Business Training Manual for Improved Cookstoves Entrepreneurs under the Promotion of Climate -Friendly Cooking in Kenya Project
In 2016 the UN launched SDGs, a set of 17 measurable goals which together form a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Kenya, as part of this global initiative, has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by developing the Kenyan Action Agenda, which plays a vital role in achieving clean cooking for all—a key objective of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), aimed at ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030.
As part of the push towards universal access to clean cooking solutions by 2028, the ‘Promotion of Climate-Friendly Cooking in Kenya’ project, co-financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (MoEP), aims to increase the uptake of improved cookstoves at the household level. This initiative employs a market transformation approach with the goal of transitioning Kenya’s improved cookstove value chain from its current artisanal/jua kali status to a more professional and sustainable model.
The GCF project is implementing an innovative market transformation strategy for Improved Cookstoves (ICS) in Kenya, while also enhancing global knowledge on the ICS sector’s contribution to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This will significantly increase the number of ICS users in Kenya particularly in peri-urban and rural areas. The GCF project will significantly reduce the consumption of non-renewable biomass in the cooking sector compared to the baseline scenario, leading to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The stove testing team diligently examines the equipment essential for rigorous stove testing.
The project objective is to accelerate the growth of the ICS sector with an irreversible market transformation that will significantly increase the level of ICS production and sales, particularly in remote and rural locations, thereby enabling Kenya to significantly advance the achievement of the stated NDC goals.
The project aims to establish a self-sustaining Improved Cookstove (ICS) market in Kenya, resulting in significant climate change mitigation impacts, including direct GHG emission reductions of 5.3 million tons of CO2 equivalent over the project’s lifetime. The project will also enable 1.6 million households to adopt Improved Cookstoves (ICS), benefiting approximately 8 million people. The project is implemented by Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (MoEP), GIZ, Practical Action (PA), Mercy Corps (MC), Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Strathmore University, Greenbelt Movement (GBM), Kenya Tea Development Agency Foundation (KTDA-F) and Clean Cooking Assiation of Kenya (CCAK).ociation of Kenya (CCAK).
The Business Training Manual for Improved Cookstoves Entrepreneurs was developed by Strathmore Energy Research Centre in consultation with the GCF implementing partners and ICS entrepreneurs as a toolkit to guide ICS, LMEs, end users and development partners in the establishment and management of a sustainable cook stove enterprise. The overall goal of the toolkit is to empower the entrepreneurs with the necessary skills to manage their businesses and to increase the number of SMEs engaging in profitable ICS businesses.
This will in due course increase the usage of ICS at the households and institutional levels. This BDS training manual (available at link) is composed of eight (8) separate modules which together combine to make a complete business skills kit for last mile entrepreneurs (LMS) and improved cook stove (ICS). SERC recommends that these modules are delivered accompanied with coaching and mentoring. The manual does not pretend to be exhaustive but contributes to vital resources for the development of the clean cooking sector.