The project aims at introducing alternative sources of energy at the household level. The main rationale for that is the very low use of electricity in Burundi – most people are off the grid – and the disadvantages that come with the use of combustible energy sources such as kerosene (cost, smell, danger, irritation, supply).

In order to inform the UNICEF-Burundi team about the need and demand for energy at the household level, the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) – as part of its ongoing Partnership with UNICEF-Burundi – was asked to study the current use of energy at the household level, prior to the start of the project. Such study would not only inform UNICEF-Burundi on energy use, energy expenditures, demand for energy and willingness to pay, but would also serve as a baseline study to test the impact of the project after its implementation. The baseline study thus forms part of an evaluation design in which the survey team has also interviewed households in communities who will not be serviced by the project. The group constitutes the control group to which project results will be compared. Such comparison is at its best when the treatment and control groups have been selected randomly. This is the case in the current design. We have 29 control communities (at the level of the sous-colline) and 34 treatment communities. A total of 1000 households have been interviewed in the baseline survey.

FINAL REPORT