Guatemala Announced as Alliance Focus Country at Latin American Regional Workshop on Clean Cooking
During a recent gathering of nearly 200 partners at the Latin American Regional Workshop on Clean Cooking in Lima, Peru, the Alliance announced Guatemala as the newest focus country. Guatemala joins 7 other Alliance focus countries around the world – Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, China, and India.
With nearly 70% of households still using firewood for cooking, there is a strong need for clean cookstoves and fuels in Guatemala. Over the past year, the Alliance worked with its Guatemalan partners to better understand the local clean cooking sector and determine whether our focused involvement would significantly contribute to a thriving market for clean cooking solutions in the country.
Strong commitment from the Guatemalan government and an active and collaborative NGO and private sector who came together to set a course of action in the Guatemala Country Action Plan (CAP) were critical factors in the Alliance’s decision making process, which also considered need, potential impact, scalability, and leverage of other resources and initiatives in the country.
Over 100 national and international stakeholders contributed to the Guatemala CAP, ensuring this strategy represents the needs, priorities, and solutions proposed by the sector, for the sector. The implementation of the plan is dependent upon the continued commitment of Guatemalan stakeholders who are already making progress on a number of short-term priority activities, as well as targeted support from the Alliance. As the Alliance begins to operationalize efforts in Guatemala, we will work to strengthen the clean cooking sector through customer research, access to finance, public awareness, and mobilization of other international initiatives around this critical issue.