CLASP welcomes Alba Topulli as the new Senior Director of Clean Energy Access at CLASP. In this role, Alba will lead CLASP’s efforts to scale jobs and economic opportunity and strengthen climate resilience through improved access to affordable and efficient appliances and equipment. Alba will be based in CLASP’s Nairobi office.

Over the last two decades, Alba has worked at the intersection of business, government, and the social sector, focusing on how strategy, research, and innovation can translate into scalable solutions that expand energy access. Much of that experience has been deeply collaborative, working directly with teams and partners in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Uganda to design and deliver market-led, modern energy solutions responsive to local contexts.

Most recently, Alba served as Chief Executive Officer of Power for All and led the organization through a period of strategic evolution, positioning the campaign for its next phase of impact and integration with CLASP. Prior to serving as CEO of Power for All, Alba was Deputy Managing Director at Mercy Corps, where she helped shape global strategy for Energy 4 Impact, the organization’s energy innovation platform. Earlier in her career, she led market development initiatives across Asia and Africa, designing interventions that strengthened energy access sector performance and unlocked investment in off-grid energy markets.

Power for All Joins the CLASP Family

The Global Distributors Collective (GDC) is the newest member of the Energy Access Institutions Facility, an initiative led by CLASP to help more people gain access to reliable and affordable energy.

Extensive network and wider reach 

For nearly a decade, GDC has worked with locally owned businesses (or ‘last mile distributors’), globally, to get efficient products like solar-powered lights, clean cookers, and water filters, to underserved homes and communities. By partnering with the Facility, GDC joins a group of like-minded institutions committed to delivering energy access across the continent.

GDC’s impact is significant. Its network includes 300 distributors across more than 60 countries, which collectively reach more than 60 million people with beneficial household products, including essential sustainable energy products. These distributors operate at the ‘last mile’; the elusive final stretch between services and the often rural, low-income or otherwise marginalized people trying to access those services.

Focused scope for meaningful impact 

GDC’s unique selling point is its strong focus on small, locally owned businesses, many of which face a lot of challenges growing or attracting investment. The Collective helps by providing practical training, tools, and support to help these businesses strengthen their operations; making industry knowledge available and more readily accessible; and linking businesses to investment opportunities. Equally important, GDC amplifies the voices of those businesses in decision-making spaces at the global level, where they have traditionally lacked a seat at the table.

The Facility partners with institutions that strengthen off-grid energy markets and help companies succeed and deliver not just electricity, but the skills, tools, and appliances that allow families and businesses to benefit from it. With GDC on board, the coalition is even better positioned to reach more people with solutions that work.

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About the Energy Access Institutions Facility

The Energy Access Institutions Facility, or “The Facility,” is a joint donor initiative to support and strengthen the institutions that are essential for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7, universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030. The Facility is supported by DOEN Foundation, British International Investment, Good Energies Foundation, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), and the UK Government via the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform and is managed by CLASP.

This material has been funded by UK International Development from the UK Government; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies.

Brazil’s leaders increasingly view efficiency as a cost-effective, climate-friendly tool for meeting the country’s energy needs while addressing economic barriers to energy access.

Analysis reveals that, in the absence of other interventions, meeting skyrocketing energy demand would require increasing domestic natural gas production by up to 300%. To avoid this, the government can embrace energy efficiency, making services like cooking and cooling less energy-intensive and therefore reducing overall energy demand.

Appliance efficiency has provided early wins in Brazil, although there are major opportunities to do more. New policies for air conditioners and LED lights are making the models available in Brazil more efficient. This, in turn, makes these appliances more affordable to operate—and therefore accessible to more people.

In conversations throughout COP30, the Brazilian government and media showcased energy efficiency as a key tool for meeting national and global climate targets, growing the country’s economy, and delivering accessible energy services for all.

In his speech to negotiators and delegates at the COP’s opening plenary session, Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin underscored the importance of meeting the COP29 pledge to double energy efficiency by 2030. “This COP must mark the beginning of a decade of acceleration and delivery—the moment when rhetoric gives way to concrete action, and when all parties move from setting targets to fulfilling them,” he said.

During a day dedicated to energy efficiency, the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (often referred to by its Portuguese acronym, ABDI) put together a packed agenda bringing together leaders from government, businesses, and international organizations to discuss how Brazil can achieve its goals through efficiency. During a session about the role of efficiency in the energy transition, speakers noted that a significant advantage of efficiency compared to other solutions is that technologies like efficient industrial equipment already exist and can be implemented immediately.

Another event organized by Casa Civil, the powerful organization run by Brazil’s presidential chief of staff, focused on the role of efficiency in achieving a just energy transition and expanding the Brazilian industry’s presence in the global marketplace. The event highlighted the fact that local appliance manufacturers can increase sales by making their products more efficient, which allows them to match international benchmarks and sell their products around the world.

