U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

NIH: Fogarty International Center NIH: Fogarty International Center
Advancing Science for Global Health
Advancing Science for Global Health
Home > Policy, Planning and Evaluation > Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network (ISN) Print

Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network (ISN)

The NIH, in partnership with USAID, the CDC, the EPA and the Clean Cooking Alliance, launched a Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network (ISN) to advance the science of uptake and scale-up of clean cooking technology in the developing world. Sustained, near-exclusive use of clean cooking technology is understood to be key to improving multiple important health outcomes by reducing exposure to household air pollution.

About | Projects | Publications | Contacts

About the Clean Cooking ISN

Hosted by the Center for Global Health Studies (CGHS) at Fogarty, and supported by the NIH Common Fund, the primary goal of the Clean Cooking ISN is to advance the scientific understanding of how to implement evidence-based clean cooking interventions to maximize their benefits to the health and longevity of populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Clean fuel access and use of technologies that sufficiently reduce pollutant exposures are among the principal barriers to achieving health benefits from clean cooking interventions. These challenges are compounded by community- and national-scale influences when the goal is scaling up these technologies. Successful scale-up will depend on understanding the complex interplay among multiple environmental, economic, behavioral and other setting-specific factors.

To meet its objectives, the Clean Cooking ISN aims to foster collaboration among researchers and implementers. Since 2016, the Network has undertaken projects designed to advance the science of clean cooking implementation at scale.

Projects Conducted by the Clean Cooking ISN

2020

2020 coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of worldwide disruptions to economies, distribution networks, and employment, the Clean Cooking ISN funded five projects to investigate the resilience of household energy supply to the adjustments required during the pandemic. The goal of these projects was to gather lessons from the effects of the pandemic period - and adaptations that occurred as a result - with an eye to strategies that could be implemented to increase the resilience of the household energy sector to future shocks and disruptions.

  • Impact of COVID-19 on households’ energy use in Ghana
    Project PI:
    Kwaku Poku Asante (Kintampo Health Research Centre)
  • Resilient Clean Cooking: Maintaining Household Clean Cooking in Ecuador during the COVID-19 Pandemic
    Project PIs:
    Darby Jack (Columbia University)
    Alfredo Valarezo (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador)
  • How resilient is clean cooking in Kenya? Generating evidence through household surveys and industry interviews
    Project PI:
    Pamela Jagger (University of Michigan)
  • COVID-19 and household energy: Demand and supply side shocks to Tanzania’s objective of transitioning to clean and affordable energy
    Project PIs:
    Marc Jeuland (Duke University)
    Megan Benka-Coker (Gettsburg College)
    Byela Tibesigwa and Remidius Ruhinduka (Environment for Development- Tanzania/University of Dar es Salaam)
  • Using repeat surveys to assess the impact of COVID‐19 on household energy use in Jharkhand, India
    PIs:
    Lisa Thompson and Ajay Pillarisetti (Emory University)

In 2020, the Clean Cooking ISN also supported inception of a multi-community sensor network to investigate the relationship between cooking behaviors, household emissions and ambient air pollution in Tamil Nadu, India.

  • Assessing the role of LPG coverage at scale to achieve household air pollution and ambient air pollution exposure reductions using hyper-local, low-cost PM2.5 sensor networks: implications for the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana program in India
    PIs:
    Kalpana Balakrishnan (Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, India)
    Ajay Pillarisetti (Emory University)

2019

New projects begun in 2019 were focused on understanding the optimal mix of clean cooking technologies feasible in different LMIC settings. This area was prioritized for 2019 based on the results of prior Clean Cooking ISN work, especially the 2018 case studies and subsequent synthesis papers highlighting the ubiquity of stove and fuel stacking (multiple stove/fuel use) and the challenges posed by this practice to reducing exposure to household air pollution.

  • Stackable clean cooking in rural Rwanda: Enhancing a solar micro-grid and LPG stove intervention.
    Project PIs:
    Maggie Clark and John Volckens (Colorado State University)
  • Real Option Strategies for Achieving Scale (ROSAS)
    Project PIs:
    Peter Hovmand (Washington University)
    Gautam Yadama (Boston College)
  • Feasibility of Scaling “Clean Stacking” Options in Southern Africa
    Project PIs:
    Robert Bailis (Stockholm Environment Institute)
    Pamela Jagger (University of Michigan)
  • Clean stacking in Ecuador: Investigating how induction changes household energy use and HAP exposures across scales
    Project PIs:
    Darby Jack (Columbia University)
    Alfredo Valarezo (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador)
  • Constructing a clean cookstove stack in Ghana
    Project PIs:
    Kwaku Poku Asante (Ghana Health Service, Kintampo Research Center)
    Darby Jack (Columbia University)
  • Clean Stacking Options and Regional IAP Scenarios for Rural Mexico
    Project PIs:
    Omar Masera (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
    Rufus Edwards (University of California, Irvine)
  • Investigating Factors Influencing Household Transitions to Clean Energy Use
    Project PIs:
    Hisham Zerriffi (University of British Columbia)
    Jill Baumgartner (McGill University)

2018

In 2018, the Clean Cooking ISN focused on model development and analytical tools, as well as training workshops to extend the learning of the network to the broader HAP community.

