Project to support Clean Cooking Sector in Ghana launched

Accra, April 12, GNA - The Strategic support to the Clean Cooking Sector in Ghana (SSCCSiG) project has been launched in Accra with the aim to support stakeholders engaged in clean cooking market development to build an enabling environment.

The 910,000 Euro project is running from November 2016 to May 2018 in Ghana and Kenya with funding from RVO.

In Ghana, the project is to build an enabling environment for the household clean cooking sector through strengthening the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cooking (GHACCO) administration and operations.

It is also to diversify GHACCO's membership and scope, to include LPG and rural woodstoves, with the latter to be the focus of an additional market development programme and developing a Market Innovation Facility with strong linkages to key sector actors.

Data on cooking practices in Ghana shows about 30 per cent penetration of LPG, partly overlapping with a 30-40 per cent penetration of charcoal stoves, approximately half of which are improved.

Furthermore, charcoal and woodstove market development in general seems to be hindered by a lack of access to finance and low levels of innovation.

Launching the project at the inception workshop, Mr Wim J. Van Nes, Global Sector Coordinator Energy, SNV-Netherlands, said a sector-wide approach would be needed to bring the solutions to the table.

He said the project must work with all sectors including the private sector, government and civil society groups to bring about solutions that would enure to the benefit of society.

Mr Van Nes expressed the hope that the launch would mark a new momentum in the clean cooking sector in Ghana, adding that the SNV has rich experiences in the renewable sector across 25 countries from which Ghana could benefit.

Mr Alex Kwame Donyinah, Project Manager SSCCSiG said a series of partner activities directly aligned with project objectives were underway to improve project implementation and ensure success.

He said the changing landscape of the Ghanaian cookstoves and fuels sector, the requirements of GHACCO members as well as the growing expectations of sector stakeholders, has resulted in a need to reassess GHACCO's mandate and value propositions and to implement a strategy that ensures its long-term relevance and sustainability in Ghana.

He said the expected results from the implementation of the Strategic Support to the Clean Cooking Sector in Ghana project include creating an operationally and financially sustainable GHACCO secretariat, a more effective regional member engagement by GHACCO, as well as an instituted annual forum that serves the needs of members and acts as a converging platform for the industry as a whole.

'At the end, it is also expected that a market innovation facility that offers a strongly linked ecosystem of support services, partners and information to benefit GHACCO members and the sector as a whole is created,' Mr Donyinah said.

He said a key part of GHACCO's future strength and relevance was a strong and engaged fee-paying membership-base that is attracted by the organisation's value proposition.

There is also the need to diversify GHACCO membership and scope, to include LPG and rural woodstoves actors, with the latter to be the focus of an additional market development programme.

GHACCO now has local membership in three of Ghana's 10 regions and given the dispersed nature of the cookstove market, there is the need to expand GHACCO's reach to all of the country,' he said.

Mr Donyinah said it is the hope of the project that at the end GHACCO would have a functioning secretariat, which is operationally and financially sustainable, being led with a clear mandate, value proposition and strategic business plan, and with sufficient financial and personnel resources to secure continued operations

GNA