Fiona works as a Research Fellow and the editor of the Renewable Energy for Development (RED) newsletter.

Her main focus areas include household dynamics in the design and implementation of household energy projects in developing countries; institutional and policy frameworks for upscaling/replicability of household energy programmes; the role of the EU in supporting sustainable energy transitions in Sub Saharan Africa.

Work experience before SEI
Prior to joining SEI, Fiona worked with Project Gaia Research Studies, part of a global clean cooking initiative with a particular focus on the research and promotion of alcohol fuels for household energy in developing countries. She spent several years working as Project Leader for Ethiopia and East Africa where she was involved in the design and implementation of a series of pilot studies on ethanol as an alternative cooking fuel in a variety of settings, from emergency Internally Displaced Person (IDP)/refugee settlements to urban households in Addis Ababa.

Fiona has participated in policy dialogues with the Energy and Trade Ministries of Ethiopia and has contributed to the work of a special task force for the development of a draft National Strategy on Biofuels.

She has managed a number of projects focused on scaling up access to clean cooking fuels in Ethiopia for clients including the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and UNHCR and has contributed to several international studies and reviews on the subject for clients including Shell Foundation, UNDP, UNHCR, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the WHO.

Fiona has extensive knowledge of the environmental-health and policy themes related to household energy access, and a particular interest in the socioeconomic dimensions of energy access in developing countries.

Publications

• Learning from Cooks: a User-Centred Approach to Help Transform Household Energy Use (Other publications - 2012)

• Putting the cook before the stove: A user-centred approach to understanding household energy decision-making – A case study of Haryana State, northern India (Working paper - 2012)

• Will African Consumers Buy Cleaner Fuels and Stoves? (Research report - 2011)

• Why perfect stoves are not always chosen: A new approach for understanding stove and fuel choice at the household level (Journal article - 2010)

• Energy access, climate and development (Paper - 2009)

• Household Energy in developing countries: a burning issue (Policy brief - 2009)

• Socio-economic and product specific factors to promote a clean cooking bio-ethanol stove in Ethiopia (Paper - 2009)

• An approach to distinguishing socio-economic factors and product-specific factors to understand the determinants of sustainable clean bio-energy stove (Proceedings - 2008)

Complete list of publications »

Projects

• SEI-FBDS Rio+20 Energy Assessment

  
  

• Climate and health-afflicting “Brown Air” in northern India: evaluation of sources, advice on mitigation options and advocacy for action (Indian Brown Air)

  
  

• Energy for All 2030

  
  

• Household Energy Economic Analysis (HHEA)

  
  

• Renewable Energy for Development RED