Ease Smoke: Improve Health
Location
The project intends to make the dissemination of improved metal cook stoves easier by offering an attractive package, to users with no electricity, which combines well proven improved fuel efficient clean metal cook stove with Water Pasteurizing Unit and solar PV lighting system through people-centered marketing. This marketing approach will involve income generation training for the users and “First Use- Pay later” financing scheme. The targeted population is not just a consumer market. Our package in combination with our holistic approach in terms of training and sustainability, is what makes our project innovative. Specifically:
• NEW Geographic Area: High Hills (above 2000m) and Mountains have not got much attention in the past from either the govt. or private sector in commercial dissemination of much needed fuel efficient cook stoves in a large scale.
• NEW combination of existing technologies - cook stove with water pasteurizing unit & light: Past approaches to disseminate cook stoves commercially or via grant basis have failed because the lighting aspect had been neglected. The package in this project includes, in addition to the fuel efficient cook stove that reduces fuel consumption by 50% with Water Pasteurizing Unit, a battery based lighting system.
• NEW Product Delivery Method: The cook stoves will be made centrally in large volume and then shipped to local assembly sites. The stoves will then be assembled locally and installed by a locally owned and operated unit which will be trained by the project. This results in capacity and business development for entrepreneurs in the area.
• NEW Marketing Strategy - Teach to Earn & “Use First – Pay later” scheme: The project doesn’t tend to make the poor people who are in the bottom of the economic pyramid just another set of consumers. With the help of the committed partners, the project helps to train and develop income generation skills in the people who are interested in the “Ujeli” package.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Focus of activity
Technology
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2007
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Complex, expensive medicine
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Simplify through technology
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
Ease Smoke: Improve Health
Describe Your Idea
The project intends to make the dissemination of improved metal cook stoves easier by offering an attractive package, to users with no electricity, which combines well proven improved fuel efficient clean metal cook stove with Water Pasteurizing Unit and solar PV lighting system through people-centered marketing. This marketing approach will involve income generation training for the users and “First Use- Pay later” financing scheme. The targeted population is not just a consumer market. Our package in combination with our holistic approach in terms of training and sustainability, is what makes our project innovative. Specifically:
• NEW Geographic Area: High Hills (above 2000m) and Mountains have not got much attention in the past from either the govt. or private sector in commercial dissemination of much needed fuel efficient cook stoves in a large scale.
• NEW combination of existing technologies - cook stove with water pasteurizing unit & light: Past approaches to disseminate cook stoves commercially or via grant basis have failed because the lighting aspect had been neglected. The package in this project includes, in addition to the fuel efficient cook stove that reduces fuel consumption by 50% with Water Pasteurizing Unit, a battery based lighting system.
• NEW Product Delivery Method: The cook stoves will be made centrally in large volume and then shipped to local assembly sites. The stoves will then be assembled locally and installed by a locally owned and operated unit which will be trained by the project. This results in capacity and business development for entrepreneurs in the area.
• NEW Marketing Strategy - Teach to Earn & “Use First – Pay later” scheme: The project doesn’t tend to make the poor people who are in the bottom of the economic pyramid just another set of consumers. With the help of the committed partners, the project helps to train and develop income generation skills in the people who are interested in the “Ujeli” package.
Innovation
Define the innovation
The project intends to make the dissemination of improved metal cook stoves easier by offering an attractive package, to users with no electricity, which combines well proven improved fuel efficient clean metal cook stove with Water Pasteurizing Unit and solar PV lighting system through people-centered marketing. This marketing approach will involve income generation training for the users and “First Use- Pay later” financing scheme. The targeted population is not just a consumer market. Our package in combination with our holistic approach in terms of training and sustainability, is what makes our project innovative. Specifically:
• NEW Geographic Area: High Hills (above 2000m) and Mountains have not got much attention in the past from either the govt. or private sector in commercial dissemination of much needed fuel efficient cook stoves in a large scale.
• NEW combination of existing technologies - cook stove with water pasteurizing unit & light: Past approaches to disseminate cook stoves commercially or via grant basis have failed because the lighting aspect had been neglected. The package in this project includes, in addition to the fuel efficient cook stove that reduces fuel consumption by 50% with Water Pasteurizing Unit, a battery based lighting system.
• NEW Product Delivery Method: The cook stoves will be made centrally in large volume and then shipped to local assembly sites. The stoves will then be assembled locally and installed by a locally owned and operated unit which will be trained by the project. This results in capacity and business development for entrepreneurs in the area.
• NEW Marketing Strategy - Teach to Earn & “Use First – Pay later” scheme: The project doesn’t tend to make the poor people who are in the bottom of the economic pyramid just another set of consumers. With the help of the committed partners, the project helps to train and develop income generation skills in the people who are interested in the “Ujeli” package.
