Rocky Dawuni and Samira Bawumia at the “ 2017 Clean Cooking Forum in India Habitat Centre ''

Clean Cooking Forum 2017 with the theme “ Driving Demand, Delivering Impact ” marked an important milestone for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Alliance) and the cooking sector as they celebrate the impressive strides of the cleaner and more efficient cooking sector, as well as India’s leadership in the sector.











The 2017 Forum which was held from October 24-26th in central Delhi at the India Habitat Centre, and was co-hosted by Tata Trusts, TERI, and CLEAN with support from NITI Aayog.

The Forum will bring together over 500 global leaders and practitioners from business, finance, civil society, the UN, government, and academia to share best-practices, explore innovative approaches and financing mechanisms, and help forge new partnerships during three days of informative sessions, networking events, and technology and fuel demonstrations.

Among them were Grammy nominated singer and sing writer Rocky Dawuni and Samira Bawumia, wife of Ghana’s vice president. The two also shared their experiences and views about the negative effects of with solid fuels.

Samira bawumia expressed her gratitude to be at the Clean Cooking Forum 2017 with Rocky Dawuni to support and accelerate broader adoption of clean cooking solutions in Ghana and beyond.

“ Across Ghana, I have seen the widespread impacts of cooking with solid fuels first hand, especially among girls and women. As an Ambassador for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, I want to be a strong ally in the work to improve health, empower women, protect the environment, and ensure that cooking no longer kills ” she said.

Rocky Dawuni has served as the ambassador for Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves for 5years now. Dawuni joined hands with Hollywood actor Julia Roberts and celebrity chefs Sanjeev Kapoor and José Andrés to campaign for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN initiative launched by then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. “Every year, two million people die of cooking using unclean fuel. All over the world, three billion people use unclean fuel to cook,” he says. The Clean Cookstoves campaign reminded the world that the use of unclean fuel affects women and children, as well as the environment.

Rocky Dawuni on Clean Cookstoves Can Save Lives

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It’s true.

That’s because almost half the world’s population — some three billion people — rely on solid fuel to cook their food every day. When burned, fuels such as wood, charcoal, coal, animal waste and others emit harmful fumes that cause cancers, heart and lung diseases, cataracts, burns, and other ailments.

Cooking kills people, to the shocking tune of 2 million each year.

Just think about it — the act of cooking, which is meant to nurture our families and us is the fifth-biggest health risk in developing countries. As you might guess, women and children are the most impacted — from the safety risks associated with fuel collection to the hazards of inhaling cookstove smoke to the lost opportunities for education and employment due to inefficient cooking practices.

So when the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves asked me to come onboard as its newest Ambassador, I leapt at the opportunity to raise awareness about this issue, and to be part of the crosscutting solution to this crosscutting problem

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The participants were offered a range of site visits on October 27th and 28th to view the latest Indian business models, cookstove designs, and consumer LPG enterprises.