[Stoves] Supporting women entrepreneurs in contextual design and promotion of biomass cookstoves

[Nikhil Desai]

Anil's 2004 proposal to the Indian Planning Commission on advanced biofuels
technologies reminded me of an off-topic comment I had made on this list on
16 December 16. I suggested creating a new brand - Global Alliance for
Clean Kitchens and Homes, to be led by Ivanka Trump but also with Modi,
Putin, and all three Clintons.

I was serious and I was prescient; now there really is an opportunity --
$100 millions from Saudis and $50 million from Ivanka's dad to the World
Bank for supporting entrepreneurial action by women in the developing
countries.

Trump pledges $50 mn to World Bank fund formed by Ivanka to help women
entrepreneurs
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/trump-pledges-50-mn-to-world-bank-fund-formed-by-ivanka-to-help-women-entrepreneurs/story-uNwVCesz9GTnrAJ6I5DIFN.html>,
Hindustan Times 8 July 2017.

The Women Enterpreneurs Financing Initiativ
<http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/women-entrepreneurs>e (a rewording of
WIFE - Womens Initiative for Financing Entrepreneurs) has already raised
$325 million and is seeking to exceed $1 billion (precisely the number I
said needed to be raised to get started).

What better way to reduce the drudgery and the dangers of traditional
biomass cooking than to engage women who have for generations known the
business of growing and handling biomass - farms, orchards, livestock
management - and using it? The entire fuel cycle can use investments in
knowledge, equipment, skills, and "save lives" to boot.

(I don't believe in that "save lives" promise, but it doesn't matter. Poor
people are neither ignorant nor fools. There are ample instances of
upgrading the biomass activities; what is missing - as Kirk Smith pointed
out in his second epiphany - is the supply organization. Which in turn
means, apart from the issue of land and water access rights and prices,
breaking the knowledge and financing barriers).

How many leaders of the biomass stove community are up to the challenge? I
see some women entrepreneurs in this "stoves" business; there should be
many more in the whole range of rural and coastal businesses, including
cooking, refrigeration, transport. Mere stoves may deliver some poverty
relief but not poverty alleviation, which can only come from transforming
the productive potential of land, water, and labor. It needs startup
capital. Ivanka and the World Bank are on the right path.

Nikhil

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Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202 568 5831
*Skype: nikhildesai888 *
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