Context for Disruption:
.5 million women and children around the world die of indoor air pollution every year due to indoor air pollution (IAP) caused by open burning of biomass in traditional stoves [source : WHO]. IAP is also a major problem in Nepal where around 80% of people use biomass for cooking, heating and lighting. It is also the cause one of the highest mortality rates among children and women, especially in the high hills and cold mountains where people need to burn wood continuously for cooking, heating and lighting. Because of lack of awareness about hazardous health effects of IAP and poverty, 2-3 million people living in high hills and mountains do not have clean fuel efficient cook stoves that can reduce the indoor air pollution. Furthermore, these areas also do not have access to either grid electricity or alternative electricity. The two problems of indoor air pollution and lack of electricity are coupled. Lack of electricity for lighting often forces the people to use open fires which otherwise provides the source of lighting and heat needed in cold regions but results in high indoor air pollution.
There have been sporadic attempts in the past by few local NGOs and INGOs to disseminate few metal cook stoves in high hills and mountainous regions of Nepal to reduce IAP. Many of these stoves were poorly designed and manufactured, and offer little in the way of fuel efficiency.
Also because of the initial costs involved and lack of technical knowledge to build good quality stoves, no other organizations, to our knowledge, have initiated a sustainable holistic program to provide efficient metal cook stoves (with a lighting system) to those who most need them in high hills and mountains, and provide training and education that will help their social and economic condition so that they can pay for these products once they are financially capable.
Delivery Model
The project will target a total of 300 households (as a model) from the targeted four villages.in 3 years, taking into consideration their socio-economic condition and awareness about indoor air pollution and its effects in health. In order to achieve our goal, we will adopt the following three strategies:
1. Community Awareness about IAP: There has not been a huge focus on awareness building surrounding the adverse effects of IAP – which is why it has been a challenge to sell improved stoves in this region. The project will carry out an effective community awareness program about IAP with active community involvement.
2. Capacity Development for Increased Income Generation and Market Development for their products: The households in these four villages have a lot of underutilized lands, which can be used to grow organic beans, potatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables which thrive in cold climates and which have a very high demand in the nearby towns. The women also make traditional hand-woven products such as blankets and rugs and also make good quality cheese.
3. Sell “Ujeli” package through “First Use – Pay later” financing scheme: To meet the triple need of the end users, our stoves will provide a clean, efficient means to cook with water pasteurizing, and will generate heat for warmth and provide light. The project will offer what we call “Ujeli” packages to the 300 households. The package will consist: i) a fuel efficient metal cook stove with ii) water pasteurizing unit and iii) a battery based lighting system that will be charged in a small cheap modular PV charging station.
4. “USE FIRST – PAY LATER” financing scheme:
The participating households from the four targeted villages will be trained to form, with initial contribution of initial membership amount from each participant, a self managed “community savings and loan” group.
Key Operational Partnerships
1. Global Innovation Centre (GIC): GIC, based at Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory of Colorado State University is an organization formed between College of Engineering and College of Business to develop and disseminate unique technological solutions to improve health and environment in developing countries through creation of sustainable business units. GIC has a track record of working with NGOs/INGOs. It will support STARIC in research and development works.
2. Wean Co-Operative: WEAN Multipurpose Co-operative Ltd. is all-women run organization which is involved in providing trainings for women groups including poor, disadvantaged, dalit and handicapped (mostly deaf) people in the field of entrepreneurship building, skill upgrading, costing and marketing their different products to develop a sustainable income generation source for them. With its immense ground-work experience and established marketing channels, WEAN Co-operative will bring into this project a much needed skill for income generation training of the participating households.
3. Paltor Peak Club
Paltor Peak Club is a local club of rasuwa which is working in village development works in the district. It has undertaken different development activities in partnership with national NGOs, INGOs and Government of Nepal. It is association of young people of rasuwa who are working for development of villages of rasuwa district. It will assist in project implementation.
Impact
Financial Model
Micro Credit Mechanism.
The initial cost of the “Ujeli” Package is estimated at around US$ 85. The government has committed to provide subsidy that can cover 50% of the total cost of the stove [with a ceiling of US$35]. The participating households from the four targeted villages will be trained to form, with initial contribution of US$ 30 from each participant, a self managed “community savings and loan” group. The pool will be provided with the “Ujeli” package initially on “Use first – pay later” basis. The income generation training will be provided to the participants and mechanism developed to start their own household business. After 1 year, the participants will pay $5.27 monthly installments for four years to their self managed “savings and investment” group to pay back for the capital cost of the package and the solar charging station. This collected money will be used to expand the project into other households. After 4 years, the participating households will have to pay only 42 cents a month to maintain the small modular solar charging station.