  • Improving Stove Use Monitoring with Better Tools and Workshops (Pune, India)
    Project PI:
    Ajay Pillarisetti, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley)
  • Workshop on Household Energy Impact Evaluation (WHEIE) (Aurora, Colorado, USA)
    Project PIs:
    Ellison Carter, Ph.D. (Colorado State University)
    Katherine Dickinson, Ph.D. (Colorado School of Public Health)
  • System Science Training Workshop for Clean Cooking GEOHealth Researchers and Practitioners (Udiapur, India)
    Project PI:
    Gautam Yadama, Ph.D. (Boston College)
  • Model development of intensive exposure sampling sub-sample of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) Trial population
    Project PI:
    Michael Johnson, Ph.D. (Berkeley Air)
  • Evaluating LPG Consumption Behavior: Identifying and testing conservation strategies to maximize affordability and sustainability of exclusive LPG use
    Project PI:
    William Checkley, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University)
  • Building capacity to evaluate clean cooking in Ecuador
    Project PIs:
    Alfredo Valarezo, Ph.D. (Universidad San Francisco de Quito)
    Darby Jack, Ph.D. (Columbia University)
  • Understanding the HAP impacts of alternative stove, fuel and cooking practices stacking patterns
    Project PI:
    Omar Masera, Ph.D. (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
  • Slicing the Exposure Pie: Modeling Personal HAP Exposure Attributable to Multiple Sources in Ghana
    Project PI:
    Michael Hannigan, Ph.D. (Colorado School of Public Health)
  • Integration of System Science Approaches to Enhance Understanding of Adoption and Sustained Use of Clean Cookstoves in Humanitarian Settings in Rwanda
    Project PI:
    Anita Shankar, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University)

2016-2017

In 2016-2017, the network focused its initial projects on cookstove adoption behavior at the household level.

  • Enhancing adoption and use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG): an implementation science approach to understanding key determinants and impacts of local interventions to address financial constraints
    The LPG Adoption in Cameroon Evaluation-2 Study (LACE-2)
    Project PIs:
    Daniel Pope, Ph.D. (University of Liverpool)
    Bertrand Mbatchou, M.D. (Douala General Hospital)
  • Enhancing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) use during pregnancy
    Project PIs:
    Kalpana Balakrishnan, Ph.D. (Sri Ramachandra University)
    Sanjay Juvekar, Ph.D. (KEM Hospital Research Centre)
    Kirk Smith, Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Prices, peers and perceptions: opportunities for scaling up liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) adoption in Northern Ghana
    Project PIs:
    Abraham Oduro, M.D., Ph.D. (Navrongo Health Research Centre)
    Maxwell Dalaba, Ph.D. (Navrongo Health Research Centre)
    Katie Dickinson, Ph.D. (University of Colorado-Boulder and National Center for Atmospheric Research)
  • Understanding household, network and organizational drivers of adoption, sustained use and maintenance of clean cooking fuels in rural India
    Project PIs:
    Gautam Yadama, Ph.D. (Washington University in St. Louis)
    William Checkley, M.D., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University)

Publications

The Clean Cooking ISN supported the development of 11 case studies of large-scale clean fuel programs in regions across Africa, Latin America and Asia. They are published in Scaling up Clean Fuel Cooking Programs, an open access special issue of Energy for Sustainable Development (October 2018).

A list of Clean Cooking ISN publications by calendar date follows.

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

Contacts

Inquiries

Principal Scientist:
Joshua P. Rosenthal, Ph.D. (NIH/Fogarty)
Email: joshua.rosenthal@nih.gov
Phone: 301-496-3288

Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network Steering Committee

  • Donee Alexander (Clean Cooking Alliance)
  • David Chambers (NIH/NCI)
  • Lindsay Martin (NIH/NIEHS)
  • Marion Koso-Thomas (NIH/NICHD)
  • Sumi Mehta (Vital Strategies)
  • John Mitchell (EPA)
  • Gila Neta (NIH/NCI)
  • Concepcion (Marie) Nierras (NIH/OD)
  • Jessica Lewis (USAID)
  • Antonello Punturieri (NIH/NHLBI)
  • Vikas Kapil (CDC)
  • Rachel Sturke (NIH/Fogarty)
  • Claudia Thompson (NIH/NIEHS)

Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network Members

  • Kwaku Poku Asante (Kintampo Health Research Center, Ghana)
  • Kalpana Balakrishnan (Sri Ramachandra University, India)
  • Jill Baumgartner (McGill University, Canada)
  • Kiros Berhane (University of Southern California, USA)
  • Nigel G. Bruce (University of Liverpool, England)
  • William Checkley (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
  • Maggie Clark (Colorado State University, USA)
  • Katherine (Katie) Dickinson (Colorado School of Public Health, USA)
  • Jay Graham (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
  • Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa (University of North Carolina, USA)
  • Darby Jack (Columbia University, USA)
  • Pamela Jagger (University of Michigan, USA)
  • Marc Jeuland (Duke University, USA)
  • Peter Hovmand (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)
  • S M Munjurul Hannan Khan (Ministry of Environment and Forests, Bangladesh)
  • Omar Masera (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico)
  • Ilse Ruiz Mercado (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico)
  • Olugbenga Ogedegbe (New York University, USA)
  • Subhrendu K. Pattanayak (Duke University, USA)
  • Elisa Puzzolo (The Global LPG Partnership, USA)
  • Anita Shankar (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA)
  • Kenneth Sherr (University of Washington, USA)
  • Lisa Thompson (Emory University, USA)
  • James M. Tielsch (George Washington Milken Institute of Public Health, USA)
  • Gautam N. Yadama (Boston College School of Social Work, USA)
  • Hisham Zerriffi (University of British Columbia, Canada)
  • Heather Adair-Rohani, World Health Organization (Observer)

Updated April 27, 2023