Ghana's Rural Liquefied Petroleum Gas Program Scale Up: A case study

Abstract

Background: The Government of Ghana launched the Rural LPG (RLP) promotion program in 2013 as part of its efforts to reduce fuelwood consumption. The aim of the RLP is to contribute to Ghana's overarching goal to provide LPG access to 50% of Ghana's population by 2020. The RLP has not announced long-term program objectives. However, in the interim the RLP targeted a cumulative total of 170,000 LPG cookstoves to rural households by the end of 2017. As of November 2017, 149,500 rural households had received the LPG cook stoves. Our case study documents Ghana's experiences to date with LPG scale up.

Methods: We carried out a desktop review/document analysis of literature on the RLP. Each document was reviewed for information related to the elements of the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework as it pertained to LPG promotion and adoption. In-depth interviews were held among key stakeholders in Ghana. Previously collected data from a field evaluation of the RLP was also assessed.

Findings: Generally, our evaluation suggests that the current form of the RLP is not achieving its stated goal. Our evaluation of the RLP in five rural communities showed that about 58% of households had never refilled their LPG cylinders nine months after the initial delivery of a filled cylinder. Only 8% still used their LPG at 18 months post distribution. Cost and distance to LPG filling stations were the main reasons for low LPG use. Beneficiaries did not exclusively use their LPG even at the initial stages when all of them had LPG in their cylinders. Ghana is currently undergoing transitions in the LPG sector including a change from the current private cylinder ownership model to a cylinder recirculation model for the distribution of LPG. There was no evidence of a well-documented implementation framework for the RLP.

Conclusion: Fuel cost, poor LPG access, and an inadequate implementation framework hinder the RLP implementation.

Keywords: LPG; LPG scale-up; RE-AIM framework; Rural LPG promotion.

Figure 1-

Percentage of population using LPG for household cooking in Ghana over time, with the dotted line indicating the needed trajectory for a 50% target (Ghana Statistical Service, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2014c). Note: The historical data (1992–2014) is primary fuel use as reported in household surveys. We interpret the 50% target to mean that 50% of households regularly use LPG.

Figure 2-

Types of primary fuel use for cooking in rural and urban households in Ghana (Source: Ghana Demographic and health Survey, 2014). Note: Unlike figure 1, LPG is combined with natural gas in this figure.

Figure 3:

A box plot showing the Log of means of CO exposure from baseline through to month 9(Source: Data from Nkoraza evaluation, 2015/16)

Figure 4:

Historical variability in retail LPG prices in Ghana-August, 2007-June, 2015. Vertical line marks the end of the subsidy (Source: Ghana National Petroleum Agency, 2017; current prices)(National Petroleum Authority, 2017b)

Figure 5:

Location of 641 LPG refilling stations in Ghana (based on Ministry of Energy 2017 Data)