Radha’s Message for September 2017
Dear friends,
It was good to be a part of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly this month, where we joined partners at numerous events and high-level meetings to advocate for increased support for clean cooking.
While leaders and attendees repeatedly mentioned the critical role clean cooking must play in helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, a new SEforAll report confirmed what many of us have been working to address – the multi-billion dollar gap in funding between what’s needed and what’s currently being invested in clean cooking. It’s a shocking reality that must be overcome to produce more meaningful progress.
Despite limited resources, there are areas of advancement. Working with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the Alliance launched a series of workshops this month to help global south countries achieve the clean cooking commitments in their climate plans. The workshop sought to help leaders transform their climate plans into action and provide tools for critical action, including accessing appropriate financing.
Efforts like these can help move the sector toward closing the investment and funding gap. But much more must be done. I hope many of you will be joining us at the Clean Cooking Forum in India next month, where this and a wide range of topics critical to our work will be discussed. We must continue working together to find ways to better attract the financing necessary to build a global market capable of meeting the needs of the millions of people without access to clean cookstoves and fuels.
Our work continues,
Radha Muthiah