Pilot project in peri-urban schools in Lesotho highlights multiple co-benefits of cooking with large electric pressure cookers

A new report, entitled ‘Large electric pressure cookers in schools: Evidence from Lesotho’ by the UK aid (FCDO) funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), provides results and key findings of a pilot project introducing energy-efficient electric pressure cookers (EPCs) in peri-urban schools of Lesotho as part of the WFP school feeding programme. This project was led by WFP’s Country Office in Lesotho with funding from WFP’s Innovation Accelerator (INKA).

Results suggest that the use of EPC saves cooks time (approximately 35% of daily cooking time) and reduces energy cost (up to 69% switching from LPG to EPCs and 95% firewood to EPCs). The evaluation surveys revealed additional health, environment and gender co-benefits. According to the study cooking with EPC offers a better, safer and healthier working environment.