Royal Philips and the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, have partnered to improve access to clean cooking solutions in Africa by introducing clean and efficient household cook stoves to rural communities across the continent.
The partnership aims to improve the health and well-being and income of rural populations while having a direct positive impact on the environment and will include research, community education and access to financing for adopting clean cooking technologies.
According to the World Energy Outlook 2012, 2.6 billion people still depend on traditional cook stoves or open fires for cooking and heating their homes. The health and environmental risks of this are considerable.
These specially designed cook stoves can reduce smoke and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 90 percent compared to an open fire thus reducing the health risks of indoor cooking. The cook stove utilizes pellets, wood or other biomass for cooking..
Andy Wehkamp, SNV’s director of Renewable Energy said: “We believe that inclusive business can play an important role in poverty reduction and low carbon growth. By joining forces with Philips we expect to reduce the amount of people dependent on open fires or inefficient cook stoves for cooking. This contributes to a better environment, while low-income groups can enjoy better health and living conditions”
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Christoph Castellaz, Head of Strategy and New Business Development, Philips Africa states “We welcome the opportunity to partner with SNV; Philips is passionate to invent and apply technology to help people but we need meaningful partnerships to co-create new solutions and new business models that can make innovations like our cook stove accessible and affordable to communities that need them the most.”
The collaboration between SNV and Philips will initially focus on Kenya (East Africa) and Ghana (West Africa); an official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and Philips will be signed on 20 November 2014 during the assembly of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) in New York.