What is your annual operating budget?
$100,000
What are your current sources of revenue? (please list any sources that are foundation grants)
None. STARIC Nepal is financing the initial phase of the project.
Effectiveness
The project has not been implemented yet.
The project will initially focus on four villages in Rasuwa District. The project in its 3 years will target 100 and 200 households from these four villages in the first and second year respectively, benefiting approximately 1800 people directly and around ~ 50,000 people indirectly from the surrounding villages through community awareness programs. The project expects to reach 17000 households in 3+ years after WB funded phase directly benefiting more than 100,000 people. Our earlier work (carried out with government (ESAP), SNV (Netherlands Development Agency), WWF/Nepal and GIC) in promotion of metal stoves have shown that people are ready to install fuel efficient and user friendly stoves (provided they have good lighting system). This project intends to develop and disseminate fuel efficient cook stove in an affordable way and also help the government in achieving its objectives of poverty reduction. We have also conducted a baseline survey and collected positive feedback from the possible users in the villages about the project.
Which element of the program proved itself most effective?
The package of Improved metal cook stove, water pasteurizing unit and battery based lighting system delivered with micro credit mechanism.
The project intends to make the dissemination of improved metal cook stoves easier by offering an attractive package, to users with no electricity, which combines well proven improved fuel efficient clean metal cook stove with Water Pasteurizing Unit and solar PV lighting system through people-centered marketing. This marketing approach will involve income generation training for the users and “First Use- Pay later” financing scheme. The project expects to develop and implement this commercial dissemination model to sell the package to 300 initial households in 3 years.
Number of clients in the last year?
None as the project has not been implemented yet.
What is the potential demand?
There is lots of demand as lots of people are awared about the potential damage to their Health from Indoor Air pollution and dirty water.
Scaling up Strategy
80% of the total population of Nepal use biomass to meet the daily energy needs. There has been a government program to disseminate cheap mud stoves (US$ 2-5) in the low hills and plains of Nepal. However, there hasn’t been an effective program to disseminate relatively expensive metal cook stove in the high hills and mountains (above 2000m). More than 500,000 households and more than 2 million people in the mountains are still in need of affordable efficient metal cook stove and light. This project intends to demonstrate a mechanism to supply metal cook stove to those needy people in the high hills and mountains of Nepal. Because of its uniqueness in its approach (stove with light), this idea can be effectively applied to the mountains as well as other low lying areas on a larger scale.
1. 4 villages of Rasuwa District: Initially only 300 households will be targeted in 3 years (100 in 1st and 2nd year and 200 more in 3rd year). However, there are 1600 other households in these four villages that can become potential users.
2. Beyond the 4 villages of Rasuwa District: There are about 8000 households in Rasuwa District without improved cook stove. Because of community awareness programs that will be conducted, there is a huge potential of implementing this idea in other villages, few of which might also have access to electricity thus leaving out the lighting part of the package.
3. High hills and Mountains of Nepal: One of the project’s goals is to establish locally owned modular stove assembly sites to cut down the transportation cost of the whole cook stove and capacity development of entrepreneurs who will also act as distributors of the stoves.
Stage of the initiative:
0
Expansion plan:
None till today as we have not implemented this innovation yet.
Origin of the Initiative
When we understood the fact and problem that
2.5 million women and children around the world die of indoor air pollution every year due to indoor air pollution (IAP) caused by open burning of biomass in traditional stoves [source : WHO]. IAP is also a major problem in Nepal where around 80% of people use biomass for cooking, heating and lighting. It is also the cause one of the highest mortality rates among children and women, especially in the high hills and cold mountains where people need to burn wood continuously for cooking, heating and lighting. Because of lack of awareness about hazardous health effects of IAP and poverty, 2-3 million people living in high hills and mountains do not have clean fuel efficient cook stoves that can reduce the indoor air pollution.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
What are your two main challenges to finance the growth of your initiative
The 2 main challenges in financing th growth of your initiative are 1. operation of effective micro credit mechanism and 2. Increasing economic condition of households making them able to pay back the loan. We need about $200,000 for starting the project.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate?
From Ms. Kalpana, from changemaker and asoka foundation.
The Story
Do you have an annual financial statement?
Yes
Do you currently have an annual financial statement that tracks profit/loss?
Yes. But we are non governmental not profitable organisation thats why there is no such investment which can be lost and no profit at all.
Please describe the amount (and/or type) of funding you need to implement your initiative, at year 1 and at year 5.
1st year: $200,000 covers expenses for 2 years for initial R and D works and investment for providing loan.
For 5 year: none as till this time all the loan amount will be paid and the payback amount will be used as operating cost from this year onwards.
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