Market development of the clean cooking sector in Mali

Through funding from Energising Development (ENDEV), SNV implements a market development project for improved cooking appliances in Mali.

Household cooking in urban and peri-urban settings in Mali is mainly done with charcoal and wood. One of the main barriers to the adoption of Improved Cookstoves (ICS) in Mali is the weak market organisation. The capacity to produce ICS exists, but as production is mainly done by individual artisans, quality control is challenging. For an end-user, it is very difficult to make an informed decision on which stove to buy, and for suppliers, there is little incentive to innovate as competition is mainly a price issue in the current context.

Through an inclusive process involving the Mali Alliance for Clean Cooking (M-ACC), different Government agencies, the Mali standards board (AMANORM), the national consumer association (ASCOMA) and women movements (COFEM, AFIMA), the quality label GWA+ (which means “Stove+” in local language) has been created. The graduated label guides consumers on the quality and efficiency of each type of ICS that complies with the standards and will motivate suppliers to develop better-performing stoves to get more “stars” (compare it with the energy efficiency labelling system for fridges).

SNV gives technical assistance to the M-ACC and the companies/cooperatives. This technical assistance includes training, coaching and communication campaigns around the label. Bamako is currently much better served in ICS than other cities in the country. To increase access in these other cities (in Koulikoro, Ségou and Sikasso regions), ICS companies will be motivated through result-based incentives to invest in setting up or strengthen production and distribution chains in secondary towns. The target is to facilitate the sales of 35,000 additional stoves in the selected regions by end of 2021.

In addition, SNV is gathering market intelligence to initiate the development of a cleaner and more efficient sector in productive use and supporting the Government’s desire to transition towards alternative cooking fuels. Together with PUM, a feasibility study for the production of cotton stem-based briquets to use as fuel in the cotton oil processing industry is going on, and SNV is looking into the special Government interest to develop a market for bio-ethanol cooking. A pilot in a limited geographical area is in preparation.