The Improved Cookstoves (ICS) programme aims to develop the cookstove market by enhancing the performance of all the actors in the ICS value chain: producers, retailers, testing agencies and users.

In Kenya, biomass provides for more than 80% per cent of the overall household energy needs. There are approximately 0.7 million households using biomass for cooking in urban areas (the main sources of biomass include charcoal, wood-fuel and agricultural waste). The cooking devices used by the majority of households have very poor thermal efficiency and serious health affects due to unclean combustion. The use of biomass with basic cooking devices combined with unsuitable cooking spaces is the main cause of Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) in Kenya estimated to be causing the death of 14,300 people annually .

The key outcome of this project is to increase access to and use of clean and efficient (gasifier) stoves and fuel pellets in the urban and peri urban market and eventually improve the livelihoods of estimated 15,000 people in poor urban and peri–urban areas of Kenya through access to and use of affordable clean and efficient cooking stoves and fuels within the two year project period. The project aims to support the market development of two gasifier stoves and fuel pellets in 4 urban and peri – urban areas in Kenya

The main beneficiaries are 2500 households who currently use kerosene and charcoal for cooking as well as stove and fuel entrepreneurs in the selected urban areas. Other beneficiaries are the stove producers and distributors as well as pellet manufacturers.