The key challenges that have limited acceleration of access to improved cookstoves in Ghana include:
1. POLICY, REGULATION AND STANDARDIZATION
- Lack of national policy, strategy and coordination framework for the cookstoves sector;
- Weak regulation in the cooking sector, including regulation of the charcoal and wood fuel supply chain;
- Perverse subsidy policies inhibiting sector growth (e.g. LPG subsidies);
- Lack of incentives to promote the cookstoves sector – e.g. import duties and taxes on technologies and regulation of raw material inputs (scrap metal);
- Poor quality of stoves, mainly relying on artisanal production with lack of technical standards and quality control; and
- Inadequate testing and monitoring mechanisms resulting in poor performance and low durability.
2. CONSUMER AWARENESS, EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
- Need to address gender, cultural and behavioral dimensions of cooking;
- Supply-driven promotional projects which lack consumer research and input from end users; and
- Lack of continuous end-user engagement in design and development of improved cookstoves.
- Inadequate awareness of various households on the importance of adopting and using clean cookstoves
- Awareness creation at three levels – national, regional, district and community levels.
3. ACCESS TO FINANCE
- Limited budget support and over-reliance on pilot projects with short-term funding;
- Limited involvement of banks in formulation and implementation of cookstoves programmes;
- Lack of access to finance for producers to improve production capacity, quality, and decentralize production and distribution of cookstoves. Limited access for end users to finance for upfront costs; and
- Lack of funding for research and development, demonstrations, M&E and impact analysis.
4. MARKET AND BUSINESS DYNAMICS
- Low economies of scale and high cost of the improved cookstoves compared to the traditional cookstoves;
- Inadequate attention to long-term marketing and sustainable value-chain development;
- Inadequate capacity for key actors across the improved cookstove value chain, including researchers, financiers, raw material suppliers, manufacturers and distributors;
- Limited variety of improved cookstoves to support local needs and varied consumer segments;
- Limited technology transfer and diffusion technical knowhow in improved cookstoves manufacturing;
- Limited access to raw materials both in terms of quantity and quality; and
- Limited support to strengthen and expand and decentralize local manufacturing of improved cookstoves.
5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
- Limited access of key actors in clean cookstoves value chain to current studies, data, best practices and lessons learned;
- Limited statistics, mapping and evidence-based research on household cooking and heating, including local economic, gender and cultural dimensions.