Call for theses

A previous student researched how rural electrification influences women’s empowerment and quality of life in Madhesh Province, Nepal, by using an integrated Social Practices Theory – Capabilities Approach framework. This was used to find out how electricity influences or impacts daily routines, practices, and how it expands (or fails to expand) women’s real freedoms and opportunities. The thesis found that while electrification improved living conditions, empowerment outcomes depend heavily on social norms, skills, and access to supportive interventions. Building on this, future students could investigate the following:

-            An input for future research directly from Hivos/ENERGIA: Analyse the indicators and measurement methods of women’s empowerment and quality of life in greater depth.

o   A large dataset already exists, including responses from 1,116 women entrepreneurs collected by 60 Decibels. Their Impact Assessment assesses economic empowerment, social empowerment, and quality of support. Future research could focus on assessing how these indicators might be refined to more accurately reflect women lived experiences. Furthermore, future research could use this raw data to add a quantitative method and test reliability of the framework.

-            Clarify and expand the combined Social Practices Theory – Capabilities Approach framework.

o   Future work could clearly define and map each element of the combined framework. And examine how these theoretical elements interact in practice.

-            Test the framework in different geographic and cultural contexts

o   To understand the broader applicability of the finding, future research could apply the same framework in different regions or countries. furthermore, it can be compared how cultural norms, economic structures, or local governance affects the outcomes. And also, context-specific barriers and enabling conditions can be identified.

-            Explore alternative energy systems

o   I focused only on grid-based electricity. That is why future research could assess the impacts of off-grid renewable systems, such as solar home systems, mini-grids, hybrid systems, etc. It can be investigated whether decentralized energy solutions lead to different empowerment outcomes. Also, the barriers and enablers associated with adoption of alternative technologies could be of interest.

-            Conduct longitudinal studies to see changes over time

o   Changes in quality of life and empowerment develops gradually, and short-term studies may miss important shifts. Therefore, future research could follow the same household over a certain period of time and observe how empowerment, routines, and activities evolve after electrification.

LCA end-of-life batteries in Ghanaian

context – reuse vs. recycle

Project description

Ghana receives approximately 15% of the world’s e-waste (Maphosa & Maphosa 2020). The Agbogbloshie site in Accra provides direct employment for about 6,000 people, with approximately 30,000 indirectly employed by the recycling industry (Maphosa & Maphosa, 2020). This presents a complex trade-off between economic opportunity and environmental harm that exemplifies broader challenges in decarbonization efforts.

The GIZ handbook explicitly establishes that reuse is preferable to recycling because batteries do not need to be reprocessed, saving money, energy, and reducing environmental impact (GIZ, 2023). However, this claim has not been quantified through a rigorous LCA in the Ghanaian context. Second-life EV batteries are gaining traction across Africa due to their potential to support renewable energy projects, improve electricity access, and stabilize grids, yet comprehensive environmental assessments remain scarce (Harper et al., 2019; Gaines & Dunn, 2018).

Research Question

"What are the comparative environmental impacts of reusing versus recycling lithium-ion batteries from e-waste in the Ghanaian context, and under what conditions does each end-of-life pathway provide greater environmental benefits?"

• Quantify the greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and water usage associated with both reuse and recycling pathways for Li-ion batteries in Ghana.

• Identify the critical parameters (cell conversion rate, second-life duration, electricity grid mix) that determine when reuse outperforms recycling.

Methodological Framework

LCA Scope and System Boundaries

The study should adopt a cradle-to-second-grave approach with clearly defined boundaries:

Pathway System Boundary

Reuse (Second-Life) End-of-first-life → End-of-second-life

Recycling (Direct) End-of-first-life → Material recovery

Tools recommended: OpenLCA (with ecoinvent) (OpenLCA, 2023; Ecoinvent

Association, 2022) and, for gaps, other literature such as the GIZ handbook (GIZ, 2023).