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Self Report 2019

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves commits to working with humanitarian agencies to investigate the linkages between sexual and gender-based violence and energy access. It commits to conduct research on the protection impacts that adoption of improved cookstoves and fuels can have for crisis-affected women and girls, and to advocate for better access to fuel and household energy to ensure better health, safety, livelihoods, and food security.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    The Clean Cooking Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves) continued its partnership with Johns Hopkins University and Plan International Spain to evaluate the impact of a clean cooking solution on the risk or incidence of gender-based violence in a humanitarian setting, as very little quality data on this topic currently exists. In 2018, the research team completed a baseline assessment of 2000 households in Kigeme refugee camp, Rwanda, where social enterprise Inyenyeri has since scaled up its provision of fan-gasifying Mimi Moto stoves and fuel pellets to the refugee community.  Johns Hopkins also conducted a training of trainers workshop on the Clean Cooking Alliance's Empowered Entrepreneur curriculum for 30 refugees in Kigeme camp, 16 women and 14 men, who will  in turn provide the curriculum to other Kigeme residents.

     

    The study team is conducting two subsequent rounds of data collection in 2019, which will (1) determine the association between cookstoves / efficient fuel use, firewood collection, and GBV and intimate partner violence (IPV); (2) assess the impact of the cooking intervention on additional factors such as food security and fuel consumption; and (3) test whether the addition of the empowerment training affects the uptake of the cooking solution.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Competing priorities among the key implementing partners and bureaucratic obstacles have delayed both the clean cooking intervention rollout and the execution of the study. Turnover within both the Government and the humanitarian partner agencies also required the team to advocate for the benefits of the study to a new audience. 

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    (1) Increased consistency in programming priorities (if possible) across staff changeovers in humanitarian organizations, to ensure that activities reach completion;
    (2) Pathways for humanitarian agencies to partner with research institutions or similar stakeholders who can supplement their limited capacity to conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation of interventions; and

    (3) Enabling the data and lessons from this and similar GBV-focused studies to be shared such that the wider humanitarian sector can improve based on their findings.  

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Displacement, Gender

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves commits to provide technical guidance, training, and support to humanitarian agencies to help mainstream cleaner and more efficient cookstoves and fuels into non-food item programming and distributions in accordance with The Sphere Project Handbook Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response (NFI Standard 4). Through access to cleaner and more efficient cooking technologies and fuel, it aims to reduce firewood use and improve the health, environment, safety, and livelihoods of crisis-affected populations.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Cash-based programming

    In 2018 the Clean Cooking Alliance supervised the launch and implementation of two grantee projects under its Humanitarian Clean Cooking Fund, the goal of which is to increase access to cleaner fuels and more efficient cooking technologies among crisis-affected people through the scale-up of successful cooking interventions in humanitarian settings. The Gaia Association in Ethiopia and Inyenyeri in Rwanda both partnered with local UNHCR offices, which initiated cash-based programming for alternative fuels for the first time in 2018. Both interventions also incorporate refugees into the clean cooking value chain as manufacturers, distributors, and sales agents. 

     

    By the end of 2018, Inyenyeri reached 1,000 refugee customer households with fuel pellets and fan-gasifying stoves in Kigeme camp, Rwanda, enabled by cash-based assistance for the refugees from UNHCR. The Gaia Association reached 719 refugee customer households in Sherkole and Tsore camps in Ethiopia with ethanol fuel and stoves, enabled through UNHCR’s pilot fuel voucher program. Both interventions continue to scale in 2019. The Clean Cooking Alliance will evaluate the impacts and lessons learned from both projects and provide reflections for the wider humanitarian and clean cooking sectors. 

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Cash programming for cooking interventions is new for most humanitarian agencies. Both projects have experienced delays related to the logistical details of how both cash interventions would function and determining the roles of each implementing partner. The short term of donor funding for both projects added urgency to this issue. 

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    (1) Enable and/or require humanitarian agencies (including local offices within larger agencies) to learn from each other and past experiences in the development and launch of cash-based programs, in order to reduce mistakes and obstacles in the early stages; and

    (2) Increase the provision of multi-year funding for cash programs and the goods and service interventions that depend on them to promote longer-term stability and enable subsequent economic development in affected and host communities. 

    Keywords

    Cash, Community resilience, Displacement, Local action

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves commits to work with humanitarian agencies to innovate on technology and approaches to increasing access to household cooking energy. The majority of people in humanitarian settings use traditional biomass (primarily firewood) for cooking, which often leads to higher rates of respiratory disease, safety risks for women and girls, and deforestation. As a technology and fuel neutral public-private partnership, it commits to help humanitarian agencies set minimum standards for cookstove and fuel performance, and to support innovation on cooking technologies and fuel.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    In partnership with United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), The Moving Energy Initiative, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Practical Action, the UN Foundation, UN Department of Economical and Social Affairs (DESA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and other partners, the Clean Cooking Alliance jointly launched the Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Energy Solutions in Situations of Displacement (GPA) in 2018. The GPA is a non-binding framework provides concrete actions for accelerated progress towards the vision of "safe access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all displaced people by 2030.” Its mission is to equip all stakeholders with the capacity to mainstream sustainable energy solutions into programming and implementation, with the goal of delivering improved protection, dignity, and energy-related social, environmental, and economic benefits to displaced people. The GPA Framework (Executive Summary attached) highlights key challenges and recommendations, and the GPA Steering Group and Coordination Unit, housed within UNITAR, are currently overseeing the development of a Work Plan of concrete actions towards this mission and vision.

     

    The network of entities and initiatives that support the development and implementation of the GPA is broad and diverse, comprising humanitarian agencies, development organizations, NGOs, donors, private companies, researchers, and other actors. This presents a critical opportunity to foster partnerships between humanitarian and non-humanitarian agencies.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The dearth of available and quality data on both the existence and results of energy interventions in humanitarian settings hampers the sector's ability to adapt and improve. Additionally, non-humanitarian entities find it difficult to access affected populations and form working partnerships with humanitarian agencies on the ground.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    (1) Continued advocacy and awareness-raising within the humanitarian community to prioritize energy access as part of standard assistance, and in particular to view it as an enabler of positive impacts in other cluster areas.

    (2) Fostering the creation of flexible partnership models that enable humanitarian agencies to work with non-humantarian actors on the design, implementation, and evaluation of energy interventions in humanitarian settings. 

    (3) Diversified funding sources and modalities that enable sustainable post-emergency scale-up.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus, Strengthening local systems, Urban

Attachments

  • GPA Framework
    Transformation - 4C | Humanitarian-development nexus
  • Policy Brief on Energy in Displacement
    Transformation - 3A | Displacement