The Envirofit Women’s Empowerment Programme (WEP) was founded on the belief that women, as primary users of cookstoves, must be involved in both their design and distribution in order for stoves to be adopted and for women’s needs to be fully met. The WEP was first developed and funded in conjunction with the Global Alliance…
SF Director Sam Parker and Catalyst CEO Dan Murphy discussed the report recently in an online webinar hosted by the Clean Energy Solutions Center in partnership with the United Nations Foundation Energy Access Practitioner Network, and took questions from an audience including investors, developers and supporters of the off-grid sector. Taking stock after 15 years…
Shell Foundation and Dutch development bank FMO have signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to cooperate in the fields of access to energy in Sub-Saharan Africa and India. This will include investment in financial institutions with specific goals to increase access to finance, reduce inequality and promote green financing and agribusiness. SF Director Sam Parker…
Nearly half the world’s population cooks with biomass. Open fire cooking represents the world’s largest environmental public health challenge contributing to climate change, deforestation, disability and mortality, while keeping families in the cycle of poverty to collect or purchase fuel for daily cooking. Household Air Pollution from open cooking fires kills 4.3 million people a…
One third of all food produced in emerging markets is lost or wasted between the farm and the table. In India alone the total value of lost food is estimated to be around $4.5bn annually. Part of the problem is the lack of ‘cold chains’ in rural areas. Cold chains provide an unbroken series of…
By Simon Meier Over the past years, pay-as-you-go solar companies have allowed hundreds of thousands of households in developing countries to benefit from access to electricity. However, with 1.2 billion people still living outside the reach of the grid, a step change is needed to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to…
When Shell Foundation was created in 2000, we set out to test a theory, largely unproven at the time, that market forces could be directed to deliver lasting socio-economic, health and environmental value to low-income communities – and that eradicating many of the world’s most entrenched development challenges could be financed predominantly from private capital.…
Nearly two billion people lack access to reliable and affordable modern energy – severely constraining their health, education and earning potential. Of this group, 60% live entirely without electricity for cooking, lighting and heating at home, for community services, or for improving the productivity of small businesses and farms. Accelerating Access to Energy outlines our…
Like a world champion Jamaican sprinter the use of the word “innovation” has exploded onto the scene in recent years as the golden ticket of international development, with a soaring number of entrepreneurs, social investors, grant-makers, corporates and public agencies in hot pursuit. The topic was widely debated at last month’s Sankalp Africa Summit in…
Social Marketing in India captures our experiences, both good and bad, over several years of running social marketing campaigns to drive adoption of improved cookstoves; and the broader lessons we have drawn for marketing social-impact products more generally. Download the report (pdf, 2.6mb)