News

Women Energizing Change Series

Women are a crucial part of the clean cooking sector and their involvement throughout the value-chain is necessary to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030.

To highlight stories of women making an impact in their communities, the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) is interviewing women entrepreneurs from around the world who are working to scale access to clean cooking.

Visit CCA’s Women & Clean Cooking page to learn more about the organization’s work to increase the role of women and address gender issues in clean cooking. To suggest someone to be featured as part of this ongoing series, please contact CCA’s Communications team at comms@cleancookingalliance.org.

Healthy Babies, Empowered Women: One Researcher’s Quest to Expand Access to Clean Cooking

Ellen Boamah was the lead coordinator of a recently completed study in Ghana on how cooking with different fuels and stoves can impact the health of mothers and children. The study was co-funded by the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Thrasher Research Fund. CCA spoke with Boamah about the potential impacts of this study’s critical findings.

Careers in Clean Cooking: Perspectives from Two Women Leaders

As part of its focus on women’s leadership, CCA sponsored Betty Ikalany and Esther Altorfer to participate in the 2021 Vital Voices GROW Fellowship. A year-long accelerator program, VV GROW provides women working in small- and medium-sized companies with personalized business skills and opportunities for career development and networking. CCA recently spoke with Ikalany and Altorfer about their experiences as Fellows.

How COVID-19 Accelerated ATEC’s Shift to Digital Marketing

Even before COVID-19, the Cambodia-based biodigester manufacturing and distribution company ATEC had started implementing online and digital communication strategies. However, the pandemic forced them to rapidly speed up this transition.

How Technology Can Offer Solutions in a Time of Social Distancing

With Nigeria’s COVID-19 health and safety policies prohibiting large gatherings, Amos and her team have had to rethink their sales and marketing approaches. Amos shared how she is using creative communications strategies to reach customers and meet the ongoing demand for clean cooking solutions.

Clean Cooking and Food Security in Times of Crisis

CCA spoke with Kalinda Magloire, Founder of clean cooking company SWITCH S.A., about how her operations have been negatively impacted by widespread lockdowns in Haiti, linked to political protests and to COVID-19. Magloire shared how her company is stepping up to support her community – through clean cooking as well as healthy meals.

Woman Entrepreneur Series: Expanding Access to Biogas During a Pandemic

In the first interview in this series, CCA spoke with Esther Altorfer, Managing Director of East Africa at Sistema.bio, a Mexico-based social enterprise that manufactures, distributes, installs, and finances biodigesters that convert waste into cooking energy and fertilizer. As Kenya began to implement social distancing policies due to COVID-19, Altorfer spoke to CCA about the benefits of biogas and how biodigesters eliminate the need to leave home to collect or purchase external sources of fuel.