove’s value to recover production costs while allowing a significant profit margin for the trainees’ business growth. The rings stack to form the stove’s combustion chamber. Locally available burnt bricks are used to construct the remainder of the stove’s body, which the installers build in the kitchens of customers while training them in the stove’s proper use and maintenance.
Our target is to install the stoves in hundreds of households throughout Rumphi. When the training is finished at the end of August, we hope to utilize a sustainable financing mechanism that keeps the stoves both profitable for the independent businesses, and affordable for rural villagers—they are valued at 2,500 Malawian Kwacha, which is about $15—without subsidization beyond start-up business costs.
What are the stoves replacing and what makes them more efficient?
Traditional biomass cooking practices in Malawi consist of three stones or bricks upon which a pot is rested and a fire built underneath. This method uses fuel inefficiently due to poor combustion and energy loss through misdirected heat. Additionally, traditional cooking practices are a major health concern in rural Africa as indoor air pollution from burning biomass fuels poses large risks to the health of many women and children who spend large portion of their days in kitchens.
Compared to traditional practices, the Esperanza stove that we are working to distribute offers a range of advantages for cooking, household economics, the environment and human health. The design and materials focus heat to create an efficient fire and increase the speed of heat transfer to the pot. With a basic design, a vacuum takes in air which is circulated and preheated around the exterior of the hot combustion chamber before entering the chamber underneath the fire with both increased temperature and speed. This improves the energy transfer from air to pot, while making combustion more complete and producing less smoke. The body of the stove also protects against burns and other injuries that are commonly incurred with traditional three-stone cooking practices.
What’s the status of the project?
Over the past four months we've established our decentralized production center at the NGO and implemented our training of area entrepreneurs. Next week is the eleventh week of a 15-week training that I have been designing, in addition to teaching its environmental sessions. The focus is the establishment of socially-responsible small businesses that are based on the promotion and installation of the Esperanza stove in their home villages.
We currently have eight trainees from throughout Rumphi District. These trainees have been chosen by villages in collaboration with the Eva Demaya Centre, allowing the project to quickly establish a trustworthy reputation with community members. Our trainees are currently engaged setting up the foundations of their business plans as they prepare to independently operate starting in September. For future trainings, we hope to further target other areas with relatively high populations and fuel availability constraints.
How does this project relate to your academic work at SNRE?
I’ve been able to directly link my sustainable systems and urban planning coursework to my Peace Corps environmental projects. I’m interested in sustainable energy practices and their applications to the built environment and human habitats. Working with stoves directly addresses the sustainable management and use of Malawi’s primary energy resource, in addition to local health, economic, and land use challenges. This fits closely with my studies at both SNRE and Taubman College. Additionally, the dynamics of the project have given me an interesting insight into the different perspectives (village, government, NGO and for-profit company) on international work and development strategies.
Furthermore, the project’s relationship with an ecosystem services company has enhanced my understanding of carbon markets and clean development schemes. In exchange for the low cost transfer of previously inaccessible, improved cooking technology to rural Malawians, each stove purchaser transfers the carbon reduction rights attached to the stove to the ecosystem services group. This sustains their work and further project expansion. They benefit through sales on the carbon market, while recovering costs incurred by providing the press technology for the stove parts and technical expertise at no cost. The stove’s end-user benefits by having access to an otherwise unavailable cooking technology that protects their health and the environment while offering significant economic and time savings. The NGO benefits by meeting its stated goals of environmental protection and community support, while empowering a number of young adults with financial independence and skills in local environmental and business leadership.