May 2018 Newsletter

Dymphna van der Lans with Alliance Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Chebet Lesan (middle) and the Honorable Minister Alima Mahama of Ghana (right) at the SEforAll Forum in May.

Dymphna’s Message

Dear Friends,

From the SEforAll Forum in Lisbon and announcing the Alliance Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, to my numerous meetings and briefings with so many of you, it has been an eventful and inspiring first few weeks at the Alliance. I want to thank you for welcoming me so warmly and for sharing your insights and guidance on clean cooking, household air pollution, and market development.

As we heard during the Forum, and as most of us working in this sector know all too well, progress on energy access and clean cooking remains unacceptably slow. Given the magnitude of this issue, there has not been nearly enough attention nor investment in clean cooking, and I see this as a call to action for all of us attempting to end the centuries-old practice of dirty cooking. The Alliance is taking a hard look at how we work, as well as which levers need to be pulled to dramatically accelerate progress…

From the Alliance

Kenyan business leader named Alliance’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

Founder and CEO of BrightGreen Energy, Chebet Lesan, has been named the Alliance’s 2018 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. The award program, in its second year, recognizes outstanding female leaders in the household energy sector who are advancing clean cooking solutions in emerging markets.

Statement on SDG7 Tracking Report

The Alliance issued the following statement from CEO Dyphmna van der Lans on the “Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report,” which showed mixed progress on clean cooking access.

Report: Lessons from a clean cooking project in a Rwanda refugee camp

Together with ICRW, the Alliance conducted an assessment of a clean cooking project in Rwanda’s Kigeme Refugee Camp. The project resulted in several social and health-related benefits, but fuel cost remained a barrier to further adoption.

From the Sector

World Health Organization releases new global air pollution data

Air pollution levels remain dangerously high in many parts of the world. New data from WHO shows that household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and stoves caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in 2016.

New study highlights strong return on investment for “Empowered Entrepreneur Training”

A recent study conducted by Visionaria to measure the return on investment of the Alliance’s Empowered Entrepreneur Training on women in the clean cooking supply chain in Tanzania revealed an ROI of 116%.

Rethinking how to empower women in emerging markets

For many living close to the poverty line – for women particularly – entrepreneurship is a last resort, but one social enterprise is offering an alternative.

The moral imperative of clean household energy

Clean air to breathe, like drinking water, is essential for human health and well-being. Yet emissions from cooking is one of the world’s deadliest development issues. This crushing global health burden creates a moral imperative for urgent action.

A Caring Economy: What role for government?

Women around the world spend on average 3x as much time as men on unpaid care work, yet this work continues to be invisible in terms of what we count as productive and valuable, and therefore how fiscal policies get formulated and their impacts analyzed.

Partner Spotlight

Gold Standard

Gold Standard helps make projects that distribute clean cooking technologies financially viable, primarily through certifying GHG reductions, and now through results-based financing around health and gerder impacts.

Quick Links:

Report launch/webinar: Financing Growth in the Clean Cooking and Fuels Market [event/webinar]

Call for Expressions of Interest: Spark+ Fund Management Partners Selection Process [call for EOI]

Evaluating the return on investment for an “Empowered Entrepreneur Training” [report]

Women’s Empowerment Fund Case Study: Burn [case study]

Women’s Empowerment Fund Case Study: Solar Sister [case study]

Applying Behavior Change Critiques to Strengthen Interventions in the Clean Cooking Sector [webinar]

See the Latest:

New Partners

Events

Webinars

Funding Opportunities

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a United Nations Foundation-hosted public-private partnership to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s goal calls for 100 million households to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance is working with over 1800 public, private, and non-profit partners to accelerate the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves and fuels in the developing world.