For Cleaner Air
These produce harmful emissions and indoor air pollution that damage people’s health and the environment. With support from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), we’re using digital tools and partnerships to grow the electric cookstove market in Nepal.
Although about 95% of Nepalese households have electricity, over 65% still use polluting stoves (Government of Nepal, 2022). This leads to serious health risks—especially for women and children—and causes around 24,000 premature deaths each year from indoor air pollution.
Switching to cleaner cooking methods is urgent. But there are challenges, such as limited awareness and poor access to alternatives like electric cooking. However, with nearly 90% of the population now connected to mobile networks, there’s strong potential to use digital platforms to spread awareness.
Practical Action has already helped 10,000 households switch to electric cooking in the two years before this project. We’re now building on that success by strengthening the market through collaboration and innovation.
2021 – 2023
Nepal
Energy access
Full title: Digital Innovation for Electric Cooking (eCooking) Market Development in Nepal
Dates: November 2021 – March 2023
Location: Gandaki Province, Western Nepal
Our role: Leading the application of digital technologies to accelerate the eCooking market; capturing and sharing our insights and key learnings.
Participants: 1,000 potential electric cooktop users, 10 last-mile distributors, 10 suppliers of eCooking products and 5 Community Rural Electrification Entities (CREEs).
Budget: 2.5 million Euros
Theme: Energy access
Implementing partners: National Association of Community Electricity Users Nepal (NACEUN); Ajummery Bikash Foundation (ABF)
Lead Donor: Energising Development (EnDev)
people die prematurely each year in Nepal due to indoor air pollution
of households in Nepal typically fuel their cookstoves with wood
To reduce indoor air pollution, we’re using our experience in Nepal’s energy sector and digital tools to help grow the electric cooking (eCooking) market. This supports Nepal’s goals to cut carbon emissions and protect the environment.
We’re working with the National Association of Community Electricity Users Nepal (NACEUN) and the Ajummery Bikash Foundation (ABF) to connect businesses and communities – especially women – and build the skills and networks needed to promote eCooking. Our goal is to make clean cooking equipment more available by improving distribution, linking key players like rural electricity groups, last-mile distributors, and repair services, and offering training and business support.
We’re also using digital platforms to link supply chain actors at all levels and give consumers access to product info and online payments. This has already proven effective, especially in rural areas.
Practical Action is also helping to guide energy policy by advising local and national decision-makers.
Establishing reliable traders in rural areas is beneficial as they can generate greater demand in those regions compared to our company’s marketing personnel. This is made possible through the B2B platform developed by this project.
Manoj Khadka, Marketing Manager at induction hob supply chain business, Chaudhary Group (Kathmandu).
Our goal is to reduce indoor air pollution by growing the eCooking market and making electric stoves more accessible. We connect rural communities with cleaner cooking options, help people make informed choices, and support local eCooking businesses and distributors.
This project supports Nepal’s national target to raise electric stove use from under 1% to 25% by 2030. Key expected results include:
The project has successfully utilised digital platforms to improve the availability of eCooking products, and increased demand for them by raising awareness and connecting suppliers with customers. It has also enabled households to overcome uncertainties about cooking on electric, induction appliances.
This project contributes to progress against at least three of the 17 SDGs.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
Reducing exposure to harmful emissions due to traditional cooking practices promotes wellbeing and better health.
Goal 5: Gender Equality
Women are involved in decision-making and have more free time thanks to more efficient cooking processes.
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Accelerating access to energy-efficient cooking services in remote areas by facilitating market development.
Since we got this electric cookstove, both my husband and my son have also started cooking. It’s easy to use, as it mostly involves pressing buttons.
Laxmimaya Gurung, electric cookstove owner in Kahule, Syangja
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