Partnership Will Focus on Frontier Economies and Least Developed Countries

.

(Accra, Ghana) The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) today launched a partnership to promote financial innovation and investment to deliver greater levels of finance to clean cooking solutions. Both organizations will focus in particular on markets in Africa and Asia, where the need for clean cooking is particularly acute.

The partnership was formalized between representatives of CCA, which is hosted by the UN Foundation, and UNCDF during the Clean Cooking Forum in Accra, Ghana.

Some 2.4 billion people live without access to clean cooking, which costs the world more than $2.4 trillion in damage to the climate and local economies and contributes to 3.2 million premature deaths each year. Current funding levels for clean cooking solutions has hovered around US$130 million, a fraction of the US$10 billion required annually to ensure access to clean cooking.

By working to increase finance flows into companies operating in clean cooking markets, CCA and UNCDF will look to close the clean cooking gap that is undermining local economies, producing negative health outcomes in communities and damaging the climate on a global scale. Both organizations will focus in particular on African and Asian markets where much of the global clean cooking needs are concentrated.

“Access to finance is one of the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs and businesses working on clean cooking solutions,” said Dymphna van der Lans, CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance. “Through this partnership with UNCDF, we will drive financial innovation to unlock smart public finance and new forms of climate and social impact finance to expand the frontiers of clean fuel and application”

“Between CCA’s leadership role and unsurpassed network in the sector, and UNCDF’s history of catalyzing investment to finance the decentralized energy value chain in frontier markets and LDCs, our partnership will truly optimize our unique capabilities towards this critical effort,” said Xavier Michon, Deputy Executive Secretary of UNCDF. “Perhaps most importantly, my hope is that both UNCDF and CCA can spark a demonstration effect that will see clean cooking finance go from the millions to the billions needed to arrive at the success that we seek.”

CCA and UNCDF will aim to increase the flow of public finance and newer forms of climate and social impact finance into companies operating in clean cooking markets. The two organizations will collaborate through three prongs of activities to carry out this effort:

• Joint Programming-- Partnering on innovative finance initiatives for clean cooking as well as digital innovations in Asia and Africa, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania;
• Research and Thought Leadership—In such areas as unit economics, identifying and understanding buyers and responsible carbon finance;
• Partnerships and Advocacy—Including the global promotion of clean cooking as nature based solutions within the climate finance space.