Rwanda Energy Access and Quality Improvement Project: Component 3b Increasing Access to Clean CookingnSolutions Operations Manual
The Government of Rwanda plans to partner with the private sector and facilitate a competitionbased development of markets for clean-cooking products and technologies. MININFRA recently approved an ambitious new Biomass Energy Strategy (2019-2030) and an amendment to its NDC, with targets of reducing the percentage of households that use firewood for cooking from the baseline value of 79.9% in 2017 to 42% by 2024, and phasing-out the use of charcoal in urban areas. The clean cooking agenda has been recently moved to MININFRA and REG/EDCL have the mandate to implement it. The Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) is tasked with certifications and setting standards for cooking products and a testing lab is currently under development. In October 2019, MININFRA published the Biomass Energy Strategy: A Sustainable Path to Clean Cooking 2019-2030. In May 2020, the Government updated its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreements which includes promoting the use of efficient cook stoves as a mitigation measure since cooking accounts for 14% of the GHG emissions from the energy sector. Implementation of the Biomass Energy Strategy will require substantial grant resources made available to the sector to address the affordability and awareness gaps as well as the unproven nature of many new technological solutions in Rwanda. Cash expenditure on cooking fuels remains rare in Rwanda outside the richest 10 percent of households as 97 percent of households use either firewood or charcoal, which means that the market for clean cooking solutions will require partial subsidies to become commercially viable.
Rwanda Energy Access and Quality Improvement Project (EAQIP) aims to increase access to clean cooking Solutions for 500,000 households. EAQIP’s Component 3b of the will set up a clean cooking RBF window to partially subsidize purchases of clean and efficient cooking solutions by eligible households. The clean cooking RBF window will initially support Tier 2+ solutions, with the objective to gradually increase the minimum performance level requirements as affordable Tier 3+ solutions become widely available. The RBF window will support both urban and rural households. In urban areas, the focus of the clean cooking RBF will be to reduce and eventually phase out charcoal as a cooking fuel and replace it with Tier 3+ clean cooking solutions. In rural areas, the focus will be on reducing the reliance on firewood as a cooking fuel, by gradually introducing more efficient (Tier 2+) and clean cooking (Tier 3+) solutions. The two focus areas will contribute to the objectives of (i) phasing out charcoal use in urban areas; and (ii) reducing the reliance on firewood. The performance of eligible cooking technologies will need to be demonstrated through laboratory testing and/or field-based data. RBF incentives amount will be linked to the verified output, outcome, and impact level results; differentiated by cooking technology performance levels and consumer income categories (Ubudehe categories); and reviewed and adjusted periodically.
Component 3b will be co-financed by the Clean Cooking Fund (CCF) of the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). The total financing amount is US$ 17 million for Results-based financing program and US$ 3 million as technical assistance. Under Component 4, 6 technical assistance and training will be provided to local producers to improve the local product design and quality production. Innovation grants will be available (through a competitive process) to encourage innovative technological, business, and financing approaches with focus on meeting the poor households’ cooking need and encouraging female entrepreneurs in the cooking sector. Awareness raising and behavior change campaign will be conducted to stimulate demand and support sustainable adoption. The main purpose of this operation manual is to provide the administrators/managers of the Clean Cooking (CC) – Results-Based Financing (RBF) Incentives Program (CC-RBF Program) on the overall context and specific operational procedures to implement the incentives program. This Operational Manual contains sets of operational procedures, steps and processes on how the Program is implemented and how the incentives using results-based financing are disbursed to qualified program participants. This document is divided into five parts: A) RBF Design, B) RBF Roles and Responsibilities, C) RBF Procedures, D) RBF Program Review, and E) List of Annexes.
