Radha’s Message for August 2016
Dear Friends,
In August, we joined others around the world to commemorate World Humanitarian Day, an opportunity to shine a light on the challenges faced by the more than 65 million who are displaced from their homes by conflict, persecution, or disaster. One of the toughest hurdles refugees face is the struggle to cook their food safely, as refugee Hibo Ibrahim points out in a story this month, and that they risk assault, injury, and even rape while searching for firewood. To raise awareness and better understand the connection between access to cookstoves and fuels and gender based violence, the Alliance will soon release a white paper calling for additional research on the most effective cooking approaches for decreasing protection risks.
It is becoming abundantly clear that there are no clearly defined “humanitarian settings” any longer. Displaced and native populations exist side by side in low and middle income countries. An issue like energy access and environmental health will affect all populations in an area and thus, a new, more integrated approach is necessary. Increasing access to energy and clean cookstoves must be a priority in global development, which is a message the Alliance and its partners advocate broadly, it is one I’ll be delivering next month as part of the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants and the United Nations General Assembly (insert link).
September is a busy time in development, as well as for the Alliance. As some of you may have read, this will be the tenth and last Clinton Global Initiative. CGI is a special place for the Alliance – we were launched there in 2010, and the event’s global stage provided us with positive momentum and helped the Alliance establish strong, lasting partnerships. Together with hundreds of partners, we’ve made tremendous progress, and we’re excited about the future.
In our work to showcase progress in this emerging, dynamic sector, we are looking forward to seeing the stove and fuels distribution numbers that will be highlighted in the annual Alliance Results Report (ARR). The ARR, which will be released as part of the Alliance Annual Report toward the end of this year, is one part of a broader monitoring and evaluation effort that will offer a glimpse of the sector as a whole while providing an opportunity to measure our collective progress. As our sector evolves, so too must the way we measure results. And while this evolution may impact efforts to compare results from year to year, such elasticity in our monitoring efforts will ultimately provide us with stronger, more relevant figures over time.
Warm Regards,
Radha