Major Brazilian media outlets also jumped into the efficiency conversation at COP. Folha de São Paulo, the country’s largest newspaper, co-hosted a session with the Crux Alliance, a philanthropic organization focused on global climate policy, on leveraging demand-side strategies to deliver on renewable energy and efficiency targets.

Solar water pumps offer an enormous amount of income and job growth potential. CLASP’s report “Leave No One Behind: Bridging the Energy Access Gap with Innovative Off-Grid Solar Solutions” found that 87% of farmers in Rwanda who obtained a solar water pump reported an increase in their monthly incomes, while 64% reported hiring more laborers and growing more crops.

Enduring partnerships are the key to transforming lives and livelihoods

Both Baridi and Koolboks have longstanding partnerships with CLASP. Baridi was a finalist in the 2022 Global LEAP Awards Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge, while Koolboks received funding from the first round of the Financing Facility.

This round of the Financing Facility is Irri-hub’s first partnership with CLASP.

From long and enduring partnerships to new collaborations, these kinds of local, on-the-ground partnerships are key to helping transform the sector, bringing life-changing appliances to the millions who need them. CLASP remains committed to strengthening these relationships and investing in partners who are creating green jobs and equitable opportunities across Africa.

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About the Productive Use Financing Facility

The Financing Facility is an innovative program that provides grants, subsidies, and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors, helping to lower appliance prices and expand customer bases. The Facility makes it easier for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and households to buy energy-efficient technologies, such as solar water pumps, mills, and refrigerators, at favorable prices.

This program is supported by the Global Alliance for People and Planet .

For more information, read the Productive Use Financing Facility 2.0 press release, contact financing@clasp.ngo, and follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates on how the facility is benefiting people and our planet.

About CLASP

CLASP is the leading global authority on efficient appliances’ role in fighting climate change and improving people’s lives. With 25 years of expertise and offices on four continents, CLASP collaborates with policymakers, industry leaders, and other experts to deliver clear pathways to a more sustainable world for people and the planet.

About the Global Alliance for People and Planet

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet works for a world where everyone has access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity and the means to use it to improve their lives. Our Alliance builds transformative public, private, philanthropic partnerships to end energy poverty and accelerate green economic opportunity. Founded in 2021 by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund, we unlock finance, strengthen institutions, and transform markets, delivering progress anchored in deep community engagement. Our Alliance aims to reach 1 billion people with clean electricity, prevent 4 billion tons of carbon emissions, and create or improve 150 million jobs. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on X at @EnergyAlliance.

This report, “Making the Switch: The Deployment Handbook for Institutional eCookers,” conducted by Efficiency for Access in partnership with the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, aims to inform practitioners seeking advice on the design, deployment, and operation of commercially available institutional eCooking technologies and provide actionable recommendations for scaling eCooking in institutions in Kenya. This guide covers commercially available institutional eCooking technologies designed for both on- and off-grid applications. It provides:

• An overview of the current state of eCooking in institutions in Kenya
• Step-by-step advice for the pre-assessment, planning, installation, and commissioning of eCooking solutions
• Opportunities to scale the adoption of institutional eCooking

Download “Making the Switch: The Deployment Handbook for Institutional eCookers” to access key findings, recommendations, and guidance on electric cookers in institutional settings.

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition dedicated to advancing access to energy and affordable, energy-efficient appliances in underserved communities. It is a catalyst for change, accelerating access to off- and weak-grid appliances that boost incomes, avoid carbon emissions, improve quality of life, and support sustainable development. The coalition is co-chaired by UK aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access platform and the IKEA Foundation.

About the MECS programme

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is an eleven-year research programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO). MECS is a geographically diverse, multicultural, and transdisciplinary team working in close partnership with NGOs, governments, the private sector, academia, research institutes, policy representatives, and communities in 16 countries of interest to accelerate a transition from biomass to genuinely ‘clean’ cooking.

In seeking to spark a new approach to clean cooking, the MECS programme researches the socio-economic realities of a transition from polluting fuels to a range of modern fuels. Whilst the research covers several clean fuels, the evidence is pointing to the viability, cost-effectiveness, and user satisfaction that energy-efficient electric cooking devices provide. Significant progress has been made in access to electricity in the last decade, but these gains are sometimes disconnected from the enduring problem of clean cooking. By integrating modern energy cooking services into the planning for electricity access, quality, reliability and sustainability, MECS hopes to leverage investment in renewable energies (both grid and off-grid) to address the clean cooking challenge.

In early November, CLASP joined global experts in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the path toward electrifying cooking in Europe—a crucial but often overlooked step in building decarbonization. The daylong meeting brought together representatives from CLASP, E3G, ECOS, European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), Global Cooksafe Coalition, PSE Healthy Energy, Respire, and Universitat Jaume I.

