Browsing by Author "Nkaile, Palesa"

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    The genderperspective of socio-economic determinants of household cooking energy consumption in Lesotho
    (National University of Lesotho, 2023) Nkaile, Palesa; Mpholo, Moeketsi; Thamae, Retselisitsoe
    Unveiling gender dynamics in household energy consumption is a pathway to empowerment and sustainable development since the inaccessibility of electricity perpetuates gender inequality due to women’s higher involvement in time-consuming and unproductive activities such as wood collection and cooking. This study investigates the variations in fuel consumption shares between female-headed and male-headed households and explores the determinants of these differences from a gender perspective. Using the Tobit regression model to analyse the 2017 Household Energy Consumption Survey (HECS) data, the study establishes the statistical significance of socioeconomic variables on household shares of biomass, paraffin, LPG, and electricity, assuming that the shares are left-censored. The findings reveal intriguing patterns, such as the increasing shares of dirty fuels with the age of the household head regardless of gender. However, education impacts female and male-headed households differently, with female-headed households generally increasing their share of high-end fuels while male-headed households opt for transition fuels. Increasing income and households in peri-urban and urban areas are also not discriminatory in terms of gender as both reduce the share of dirty fuels and rely more on cleaner alternatives. Conversely, increasing household size affects female-headed but not male-headed households as they are found to increase the shares of transition fuels in summer but reduce the share of cleaner fuels in winter. Therefore, the study emphasises the need for targeted education and economic empowerment programmes, awareness campaigns, and income-generating skills development policy interventions to foster clean energy access and improve the well-being of Basotho households.