Crisis for fuel wood has always been a serious problem in rural Ethiopia especially in the districts of the Gamo zone of SNNPR. So much so, that scarcity of firewood in the region has compelled the local population to rely heavily on the nearby forest areas for meeting their daily requirement of fuel wood. Some collect it for use at home for cooking, while others sell it in the local markets as fuel wood. Due to heavy dependence on the forests, Ethiopia’s already thinning forest cover has receded significantly over the past decade. Also, rampant burning of wood pollutes the air and directly contributes to air pollution.

The local rural communities burn wood in primitive three stone stoves or Sost Gulichas. These outdated cooking methods are very wasteful and most of the heat from burning the firewood is lost and very little is actually utilized. The alternative to Sost Gulichas is a modernized version of simple stove called ICS or Improved Cook Stoves, made of reinforced cement and iron rods and which costs at least 350 Birr or around 6 US Dollars. Now, the problem is that most ofthe population in this region is very poor and cannot afford to pay the money upfrontDevelopment of the approach of ‘Community Led Total Adoption of Improved CookStoves (CLT-Stoves)’ was initiated in the year 2018 and was jointly led by Vita and CLTSFoundation Global in rural Ethiopia.Number of government andnon-government partners collaborated in the initiative. The objective of this initiative was to facilitate the local population to adopt Improved Cookstoves. They were trained on cleaner and efficient methods of cooking.

A training of trainers on improved cookstove was conducted in Arba Minch in of May 2022. This training was participated by woreda and zonal level officials from the Government Departments of Women and Children Affairs; Environment,Forest,and Climate Change; Water, Irrigation and Energy, staff members of Vita, lecturers and teachers fromArba Minch University, Women cooperative leaders and community members from theketenas that were triggered as a part of the training.

The training was facilitated by Vita and CLTS Foundation Global. The purpose of this training workshop was to train the govt. and zonal level officials on the importance of CLT-S approach and how to empower the local population for smooth and fast transition from Sost Gulichas to Improved Cook Stoves.

The reasonwas to piggyback on CLTS approach for increasing the uptake of fuel-efficient cook stoves through reinforcing the basic principles ofattitude& behaviour change of CLTS.