Levelling production for easy access to clean cookstoves in Ghana

In Ghana, SNV is working with cookstove entrepreneurs to improve the quality of stoves for productive use.

These include cookstoves for roasting cassava (gari production), brewing local beer (pito), parboiling rice, producing shea butter and smoking fish.

A significant hurdle for the large-scale production and adoption of improved stoves was identified by SNV advisors in the organisational structure of the stove builders, working individually with their own technology. This resulted in slow  production and difficult maintenance.

To address these problems a workshop was recently organised with stove builders to mobilize their support for developing Open Source Improved Cookstoves that could be built by any accredited stove builder (franchise holder). The factories agreed to bring in their technology and agree on the first version of each Open Source Improved Cookstove.

Promising results: After the workshop, the first version of 3 different Open Source Improved Cookstoves (Fish Smoking; Gari Processing; Pito/shea/rice parboiling) was agreed upon. The next steps include building the Version 1 of each stove, testing this version against their traditional alternative to confirm the fuelwood saving potential, preparing a construction manual for Version 1 so that it can be constructed by franchise holders; developing training materials for stove builders; developing procedures for approval of franchise holders as well as procedures to verify that stoves are built according to specifications and meet the quality requirements.

The first Open Source Improved Cookstoves is expected to be built by franchise holders in August 2015. From then onwards, SNV will only support the Open Source Improved Cookstoves. This support includes: Further technology improvement (developing subsequent versions), subsidies, marketing support, awareness creation, financing, etc.

Because the Open Source Improved Cookstoves built by different stove builders is the same and because of increased numbers this will enable carbon financing or Result Based Financing opportunities for these stoves, guaranteeing continuation after initial pilots end.