This report compares the approach to cookstoves of SNV, the Netherlands Development
Organisation, with evidence from the sector about how interventions can lead to market
transformation. Case studies of improved cookstove and fuels projects in Cambodia, Kenya,
Nepal and Rwanda are analysed to examine the potential for successful scale-up and local
market transformation. The aim is to understand the quality of SNV’s improved cookstove and
fuel interventions in order to inform and improve future practice. There is growing awareness of
the need to take a systems perspective to stimulate cookstove market transformation. A more
holistic approach to cookstove interventions is emerging that combines efforts to understand
users, link up actors, develop effective business models, and create an enabling environment.
Many organizations are adopting this vision, but putting it into practice is not easy. It also takes
time, as it requires partnerships and new modes of working. The case study analysis finds that a
holistic approach to cookstove market transformation, including capacity-building activities, is
common to all the programmes examined. It finds flexibility in the exact mode of engagement
and technological focus in each country, determined by local contextual factors. Drawing on the
case studies, three key features are found to characterise SNV’s cookstove programmes:
emphasis on knowledge co-creation, commitment to trust-building, and freedom to adapt. This
enables SNV to be a dynamic learning organization, willing and able to reflect and improve.