Celebrating Women Leaders in the Clean Cooking Sector
This International Women’s Day, the Alliance spoke with the last three winners of its Women’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, as well as clean cooking champion and Second Lady of Ghana H.E. Samira Bawumia, to ask them what clean cooking means to them. Here’s what they had to say…
H.E. Samira Bawumia, the Second Lady of Ghana, is a dedicated advocate for women and girls worldwide and works to improve the lives of those affected by gender inequalities, climate change, and other global issues. As a Champion for the Clean Cooking Alliance, she uses her platform to raise awareness on the issue of clean cooking and help promote the adoption of clean cooking solutions in her home country of Ghana.
Neha Juneja, winner of the Alliance’s 2019 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, co-founded Greenway Appliances and has worked to grow her company into the largest cookstove enterprise in India. Having been born and raised in India, where 60% of the population lacks access to clean cooking solutions, Juneja feels a personal connection to this everyday challenge.
Chebet Lesan, 2018 Alliance Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and CEO of BrightGreen Renewable Energy, has always believed that achieving universal access to clean cooking is a critical global priority. For Lesan, increasing women’s access to safer, more efficient methods of cooking is one of the main reasons why she decided to start her own clean cooking company in Kenya.
Betty Ikalany is the 2017 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. She founded Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies Ltd, a woman-lead social enterprise, as a way to provide women with opportunities to enter the clean cooking value chain. She continues to use a woman-focused business model as she works to expand and scale her company in Eastern Uganda.