Alliance Details Second-Year Accomplishments in Strengthening Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Market
This week we celebrated the Alliance's two-year anniversary at an event in New York with over 300 partners and guests in attendance. At the event we announced a host of commitments from partners that will be instrumental in accomplishing its mission to create a global market for clean, safe, and efficient clean cooking solutions, and released our second-year report which details progress in the areas of market development, research, outreach, standards and testing, resource mobilization, and more.
Partners kicked off the day with a panel that looked at the household air pollution issue through the lens of leaders drawn from the manufacturing, gender, research, humanitarian, civil society, and investment sectors. Speakers included:
- Stewart Paperin, President, Soros Economic Development Fund;
- Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme;
- Ron Bills, CEO, Envirofit;
- Anna Ingwe, Head of the Stove Component, GIZ EnDev Kenya;
- Roger Glass, Director, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health;
- Suraj Wahab, CEO, Toyola Energy; and
- Gulden Turkoz-Cosslett, Director of Programme Division, UN Women.
Following the panel, UN Foundation CEO Kathy Calvin and the U.S. Department of State’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Kris Balderston, kicked off a reception to honor some of the Alliance and its partners’ achievements over the past year and to announce new commitments to the sector.
Our Executive Director Radha Muthiah applauded the group's collective accomplishments, noting the tremendous progress that had taken place in just one year. Radha announced the Alliance’s six priority countries for immediate engagement: Bangladesh, China, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, the doubling of national partners from 18 to 36 across five continents, and an initial $2 million for the new Alliance Spark Fund to support capacity building for entrepreneurs in the sector, new health, climate, and gender research, support for testing centers, among other news.
The lineup of speakers that followed further added to the momentum in the sector:
- Former Irish president Mary Robinson inspired the audience with her wit and sense of social justice as she announced her intention to join the Alliance’s new Leadership Council;
- Stewart Paperin of the Open Society Institute and Thomas Nagy of Novozymes shared the news of the Soros Economic Development Fund and the Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries’ $9 million investment in CleanStar Mozambique, an Alliance partner working on an innovative ethanol fuel program, and the formation of a new Africa clean cooking incubator by CleanStar Ventures and Novozymes;
- Anders Nordstrom, the Swedish Ambassador for Global Health, announced his government’s support for an Alliance loan guarantee mechanism to drive sector investments, as well as Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson's plan to join the Alliance’s Leadership Council;
- Dr. Neil Schluger, Chief Scientific Officer at World Lung Foundation, detailed his group's support for major Alliance studies related to children’s health;
- Elkanah Odembo, Kenyan Ambassador to the U.S., reiterated Kenya's commitment to collaborate with the Alliance to address the issue of household air pollution and to catalyze the sector in his country and East Africa more broadly;
- Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with her consummate passion and flair, highlighted the pioneering work of EPA’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, and its recent integration with the Alliance; and
- Rocky Dawuni, the international music star and newest Alliance Ambassador, told the gathering that he was compelled to use his voice to speak out about this silent killer because of the toll it takes in his Ghanaian homeland and across the globe;
Wrapping up the event, Radha said, “The clean cookstoves and fuels sector has never been more cohesive or more prepared to tackle this silent killer. The commitment of others to join us in this endeavor is evident in the Alliance's growth to 400-plus partners and the wide-spread support for our plan to scale toward our 100 by 20 goal.
“In just the last year, the Alliance and its partners’ work to analyze markets, develop new standards, commission research, drive investments, and create country action plans will ensure that our motto, cooking shouldn’t kill, becomes a reality.”