Clean Cooking Solution

An expression of love, identity & fulfillment

Food is one of the four basic needs in life; the other three are air, water and shelter. While you can eat many things to survive, it is more enjoyable when they taste good. That’s the exact reason why cooking was invented. In about 2.6 billion homes across the world, food is cooked as an essential part of the daily chore. Everyday cooking in the home is still women’s work. This should not be understood merely from the perspective of female subjugation. Food is an important expression of identity, and the giving of food seems to be closely related to femininity and the subjective experience of being a woman.

The silent killer

Although cooking can be a fulfilling activity, using charcoal or wood indoors can be a health hazard far more dangerous than one can imagine, turning this engagement into a nightmare in few years.

Around the world more than three billion people – nearly half the world’s population – cook and heat their homes using fuel like wood and charcoal on open fires or traditional stoves. This inefficient method produces lots of smoke creating Indoor Air Pollution (IAP). The World Health Organization (WHO) says IAP kills more than four million people every year.

IAP from combustion of solid fuels for cooking and space heating is one of the ten most important risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease. It is estimated to account for over 1.5 million premature deaths and 38.5 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs).

A daunting goal

Around the world, an estimated 2.6 billion people still lack access to clean cooking solutions. Therefore, addressing the use of open fires and traditional cook stoves and fuels is one of the world’s most pressing health and environmental problems, disproportionately affecting women and children.

Replacing traditional fireplaces with cleaner fuels and more energy-efficient cooking solutions can reduce smoke emissions, provide cost savings and reduce the time and resources needed to procure fuel.

Our objective

Our teams are based in different geographical locations across the world and exhibit cultural diversity, have varied backgrounds and speak different languages. This diversity helps us in understanding the issues of clean cooking more objectively, and through a wider canvas. Each member brings his invaluable local knowledge and experience to the ideation process to help design a robust solution for a region in focus. Our overriding collective effort is to:

Promote the use of cleaner cooking technologies and fuels that can reduce the incidence of Household Air Pollution at the global level, on a commercially viable basis, by leveraging industry capabilities to support access to energy
Share best practices around the deployment of cleaner and modern solutions to the energy poor, in order to address the energy gap
Disseminate knowledge about energy access solutions
Emerge as an enabler of technology and products in the clean cooking domain

ICDI & A Clean Cooking Solution

What are we doing?

We design, manage, implement and monitor country level Clean cooking solutions through an impact program having integrated approach of clean cooking technology, production of biofuel ethanol, enterprise development of the downstream industries and result-based financing mechanism, monitoring and evaluation along with a theory of change transformation process embedded with a behavioral change of the households and community as a whole.

Why are we doing?

ICDI team is passionate about bringing substantial grass-root level holistic impact in the low and middle income countries, with a focus on pre-urban and rural households who are deprived of access to clean cooking technology and innovation, clean biofuel ethanol and enterprise ecosystem development for the local economy development.

Ethanol – The pivotal biofuel for sustainable growth

The Energy Information Agency (2005) describes the history of ethanol. Ethanol’s first use was to power an engine in 1826, and in then in 1876. Ethanol was also used as a lighting fuel in the 1850s. With the recent developments, the first generation ethanol production from feed stocks of sugar cane, corn, etc. have raised alarms on the food security globally, as several reported publications have linked this theory to direct impact on the food security.

As part of ICDI strategy, our aim is to promote and popularize the concept that “Ethanol was also used as a lighting fuel in the 1850s” and as evidence to the utmost need in the 21^st century and to use second generation ethanol (waste to energy) as a “Clean cooking” biofuel to deliver the clean cooking solutions for the 2.6 billion people who are deprived of such innovative technology and biofuel, and bring large scale impacts to the households and the community in rural and pre-urban settings. With current sustainable, decarbonization and net-zero strategies, ethanol will be in increasing demand for the blending biofuel in the ever-growing transport sector across the world. Our overarching aim is to solve the agricultural residue waste management, using these feed for second generation ethanol production, local capacity development and be used in clean cooking solutions. Eventually, with the advancement of technology and innovation, we will also look at the third generation ethanol that can be suited to bringing large scale impact to rural economy.

Our Partners in Clean Cooking

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

UNIDO is a strong supporter in clean cooking and has implemented a program which creates value chains of clean cooking fuels and technologies in several countries. With a “market enabling framework,” the organization is turning the lack of clean cooking fuels into an economic opportunity to incubate new industries manufacturing Bio-ethanol and stoves, and to create new jobs.

Project Gaia (PGI) Energy Revolution

Project Gaia (PGI) Works to:

Raise awareness of the safety, health, economic, and environmental benefits of alcohol fuels.
Displace traditional polluting fuels by implementing community-based alcohol stove and fuel projects.
Spur job creation by encouraging the local manufacture and commercialization of alcohol fuels and appliances.
Replicate successful projects and increase energy access by sharing knowledge and resources with governments, the private sector, nonprofits, and other stakeholders.

The Energy Nexus Network (TENN)

The Energy Nexus Network (TENN) is a regional knowledge hub in Sierra Leone for scaling sustainable energy and clean cooking solutions. TENN is a driver for ensuring sustainable energy access, targeting economic development and improved well-being.

Leading action on energy access to support energy enabling SDGs for improved well-being, livelihoods, social services and economic development.
Building resilient energy ecosystems (i.e., the enabling conditions and processes) for scaling and replication sustainable energy and clean cooking solutions and services.
Facilitating cross-sector dialogue and high-level engagements to strengthen inter-sector linkages, especially the nexus between energy and key development themes
Providing evidence-based policy advice and technical services through cross-learning, applied research and analysis.

ICD Impact is a registered brand of V- Impact House, Vienna/Austria