The event took place as the European Union revises its ecodesign product regulations for cooking appliances. Today, less than half of Europeans use electricity to cook food, although clean cooking is more efficient, healthier, safer, and affordable than cooking with gas. The revision is an important opportunity to bring these benefits to people across the European market, while also making it easier for consumers to compare different hob models.

In panel discussions, speakers emphasized that cooking electrification is an important piece of the building decarbonization puzzle and noted that full household decarbonization may not happen without targeted support for cooking electrification. They also stressed the importance of an equitable, universal transition to clean cooking and discussed the critical role of consumer education in facilitating this transition.

The event featured a live induction cooking demo and food tasting with MasterChef UK winner Ping Coombes. Coombes demonstrated the versatility of electric cooking by creating a smoky flavor—often associated with open-flame cooking—in a wok heated by an inexpensive portable induction hob.

Learn more about CLASP’s work on electrifying cooking in Europe.

Marina Baur: Globally, there are 666 million people who aren’t connected to the electric grid. More than a billion others are dealing with frequent power outages because their grids are unreliable. A lot of the people in both groups live in sub-Saharan Africa. Can you give us a sense of how the lack of reliable electricity shapes their lived reality?

Emmanuel Aziebor: Well, if you look at the data around electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa, some countries have much better statistics than others. In countries like Ghana and Kenya, over 70% of the population has electricity. But the reality is, if you go to any of these countries, there are still people with no access to even basic electricity. And by that, I mean they’re in darkness for much of the time; their only form of lighting is something like candles and kerosene lanterns. If they’re lucky, maybe they have a solar lamp.

Many of these communities are only about a kilometer away from the nearest grid. This happens mostly as a result of what we can think of as geographical difficulties: Maybe the community is on an island, or maybe the location is very sparsely populated—most of the time, the government only electrifies communities that have at least a few hundred people. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, since people leave those areas for the cities in order to get electricity and job opportunities.

So that’s one side of the energy access issue in Africa: Some people just don’t have electricity. Another side is that some people who are connected to the power grid can’t always rely on it when they need it. In countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, you still have a lot of blackouts. These happen in part because the utilities are in so much debt, which affects how efficiently they can operate.

These blackouts don’t only affect people in their personal lives; they also affect businesses. We see this at CLASP. Our team in Nairobi works from home several days a week, but sometimes they have to come to the office anyway because of blackouts where they live. The office is the only place they’re sure they can get the electricity they need to be productive, because the generator in our building is always going to run.

People in all kinds of businesses are affected by electricity problems. Think about agriculture. Even though we have a lot of freshwater resources in Africa, it’s often hard for farmers to irrigate their crops because you need pumps to move that water and many farmers don’t have electricity to power those pumps. And if farmers can’t irrigate their crops, the crops don’t grow as well as they should, which keeps farmers’ incomes low and raises local food prices, which, in turn, impacts food security.

It’s also important to understand that people use energy to indirectly support their incomes. A long time ago, my father retired from the force and moved from the city to the village. That meant carrying all his appliances and everything to the village, where there was no electricity. So he bought a car battery to run this black-and-white TV. My mom started a bakery, and in the evening, people would come there to sit around and watch TV, and then they would buy bread and pastries as well. So that TV set indirectly contributed to my mom’s income. Without it, she would’ve earned less.

Baur: Thanks for that. CLASP believes that a significant percentage of the money devoted to building energy systems needs to be invested in appliances. That’s not a very intuitive idea; why do you think that’s important?

Aziebor: Well, electricity is like water flowing in a river. There are electrons all over the place, but they must be captured into usable form, and what makes that possible is appliances.

Let’s look at this issue from the macro level. Utilities set up generation plants and transmission systems to transfer those electrons to a point of distribution: a pole that is metered, with a wire that goes into a home. Currently, in the energy sector, we measure these poles and say things like, “We have connected 10,000 households to electricity.” But having that connection in your home doesn’t mean you can actually use those electrons. That can only happen through a device that draws that power and turns it into the services you need. That device could be a light bulb or a TV; it could be a fan or an air conditioner.

So the actual benefit of electricity only happens when people have appliances. And that’s actually true for the utility as well. If nobody uses the electrons they generate and transmit, utilities do not make profit. A lot of utilities in Africa are in debt, partly because people aren’t using the electricity that essentially just stops at the metering point.

This is what CLASP focuses on, and it has implications at every level of society. At the individual or household level, appliances can improve quality of life, reduce sicknesses, and improve incomes. For example, in very hot places like West Africa, it’s hard to sleep without an air conditioner or fan, and if you can’t sleep well, your quality of life and productivity suffer.

At the institutional level, if you, say, provide high-quality appliances in health clinics and hospitals, enabling things like reliable refrigeration of vaccines, the provision of healthcare improves. It also becomes more cost-effective because you’re not wasting valuable resources that you then have to buy more of.

