UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Since ntroducing the stoves in August we have been besieged by constant inquiries from excited residents as to when the stoves will be for sale. As we only imported 50 stoves we've had to turn away many interested buyers on the principle that these stoves are intended only for research and as we can't guarantee fuel supply there's really no point in buying one since it will be useless unless ethanol becomes available in the market in Sierra Leone. The third and largest problem with offering these stoves for sale is that they simply aren't affordable. The South African CleanCook stove we specified for this study retails for $55. In partnership with US NGO Project Gaia we were able to negotiate a discount but still ended up paying loads for shipping and the worst expense was the 30% import fee charged by Sierra Leone customs. This ridiculous fee alone makes any scheme to import stoves impractical thus creating the need to design a stove for local production. For this mi...

Sunbird Bioenergy is a London based biofuel company interested in producing bioethanol in Sierra Leone. To accomplish this mission Sunbird bought a massive ethanol production plant in Makeni which was built and operated by the Addax Corporation until their recent bankruptcy. Sunbird is in fact a very metaphorical name as this company (like the Phoenix of mythology) is rising from the ashes of the Addax project, and the name Addax still bears a negative connotation for the more politically aware residents of Salone. The key problem for Sunbird is that Addax built their ethanol plant in the wrong place. The plant uses sugar cane as the feedstock for producing ethanol and in the time of Addax had a massive sugar cane plantation surrounding the site. However, rather than placing the project in a region suitable for sugarcane farming, Addax chose to build it in the North for shaky political reasons - a plan which never worked out as the expenses and reduced yeilds caused by growing sugarca...

After over a month in Bo we have finally made our way to Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital city and center of development. Bo is fondly referred to as The Second City by most salone residents but next to Freetown it seems a mere village. Freetown benefits from 24 hour reliable electricity supplied by a Chinese powership and a constant influx of imported goods from global markets. Freetown's level of development has a lot to do with the colonial history of the city and it's enduring relationship with foreign countries providing access to aid programs. Our propose in the city was in part to accompany Martin to a meeting at the US embassy where he was meant to give a debriefing on his experience in America. Martin Kailie is the founder of the Desert Water NGO and the recipient of a recent Humphrey fellowship to study in the US. It was during this fellowship that Dana and I were connected with Martin and we first began to frame this project. I'll paraphrase the project descr...