Clean Energy Transition in West Africa: Does Social Capital Have a Role to Play?

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Published: Dec 13, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56476/jed.v50i2.78
Keywords:
Clean Energy Transition, Clean Cooking Technologies, Energy Poverty, Household Energy Use, Social Capital, Financial Inclusion, Technology Adoption, Household Decision-Making, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Modern Fuels Adoption, West Africa, WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union), Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Energy and Development Policy, Community-Based Energy Strategies, Microdata Analysis, Empirical Household Studies

Main Article Content

Arouna Kouandou
University of Southern Brittany (UBS–IAE–LEGO), Vannes, France
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2566-5047

Abstract

Cooking remains a central economic and social activity in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to improved fuels carries important welfare implications. This paper investigates the determinants of household preferences for clean cooking technologies, with particular attention to the role of social capital. While much of the literature emphasizes household income as the primary driver of clean energy adoption, this study examines how household-level social connections shape technology uptake. Using microdata from seven countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union and applying two complementary empirical strategies, we find that households with stronger social capital are significantly more likely to adopt liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking. Our analysis further identifies financial inclusion as the principal mechanism through which social capital facilitates this transition. These findings highlight the importance of social structures, beyond income, in advancing clean energy adoption and inform policy approaches that integrate community networks into energy development strategies.

Article Details

How to Cite
Kouandou, Arouna. 2025. “Clean Energy Transition in West Africa: Does Social Capital Have a Role to Play?”. Journal of Energy and Development 50 (2):147–171. https://doi.org/10.56476/jed.v50i2.78.
Issue
Vol. 50 No. 2 (2025): Journal of Energy and Development
Section
Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Arouna Kouandou, University of Southern Brittany (UBS–IAE–LEGO), Vannes, France

Arouna Kouandou is an economist specializing in development microeconomics, with research interests spanning energy, agriculture, gender, and related fields. His work leverages recent advances in applied microeconometrics to address policy-relevant issues in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. He trained as a statistician engineer at ISSEA (Yaoundé) and holds two Master’s degrees: one in Environmental Economics from Paris-Saclay University (France) and another in Applied Macroeconomics from the University of Yaoundé II (Cameroon). He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Burgundy (Dijon, France) in collaboration with INRAE–CESEAR. Before joining academia, he served as an economist and statistician at the Ministry of Economy of Cameroon. He is currently an Assistant Professor (fixed-term contract) at the University of Southern Brittany (UBS–IAE–LEGO), Vannes, France.

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