And at the small business level, businesses that have appliances will be able to earn more profit. This is very important for economies in sub-Saharan Africa, since small and medium companies make up 95% of registered businesses in the region. Today, many of these businesses are struggling, for a wide variety of reasons. Having better access to devices that turn energy into the services they need could really be a game-changer.

So when you talk about community resilience, appliances play a major role. They help people access better information, higher incomes, and less sickness. Appliances are how we turn energy into opportunities, into comfort, into quality of life.

This is a very important topic in Africa. But for a very long time, it hasn’t really been explained—even to government decisionmakers—from a strategic position.

Baur: What could African governments do to help more people access appliances? What types of interventions should they be thinking about when they decide where to spend money or what solutions to drive forward?

Aziebor: If you speak to African policymakers, the main things they’re concerned about are job creation and economic development. So that’s what we focus on.

Seventy percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is under 30, and many of these young people can’t find jobs. If they cannot get opportunities in-country, they move out, and then we see all this risk on the Mediterranean. So how can we encourage African governments to look at appliance access as a solution to that problem?

Basically, we say that one way to resolve issues around youth unemployment and economic development is to utilize the abundance of energy that is available. A lot of countries have installed grid capacity that is not being utilized. Well, what if we used that capacity to support rural enterprises? About 60% of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa works in agriculture. So there are major opportunities there, and we already have a good idea of where interventions would do the most good. Most countries are mapped out into places where there is agricultural productivity, places where you can have agricultural processing. So we could say, “Okay, we know this area is good for rice production. Let’s get some irrigation systems into that area to produce more rice and get the youth involved in this business.” Then, we could encourage rice processing, which adds value—we can provide rice mills to help people get into that business. And then those workers would earn money that can be invested back into their businesses. So with appliances, governments can use energy to catalyze rural economic development.

Another thing governments can do is introduce regulations to make appliances run more efficiently and eventually lead to lower consumption of energy. This may seem like a contradiction: If utilities need people to use more energy in order to be profitable, why would governments want appliances to use less energy? Well, the issue in Africa is that inefficient appliances have been dumped here for a long time. They overconsume energy, which creates an inflated need for grid capacity. And then governments build generation capacity to meet these inflated projections, which creates a huge delta in capital investment relative to the actual need. As a result, they’re spending money on power grids that could’ve been invested elsewhere, like schools or hospitals or job creation. Making matters even worse, these big generation capacities put the utilities in even greater debt because there aren’t enough appliances to use them all.

So our hypothesis here is that if we introduce efficiency regulations into the appliance sector, it allows the government and utilities to right-size the grid and right-size their capital spending.

Baur: Can you give examples of where this kind of approach has been tried and found successful?

Aziebor: Well, if you look at appliance dumping, African leaders have been at the forefront of a lot of these initiatives. For a long time, companies have sent products they can no longer sell in other parts of the world to the continent. This was happening with fluorescent lighting, which is extremely toxic, and African policymakers pushed back, which was instrumental in getting global agreement to phase out the production of fluorescent bulbs.

I haven’t seen a large-scale program for other appliances, but I will mention a related example. Some time ago, the national government in Ghana came up with a way to transition all urban communities from charcoal to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as a cooking fuel, because we have abundant natural gas resources and the use of charcoal was causing deforestation in rural communities. So what did they do? They basically set up a government-owned LPG cylinder manufacturing company. They said, “Everybody, you’re going to get a subsidized cylinder and your first LPG fill-up is going to be free.” They also used a portion of taxes from petrol sales to fund the LPG program. All that helped people get used to cooking with LPG, since cooking is so cultural.

This program has been running for more than more than 20 years. Now, if you go to urban homes in Ghana, every one has a gas cylinder that they are using.

So this is one clear example where at the national level, the government drove adoption. And we see successful examples all the time with other kinds of infrastructure. The government provides the funding to build the airport and we all pay for flights to keep it operating. The government builds the road and we all pay a toll to use it. So these things can be translated into conversations about appliances—how public capital could be used at scale to address a particular solution.

But one problem we have in the appliance sector in Africa is that there are too many Mickey Mouse pilot projects. The problem has always been around scaling.

That means the government needs to be involved. For a very long time, we’ve had the impression that the private sector and nonprofits are the most important partners in the appliance sector. The idea was that nonprofits bring the money to derisk the private sector. But we must flip this equation. To reach the scale we need, we need to bring government to the table very early on.

The government is a fulcrum around which we all must build. The nonprofit brings philanthropic capital, the private sector brings commercial capital, and governments bring public capital to scale. But if we are not looking at scale with that equation in mind, it becomes difficult. We must be intentional. We know solar water pumps work; we know green milling can become a conduit for local economic development. So how can we get governments to scale these solutions, creating national programs where they invest public money into resolving both job creation and access-related issues? That is where I think the conversation should be.