For three years, the Shell Foundation has been testing the effectiveness of new and innovative routes to market for clean cookstoves in rural villages across India. Here Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director of Shell Foundation’s program to tackle Indoor Air Pollution, discusses the importance of partnerships to address challenges of awareness-raising, distribution and affordability.
What initiatives make up Shell Foundation’s ‘Room to Breathe’ campaign?
Room to Breathe is a campaign aimed at raising awareness of IAP and enabling greater availability of clean cook stoves as a solution for some of India’s poorest consumers. It started in the Shimoga district of Karnataka, South India, as a village-level engagement program that encompassed stove demonstrations, street-theatre and interactive games and ran concurrently with a mass media campaign.This new
type of social marketing is proving to be quite successful and generated a huge amount of market data.
We’ve since built on this by working with micro-finance institutions such as Grameen Koota, NGOs like Art of Living and rural entrepreneurs like Dharma to use their extensive networks to create new distribution channels; and to come up with options to make stoves more affordable. The partnerships have resulted in both outright and credit-based sales.
In terms of geography, our work brings together a wide range of partners in different parts of the country. These include Anganwadi workers, self-help groups, rural retail and distribution enterprises and regional entities, establishing alternative routes to market in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
What key challenges is Shell Foundation seeking to address in the IAP domain?
The fundamental challenges of dealing with IAP have been well-established: First, creating awareness about the health risks of IAP while propagating the economic benefits of clean cookstoves; second, making improved cookstoves available at the last mile both in terms of sales and maintenance, and third, most importantly, providing access to finance or making stoves affordable without either price discounting or short-lived subsidies.
To that end, we have stayed flexible in our approach, working with strong local partners who can tackle two of the issues on their own: outreach and affordability.
Our partnership with Art of Living and Dharma is a great example of two organizations working jointly to address the challenges. Art of Living builds on its existing efforts in the community and educates people on the issues of IAP and the solution to address it. Dharma, through its entrepreneurs is responsible for commercial aspects around the distribution and sale of the stoves at the last mile.
Another area with strong potential are institutional alliances. For example, tea plantations in the North-East of India where plantation workers are heavily dependent on wood for fuel. It is in the interest of the plantations to facilitate ownership of stoves that not only improve indoor air but also cut fuel consumption.
Are there any additional advantages of partnering with an MFI like Grameen Koota?
The partnership with Grameen Koota specifically aims to address the affordability conundrum by offering low-cost loans for clean cookstoves whilst benefiting from the networks and credibility of Grameen at village-level to market and distribute the improved stoves.
Grameen Koota’s loan officers are well known and have a good reputation in the community they serve. Their credibility amongst the people in the area helps with raising awareness of the ill-effects of IAP and the benefits of using an improved cookstove. They are trained to raise awareness of the benefits of clean cookstoves, and hold stove demonstrations for the gathered community to highlight the savings possible with the more efficient Envirofit stoves.
Finally, Grameen Koota keeps distribution channels informed about potential orders, thereby ensuring stoves are available when customers reach the retailers.
Will Shell Foundation work with other manufacturers, groups and the Government of India to combat IAP?
The answer is simple – for a problem this big we need to work together. Through a combination of partnerships, campaigns and innovations that span across a wide range of manufacturers, NGOs, financial institutions, academicians, local governments and village leaders we’ve managed to demonstrate new, more effective routes to market.
For truly national scale, the Government needs to play a huge role and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been implementing some excellent ideas to achieve this. In the future, we see the National Improved Cookstoves Programme becoming the flag bearer for a national awareness campaign, as well enabling stove manufacturers to reach their customers.
