Kalobeyei, 7 July 2017- UN-Habitat in collaboration with World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and Office of International Program, College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University has launched a project for briquette production in Kalobeyei new refugee settlement and the host community in a commitment to address their energy needs improve access and increase availability of sustainable fuel. The Programme is funded by both Government of Japan and Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)

According to the recent socio-economic survey done by UN-Habitat in Kakuma camp, Kalobeyei new refugee settlement and the neighboring area, Woodfuel and charcoal are the main sources of cooking fuel in Kakuma refugee camp, as identified by 62.7% and 37.3% of the respondents respectively. Improving access to a clean and sustainable source of energy can therefore transform their lives by adopting an affordable energy option.

Through the UN-Habitat participatory process, 15 women were selected in the host community in a public meeting. The community was clustered into fifteen villages and one woman representative was selected from each village by the community to participate in the preliminary scoping survey which will include identification of suitable sites for location of the briquette production units and establishing major sources of organic materials for briquette production and drum kilns.

A similar process is expected to take place in the Kalobeyei new refugee settlement on 7th June, 2017 and the benefits from this project are projected to help in combating charcoal burning, use of wood fuel which is key in reducing degradation of forest ecosystems as well as improving the livelihoods of a substantial poor population in the thematic area.