A comparative socio-technical multi-level perspective analysis of eCooking barriers in six informal settlements in Bangladesh and Zambia

Abstract

Limited access to clean cooking disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalised communities, exacerbating inequalities. Energy efficient electric cooking (eCooking) is an emerging viable, affordable option for addressing the clean cooking challenge. Yet evidence from informal settlements remains limited. Using a socio-technical lens and the Multi-Level Perspective, this study explores how technical, social, institutional, and physical conditions shape eCooking adoption in six informal settlements in Bangladesh and Zambia, and how these interdependencies co-produce regime configurations that constrain or enable eCooking as a niche innovation under wider landscape pressures. Applying a comparative mixed methods case study approach, the study reveals uneven electricity access and service quality, in which grid presence or access often fails to provide safe, reliable power for cooking. In Bangladesh, access is widespread but depends on illegal connections, informal resellers, unsafe shared meters, and frequent outages. In Zambia, access varies within and between settlements, with lower coverage in steep terrain or flood-prone zones. Fuel stacking is common across sites, driven by reliability, followed by affordability. Perceptions of eCooking as ‘unsafe’, ‘expensive’, or ‘inefficient’ reflect lived experiences of unsafe wiring, unreliable supply, and non-transparent billing. Informal intermediaries and utility bureaucracies raise costs and risks, foster corruption, and restrict legal electricity access and use for cooking. Enabling eCooking transitions require coordinated niche-regime-landscape interventions, settlement upgrading and electrification planning, transparent metering and billing, infrastructure and safety improvements, targeted innovative financing, and collaboration among policymakers, utilities, local authorities, and the private sector to ensure safe, reliable, and affordable electricity access for cooking.