Clean Cooking Alliance Launches Initiative to Empower Governments
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2021 – Clean cooking benefits a wide range of issues central to national government agendas — health, climate, the environment, women’s empowerment, and the economy. Forward thinking governments aiming to make clean cooking a priority face tough questions: under which ministry or department should this work live, how should it be funded, and how is it coordinated across multiple, interrelated areas of impact?
To help governments navigate these challenges and to support them in implementing ambitious national clean cooking strategies, the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) is leading the development of a Clean Cooking Delivery Units Network. This new initiative, part of the Clean Cooking Systems Strategy, aims to establish teams of civil servants dedicated to achieving ambitious clean cooking plans.
The locally run delivery units will coordinate across relevant ministries, organize and oversee funding, engage industry and private sector, establish policies and regulations related to clean cooking, and represent national interests in global events and dialogue.
“As an issue, clean cooking can sit within the mandate of several ministries and, thus, ownership over the issue is often unestablished,” says Dymphna van der Lans, CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance. “A dedicated delivery unit team, embedded within a relevant ministry, with dedicated staff and financial resources and with the mandate to act can provide the clarity to ensure sustained action.”
The Delivery Units Network aims to elevate local leaders by establishing delivery units in at least 10 countries, providing funding and technical support to create dedicated clean cooking teams within government, supporting special projects, establishing a peer-to-peer network of delivery units and enhancing local capacity and professional development. The Delivery Units Network will create a cohort of clean cooking teams across several countries’ governments.
“I wholly endorse the idea of creating and resourcing governmental clean cooking delivery units,” said CCA Leadership Council Honorary Chair and Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a recent event hosted by CCA. “I found when I was doing this work 11 years ago, if we hadn’t had dedicated people in the State Department pushing the rest of our government, there would have been interest, but there wouldn’t have been the constant day-to-day effort to make sure we were doing things, that we were trying to deliver results.”
Achieving SDG7 and other development goals requires more countries to adopt bold clean cooking transition strategies as part of their integrated energy plans. “We know that without dedicated and sustained national government leadership and holistic planning, we will not see the scale of investment, attention, and collective efforts required to deliver meaningful clean cooking transitions to all families,” said Dag-Inge Ulstein, Minister of International Development, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “By investing in local leaders and clean cooking champions, and ensuring they have the necessary resources, skills and relationships to succeed, the Clean Cooking Delivery Units Network will be critical to meeting our global 2030 energy goals.”
Clear, actionable, and robust national transition strategies inclusive of clean cooking can provide the long-term vision that is required to unlock private investment, guide and coordinate action, and serve as a basis for policies that enable markets to operate effectively.
“In the 2021 UN High Level Dialogue on Energy, we are calling on countries around the world to give higher priority to universal access to clean cooking solutions, as integral part of our roadmap to a net zero world,” said Frank van der Vleuten of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. “CCA’s support to country delivery teams can provide much needed support to countries that seek to rise to the challenge.”
CCA is inviting interested host countries, global and local implementing organizations and funders to bring this ambitious initiative to life. If you are interested in establishing a delivery unit or partnering with us, please contact CCA at strategy@cleancookingalliance.org.
The Delivery Unit Network is part of CCA’s Clean Cooking Systems Strategy. The Strategy aims to spark action and facilitate much needed coordination across the clean cooking sector, calling on governments, donors, finance institutions and the private sector to prioritize clean cooking in this pivotal year of the United Nation’s High-level Dialogue on Energy and COP 26, and accelerate commitment, funding, and action to finally match the magnitude of this global challenge.
