The Clean Cooking Alliance Releases its 2020 Annual Report

Highlighting accomplishments and notable moments from the Clean Cooking Alliance and its partners throughout the year

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Clean Cooking Alliance

Mar 11, 2021, 10:00 ET

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) published its 2020 Annual Report today, highlighting accomplishments and notable moments from CCA and its partners throughout the year.

The report opens by acknowledging that the clean cooking sector – like so many others – was heavily impacted in 2020 by the health risks and economic consequences of COVID-19. As the report highlights, CCA responded to this challenge in a variety of ways, starting with surveying 300 companies, investors, donors, and others in the clean cooking sector about the pandemic-related impacts they were experiencing. CCA also funded two studies, currently ongoing, on the links between exposure to household air pollution from inefficient cooking methods and COVID-19.

"Despite the devastating impacts of COVID-19 around the world, we saw significant progress throughout 2020," said Dymphna van der Lans, Chief Executive Officer of CCA. "In addition to providing critical support for pandemic recovery efforts, CCA helped secure more than US$16 million to fast-track sector growth and launched an industry development program to help businesses expand. We also continue to lead a system-wide strategy development process that could dramatically accelerate progress toward universal access to clean cooking. These achievements, combined with the many others outlined in this report, make me incredibly optimistic for 2021 and beyond."

The report provides details on these and other accomplishments from 2020, including:

  • Launching the Cooking Industry Catalyst, an industry development program designed to demonstrate the viability of commercially scalable business models working to deliver high-impact clean cooking solutions. As part of this work, CCA selected over 30 companies to join its Venture Catalyst portfolio, which offers specialized support to solidify commercial viability, enhance investment-readiness, and facilitate access to growth capital.
  • Kicking off the Clean Cooking Systems Strategy, a sector-wide initiative to accelerate universal access to clean cooking by 2030.
  • Launching the Haiti Clean Cooking Fund, which provides financial and technical assistance to Haitian companies, starting with Palmis Eneji, a clean energy product supplier.
  • Supporting the launch of the Spark+ Africa Fund, a pioneering investment facility focused on scaling up clean cooking solutions in Africa.
  • Developing a new Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and Theory of Change to better measure the impact and effectiveness of clean cooking activities.
  • Collaborating with partners to launch the Women in Clean Cooking Mentorship Program, with an initial cohort of 30 mentees from across African and Asia, selected from a pool of over 150 applicants.
  • Leading virtual workshops on the implementation of clean cooking standards in Francophone West Africa.
  • Continuing to raise greater awareness for clean cooking through the award-winning "Clean Cooking Is…" campaign, the world's first global advocacy effort designed exclusively to drive greater support for and investment in clean cooking.
  • Funding critical research, including how to best increase access to, and use of, clean cooking technologies in Nepal.

Additionally, the report features interviews from two series published by CCA in 2020: the Clean Cooking Leadership Series, which focuses on CEOs and other business leaders, and the Women Energizing Change Series, which highlights the crucial and varied ways in which women are advancing the development of the clean cooking sector. Specifically, the report includes interviews with:

  • Esther Altorfer, Managing Director of East Africa for Sistema.bio, a biogas system company that saw its sales increase even under COVID-19 restrictions;
  • Volker Schultz, CEO of Circle Gas, a holding company that acquired new technology as part of clean cooking's largest private equity deal to date;
  • Kalinda Magloire, CEO of SWITCH S.A., a clean cooking business that adapted to address food insecurity challenges in Haiti during COVID-19;
  • Happy Amos, Managing Director of Roshan Global Services, a stove manufacturing and retail company that adopted digital marketing strategies to maintain and grow its customer base; and
  • Vijay Bhopal, Managing Director of Connected Energy, a start-up designing innovative technology to make small-scale biogas systems more accessible.

To read the full 2020 Annual Report, click here.

Media Contact

Kip Patrick, Clean Cooking Alliance, 2028879040, [email protected]

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SOURCE Clean Cooking Alliance