Youth Engagement

Clean Cooking is a Youth Issue

CCA recognizes the vital role of youth in achieving universal access to clean cooking, contributing to the cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future that young people need to thrive.

Youth are disproportionately affected by the global lack of access to clean cooking and, more than anyone else, will bear the future burden of inaction. Ninety percent of the world’s 1.8 billion youth live in developing countries where people overwhelmingly rely on polluting fuels and stoves to cook their food. Cooking this way substantially harms youth—not only because it impacts so many people, but also because of the cross-cutting nature of these impacts, including on health, the climate, the local environment, education, and employment.

However, youth are not passive victims of global climate and development challenges. Young people worldwide are enacting change on a scale never seen before, and the clean cooking sector offers a unique opportunity for them to shape the world they will inherit. CCA is committed to facilitating increased impact and expanded action to address young people’s needs, build their agency, and advance their opportunities for leading ambitious, clean cooking transitions.

CCA’s Youth Strategy: Empowering Youth-led Change in Clean Cooking

CCA’s Youth Strategy is a robust framework that steers CCA’s efforts to engage and collaborate with young individuals throughout the clean cooking ecosystem. Developed through an extensive youth consultation process, the Strategy encompasses three pivotal dimensions of youth involvement in the clean cooking sector: cultivating awareness about clean cooking among young people, empowering them to assume leadership roles in advancing clean cooking initiatives, and fostering inclusive platforms that facilitate youth-driven action for clean cooking. 

CCA is dedicated to igniting the passion, harnessing the potential, and amplifying the impact of young individuals in driving the clean cooking agenda forward. By embracing the power of youth, CCA strives to forge a sustainable and inclusive clean cooking ecosystem that leaves a lasting, positive legacy for generations to come.

Celebrating Youth Leadership

Highlighting the stories, leadership, and successes of youth across the ecosystem creates a positive feedback loop – encouraging more youth to focus on clean cooking and opening new doors for youth to participate at all levels of the sector. 

•  CCA’s Youth Leadership Series features dynamic conversations with youth leading across the clean cooking ecosystem. 
• CCA’s Clean Cooking Women Leaders Award includes a Youth Leader category. The winner receives leadership coaching and sponsorship to attend the Clean Cooking Forum. 
• CCA’s Youth Newsletter regularly informs youth about relevant news, announcements, and opportunities, and highlights youth leadership in the clean cooking sector. 

Youth Program Highlights

• The annual Women in Clean Cooking Mentorship program provides mentorship, training, and networking opportunities to early and mid-career women in the clean cooking sector. 
• CCA sponsored the 2023 YES! Youth Energy Summit with an interactive clean cooking booth, youth-led panel discussion, and a Kenyan youth clean cooking delegation. 
• CCA and Student Energy brought the first ever youth delegation to the 2022 Clean Cooking Forum. The 20-person delegation participated in plenary and breakout sessions, the innovation expo, an intergenerational roundtable, and networking events. 
• CCA sent the first youth clean cooking delegation to the 2022 One Young World Summit to raise awareness among the 2,000+ global youth participants. Another clean cooking delegation will attend the event in 2023. 
• CCA developed a Clean Cooking & Climate Challenge and learning resources for GirlUp clubs around the world. 
• As part of CCA’s youth consultation process, CCA held on a webinar on “Building CCA’s Youth Engagement Strategy,” where youth had to opportunity to discuss various aspects of clean cooking. 

CCA Youth Partnerships

Work With Us

CCA is actively seeking mission-aligned partners to enable the impact of the program through fiscal sponsorship and in-kind support via mentorship, technical support on projects, and other areas. This will be a unique opportunity for partners to showcase their commitment to accelerating clean cooking access and advancing opportunities for meaningful youth participation across the clean cooking ecosystem.

Contact partnerships@cleancooking.org.