Defining and Measuring ‘Adoption’ of Clean Cookstoves and Fuels
How do we define and measure “adoption” of clean cookstoves and fuels?
This was the key question that brought together over 75 stakeholders from implementing agencies, carbon project developers, government ministries, NGOs, international organizations, evaluators, and research/academia in Lima, Peru on May 4 and 5.
The event, co-hosted by the Alliance, the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, the USAID Translating Research into Action (TRAction) Project, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, focused on how to move beyond distribution and instead hone in on defining and measuring progress on adoption of clean cooking technologies. The workshop included sharing results of recent adoption studies, highlighting recently published evidence on the role of behavior change communication and gender in enabling adoption, and discussing techniques and tools for measuring stove use. Intensive working sessions focused on defining adoption and developing a practical framework for implementers to measure and evaluate the range of potential benefits that can be achieved through the adoption of clean cooking solutions.
An overarching message that emerged from the workshop was that adoption is a function of social, economic, and policy factors. Developing frameworks that take this into account will enable a better characterization of “adoption,” as well as its key drivers and determinants. In addition, ensuring sustained user acceptance is key to ensuring a thriving market for clean cookstoves and fuels. Strategies to promote behavior change at the community and individual level will be critical to success.
The Alliance will hold a public consultation period to gather further stakeholder feedback this summer. The definition and framework will be finalized at the Clean Cooking Forum 2015 in Accra, Ghana in November.
The detailed meeting report and presentations are linked at the left.