**1.6 Research sample demography**

The research is based on a sample of 30 households (HHs) using solar panels and 21 households who did not install any. Of the HHs studied, 23.5 percent of HH heads are female and 76.5 percent are males. Women representing 17% of the total factories'

<sup>2</sup> "Remote Management" refers to a set of adapted procedures put in place because the access to field offices and/or field sites is limited – for security, practical or logistical reasons. International Rescue Committee's Global Remote Management Guidelines 2016.

*Transformation Action to Combat Desertification: A Direct Carbon Saving Mechanism… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101462*

owners. With regard to the level of education, 32 percent of HHs had a high level of education, while 69.2 percent only attained a secondary level of education. Among the female respondents, 33.3 percent had no education, and a total of 16.7 percent of households that were headed by women completed a primary level of education.

The average household (HH) income was 345,782 SYP per month (~ 1,609.00 USD). Informal work, such as farming activities or cash for work, accounted for 80.4 percent of household's income. About 13.7 percent of woman-headed households' earned money from home production and handicrafts, while 5.9 percent of the total sample used their savings. As shown in **Figure 1**, the factories' average monthly production quantity increased after installing the solar panels (2016- 2018). Dairy products, cheese products, and dry dairy represented 72.6, 12.2, and 5.7 percent of the production, respectively.

#### **Figure 1.**

*Highlights of the production before and after installing solar panels for factories' operation.*
