This course offers participants an opportunity to learn about the clean cooking sector in an innovative and comprehensive way, providing a foundational introduction to a field that is nuanced, multisectoral, and often overlooked. In this regard, the course is intended for donors, investors, development practitioners, and entrepreneurs, aiming to conduct a deep dive on MECS to help prepare a way forward together with the World Bank. The course is also an opportunity for a broader audience of individuals, including university students, who are interested in the field of clean cooking. Finally, this course can serve as an interactive addendum to the World Bank’s publication on The State of Access to Modern Energy Cooking Services (September 2020).
MOOC
The Hidden Side of Energy Access: Understanding Clean Cooking
This course explores the hidden side of energy access by uncovering the reality that over 4 billion people around the world currently lack access to modern energy cooking services (MECS) for their daily cooking needs. Throughout the developing world, households still cook with firewood and charcoal on rudimentary stoves in poorly ventilated rooms, resulting in significant negative impacts for health, gender, the environment, and our climate. Stagnating progress on this development agenda costs the world an estimated 2.4 trillion USD per year. In this four-part learning series, you will familiarize yourself with core concepts in the clean cooking sector, uncover the nuanced and contextual nature of accessing modern cooking solutions, learn about innovative financing approaches, and discover recommendations for actors seeking to make clean cooking a reality for households across the world.