Tanzanian School Launches Energy Club to Promote Clean Cooking

Deputy Minister for Energy, Salome Makamba, cooks during the launch of the project to distribute clean cooking energy in institutions serving more than 100 people, including 52 secondary schools. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
DODOMA, Tanzania , Mar 11 2026 (IPS)

A cloud of steam rises from a giant aluminium pot as Maria Joseph, a middle-aged cook in a toque blanche and faded apron, plants her feet firmly on the tiled kitchen floor. With both hands clasped around a wooden paddle, she plunges deep into the mound of rice, threatening to burn at the bottom.

With a steady lift of her wrists, she draws the grains upward in methodical turns, bringing the lower layer to the top. The rice rolls in soft waves  but never spills over the rim. Beads of sweat gather on her forehead as steam curls around her face. She does not flinch. She circles the paddle along the pot’s edge, scraping carefully, with the precision of a scalpel.

Not long ago, this same kitchen at Bunge Girls Secondary School in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, would have been engulfed in smoke. The air would sting her eyes and claw her throat. By lunchtime, her voice would rasp from hours over crackling firewood.

“The smoke was too much,” she says

“And it took a long time to prepare food,” she recalls.

Her relief tells a larger story, stretching beyond the kitchen walls.

Students’ Advocacy

As part of its broader push to promote clean cooking energy, Bunge Girls Secondary School has launched a student-led Energy and Clean Cooking Club, placing teenage girls at the centre of a national transition away from polluting fuels. The initiative links lived experience with policy reform, aligning closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By promoting affordable and cleaner fuels, the club advances SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy. By addressing indoor air pollution that kills thousands of Tanzanians each year, it supports SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-Being. By easing the disproportionate burden of firewood collection and smoke exposure on women and girls, it reinforces SDG 5 on Gender Equality.

The integration of energy literacy into school life strengthens SDG 4 on Quality Education, while reducing reliance on charcoal contributes to SDG 13 on Climate Action and SDG 15 on Life on Land by curbing deforestation. Through collaboration between government, schools and private actors, the initiative reflects SDG 17 on Partnerships for the Goals.

What makes the club distinctive is that it moves the clean cooking debate from ministerial boardrooms into teenage hands.

A Costly Dependence on Biomass

Headmaster Richard Msana remembers the strain of the old system.

“When we were using firewood, we spent 10.5 million Tanzanian shillings (about US$4,000) in just three months. It was a heavy burden for the school,” he says.

Desperate for relief, the school switched to improved charcoal. Smoke reduced slightly, but costs remained high.

“With improved charcoal, we were spending about 2,753,334 Tanzanian shillings (around US$1,000) every month,” Msana says. “It was still expensive.”

The turning point came under the government’s clean cooking initiative. Through a public–private partnership supported by the Ministry of Energy, the school secured a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system. One tonne of gas now lasts two months.

“Using gas, we have reduced our monthly costs from 2,753,334 to 1,355,300 shillings (about US$500),” Msana says. “It has saved us a lot of money. And this energy is friendly to users, especially our cooks.”

Inside the renovated kitchen, soot-stained walls have been cleaned. Pots boil over controlled blue flames instead of crackling embers.

Back at the stove, Maria lifts the lid and releases another rush of steam.

“I enjoy cooking using these modern stoves,” she says. “They don’t emit smoke. My eyes no longer itch.”

A National Target

During the club’s launch ceremony, Deputy Minister for Energy Salome Makamba laid out the government’s ambition.

“Our goal is that by 2030, every household and every institution will be using clean cooking energy,” she said. “The use of clean cooking energy has increased from 6.9 percent in 2021. Today, in 2025, we have reached 23.2 percent.”

The initiative comes at a right time. At the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, global leaders pledged a record US$2.2 billion to accelerate the shift from polluting fuels.

Globally, an estimated 2.3 billion people still cook with polluting fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. In sub-Saharan Africa, biomass remains dominant, driving deforestation, indoor air pollution and rising carbon emissions.

In Tanzania, the institutional gap remains stark. Of more than 30,000 large institutions — schools, hospitals and prisons serving over 100 people daily — only 1,136 use clean cooking systems. The rest depend largely on biomass.

From Textbooks to Kitchens

At the school courtyard, members of the Energy and Clean Cooking Club routinely gather. With notebooks and measuring cups, they test boiling times between charcoal and gas. They calculate household charcoal expenses. They sketch diagrams showing how smoke accumulates in poorly ventilated kitchens.

“My parents think gas is too expensive,” says Form Five student Rehema Mallya. “But when you show them how much they spend on charcoal every week, they start to think differently.”

For 16-year-old Lilian Massawe, the issue is personal.

“If my grandmother had a better cooking stove, she would not be coughing every night,” she says.

Across Tanzania, household air pollution linked to traditional cooking methods kills an estimated 33,000 people annually, according to government figures. Women and children bear the brunt.

Firewood collection exposes women and girls to risks of violence. Babies tied to their mothers’ backs inhale toxic fumes in poorly ventilated kitchens. For many families, charcoal is not a preference but a necessity shaped by poverty and limited infrastructure.

Financing the Shift

Officials say affordability is key. Through microcredit and pay-as-you-go models, households can acquire improved cookstoves or LPG systems without paying the full cost upfront.

The transition is also seen as an economic opportunity, particularly for women as distributors and technicians of clean cooking technologies.

“The transition to clean cooking is not a government project alone,” Makamba said after the club launch. “It requires citizens, schools, religious institutions and community leaders.”

A Generation Steps Forward

Back at the school courtyard, the afternoon bell rings, but the discussion continues.

“Energy is not just electricity,” one student says. “It is about health, forests, climate — and our mothers.”

Club members are collecting data from their households and plan to present their findings to local officials. For many, the mission is deeply personal.

“When I explain to my mother why smoke is dangerous, she listens differently,” says Susanna Kibona, one of the club’s clean cooking champions.

Tanzania’s clean cooking transition is not simply about replacing stoves. It is about reshaping habits, redistributing knowledge and widening participation in decisions that shape daily life.

At Bunge Girls Secondary School, teenage girls are stepping into a debate once reserved for policymakers. They are connecting kitchen smoke to climate commitments and household spending to national reform.

“We are getting prepared to be better leaders of tomorrow,” Mallya says.

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

 

IPS UN Bureau Report