Radha’s Message for November 2016
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Bangladesh! Today I had the privilege of joining the State Minister for Energy and the Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committees to discuss policy and regulatory actions to further help enterprises in the sector scale. It’s wonderful to see that the government has prioritized clean cooking as a key element of achieving national and global development, health, and climate goals.
The outcome of the recent U.S. election could impact a host of global development issues, including clean cooking. While specifics remain to be seen, the U.S. has been a long-time advocate for addressing household air pollution. The George W. Bush administration created the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, which was integrated into the Alliance in 2010 when Secretary Hillary Clinton helped launch the Alliance. Secretary Clinton remains the Honorary Chair of the Alliance Leadership Council and she is expected to continue to champion issues that she has always focused on, particularly those that help children and women, including clean cooking.
In other news, further evidence is emerging on the positive health impacts of clean cooking. A new study shows that shifting from cooking with traditional woodfuel to a cookstove that uses a cleaner-burning fuel such as ethanol may improve women’s heart health. The study, which evaluated the cooking practices of 324 pregnant women in Nigeria, is part of Alliance-supported research evaluating how clean cooking can play an important role in preventative health.
The Alliance has also been working with the International Center for Research on Women for the past two years to develop the first ever social impact measurement system for the cookstoves and fuels sector. This set of tools allows cookstoves enterprises to measure the social and economic impact of their products and business models. It can also help demonstrate the importance of investing in modern, sustainable energy solutions and last-mile connectivity for poor and rural populations, in particular for women and girls.
As the end of the year approaches, be on the lookout for two big news items from the Alliance. We will be announcing the location and dates for the 2017 Clean Cooking Forum, and we will also soon release the Alliance’s 2016 annual progress report. This year, we’ve seen clean cooking recognized as critical to addressing a broad range of global goals, and the report will illustrate the momentum and shared progress built by the Alliance and its partners.
Our work continues,
Radha
@Radha_Muthiah