Radha’s Message November 2013
Dear friends,
I suspect each of you was as excited as I was to hear Secretary Clinton’s speech to the Alliance in September in New York, especially her announcement that she will chair our Leadership Council. In case you missed it, you can watch it here.
The strong link between Secretary Clinton and the Alliance was reinforced again just weeks later when she was awarded the Chatham House Prize in London. From U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague to Shell CEO Peter Voser to the Secretary herself, the Alliance was cited as a model public-private partnership for solving problems.
I recently attended the BoP 2013 Summit, where I led and participated in some interesting discussions and panels about what the global development community now knows as fact: all people, worldwide, are consumers, and they want products and services that meet their needs and aspirations. This sentiment is essential to the Alliance’s mission and goal, and continuing to partner with the BoP Summit group will be important to our success.
I am pleased to announce that the Global Alliance and the Clean Cookstoves Association of Kenya’s sessions originally planned for October-November have been rescheduled for the week of February 3 in Nairobi. I apologize for any inconvenience that the cancellation may have caused, and look forward to working with our Kenyan and East African partners to further catalyze the market for clean cookstoves and fuels in the region.
Lastly, on a bittersweet note, I’d like to bid farewell to Robin Troutman, the Alliance’s operations manager and longtime UN Foundation employee. As many of you know, from sector knowledge to operations and logistics to her sense of humor, Robin was instrumental in making many Alliance and partner events, efforts, and publications a success, and I wish her well as she begins a new career with Gannett Publications.
November’s newsletter has some exciting news, including: our Pilot Innovation and Women’s Empowerment Fund grants are up for application now; Global Ambassador Julia Roberts is fundraising for clean cooking projects; our photo contest will allow you to showcase your work in the sector; media coverage that includes the launch of Bangladesh’s Country Action Plan; and you can read the profile of our partner Rocket Works. As always, check out our new partners and upcoming events, which include new national partners and a standards and testing meeting in Honduras.
Sincerely,
Radha
Photo Credit: World LPG Association.
Radha Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, meets HRH Anne, The Princess Royal, at the World LP Gas Forum in London on October 3, 2013.