Reducing the time women spend on household chores in rural households is the mission that CIRES has set for itself for the next three years, through the implementation of the project “Use of the TIKA improved stove to reduce the domestic workload of women in rural Côte d’Ivoire,” with financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

To enhance the project’s visibility and sustainability, a team from the center, led by its Director, Dr. DIARRA Ibrahim, was received in audience by the Director of Poverty Reduction Strategies (DSRP) at the Ministry of National Cohesion, Solidarity, and the Fight Against Poverty (MCNSLP), Dr. Flore Bende Epse Aka, on Monday, April 14, 2025. The purpose of this meeting was to present the project’s main outlines to the Director and to explore opportunities for collaboration, particularly in the implementation of Income-Generating Activities (IGAs) for the benefit of women in the project’s beneficiary households.
The initiative was warmly welcomed by the DSRP, which noted that the project’s objectives were fully aligned with those of its Directorate. Indeed, women’s empowerment necessarily involves strengthening their purchasing power. And one way to help rural women create wealth is to enable them to free up some of the time they devote to domestic work and redirect it toward paid activities. Pleased with the approach taken by the CIRES project team, the Director assured them of her willingness to offer her expertise to the institution to support it in the process of implementing the AGRs planned under the TIKA project.