Access to clean cooking remains one of the most pressing energy challenges in West Africa. The majority of households across ECOWAS Member States still rely on traditional biomass for cooking in inefficient and traditional ways, with significant consequences for health, gender equality, deforestation, and climate change. Women and children are most prone to the negative impacts of the use of biomass fuels for cooking. Reaching clean cooking access is at the core of delivering on the goals of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement.

“Around 4 out of 5 households in West Africa do not have access to clean cooking (IEA 2025). The ReCCAWA programme aims to promote the use of cleaner cooking methods by means of a regional approach to policy, supply and demand. As the clean cooking transition in West Africa is taking place at different velocities per country. On the one side the larger economies reach an average of 2.5% of the population per year (IEA 2025) with obtaining access to clean cooking solutions including higher tier Advanced Biomass Cookstoves (ABC, including pellets, briquettes and ethanol), LPG and electric cooking solutions. In smaller economies, often population growth outpaces access gains and rudimentary markets are still limited to lower tier charcoal and wood improved cookstoves (ICS).”

ReCCAWA (Regional Clean Cooking Action in West Africa) Project will build upon existing regional clean cooking initiatives including the West Africa Clean Cooking Alliance, WACCA, which was an earlier attempt to create a regional framework for clean cooking stemming from the biomass angle. WACCA, established in 2013 and hosted by ECREEE resulted amongst others in an Action Plan for the development of a Clean Cooking Market in the ECOWAS Region (2015). Also, ECOWAS Bioenergy Policy (2017), while aligning with the ECOWAS updated Energy Policy (2023) objectives on clean cooking.  The “Regional strategy for the popularisation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as modern cooking energy in the Region” was adopted by the ECOWAS Council of Minister in September 2020.

The Strategy aims to make LPG the preferred households cooking energy, i.e, to reach a household’s penetration of 45% by 2030. In the framework of implementation of this Strategy, the ECOWAS Commission Directorate of Energy and Mines supported Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Benin and Togo to develop a national Policy/Strategy for LPG promotion. It is foreseen that ReCCAWA will build further on the foundations of these inter-regional initiatives to further facilitate the clean cooking energy transition in West Africa.

The overall objective of this Action is to increase access to affordable, reliable, clean and sustainable energy services for clean cooking in West Africa.
The four specific objectives are:

• Strengthen the enabling environment of the clean cooking sector in the West African region and in selected countries;
• Increase the supply of clean cooking solutions through professionalisation and facilitation of access to finance in the West African region;
• Increase the demand for clean cooking solutions by means of demand-side subsidies and targeted behavioural change interventions in specific West African countries.
• Enable evidence-based clean cooking policy formulation that is supported through the creation of a West African regional cooking energy database and execution of clean cooking studies that add to the regional knowledge base.

Completed

• Completion of an Inventory Study of existing clean cooking related policies, ongoing clean cooking initiatives, programmes and activities in West African countries.
• Country activity packages are developed for Senegal, Togo, Sierra Leone, flanked by selected national activities in The Gambia, Benin and Mali.
• 12 National FocalPoints established​ for project coordination
• On the Supply Intervention Area: Mobilise the Energy Enterprise Coach / Start the SME Finance Facilitator approach​ and exploring feasibility of Carbon Finance Aggregator Platform​
• On the Demand Intervention Area: Explore approaches for social media use for changing customers’ behaviour​/ Design of Demand Side Subsidies for specific consumers and products​
• On the Evidence based cc policy: Developed an approach which was approved by ECOWAS, the EUD and the NL MoFA, prepare Contracting of Database work​
• ReCCAWA Annual Planning and Coordination Meeting Advances Regional Energy Cooperation
• A three-day ReCCAWA technical Working Session 14-16 July

Ongoing

• Recruitment of PIU
• ReCCAWA Project Steering Committee meeting in 18 September 2026, Abuja
• White paper: providing a foundational study, analysis, validated document on clean cooking policy with options and scenario’s​
• Developing a Community Of Practice: An operational framework for multilateral collaboration and knowledge creation in Clean Cooking
• Selection of testing centres based on analysis of capabilities, testing volume and absorption capacity​
• Mobilisation of the Energy Enterprise Coach
• Access to finance: Market Scoping
• Evidence based: Create a network of knowledge and data to support and monitor clean cooking interventions​
• Databased pilot – Test case for research tool development​

To achieve the Objectives, proposed interventions spread out over three four Intervention Areas with the following expected eleven key results.

Key Results Intervention Area 1 – Regional and National Policy
R1.1 A West African regional clean cooking roadmap is adopted;
R1.2 Regional guidelines for standards and labels are adopted and existing national testing centres with the capacity of serving the region (namely in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal) are reinforced;
R1.3 Actionable national clean cooking action plans in selected countries are developed or updated (as appropriate) and under implementation;
R1.4 National standards and labels are developed or revised (as appropriate) and applied in selected countries, and national testing centres are supported (where appropriate);
R1.5 New knowledge about clean cooking actions and policies, along with regional gender-disaggregated data and best practice experiences drawn from the activities implemented through the Action, are pooled together and disseminated to serve as a basis for replication and attraction of funding.

Key Results Intervention Area 2 – Supply of Clean Cooking Solutions
R2.1 An increased number of professionalised Clean Cooking SMEs provide clean cooking solutions in the West African region, with priority to selected countries;
R2.2 The capacity of crowdfunders, impact investors and local banks to review and approve loan applications by Clean Cooking SMEs is strengthened in the West African region, with priority to selected countries;
R2.3 Access to Carbon Finance for clean cooking SMEs is facilitated though an aggregator in selected West African countries.

Key Results Intervention Area 3 – Demand for Clean Cooking Solutions
R3.1 A dedicated behavioural change approach is effective in mobilising additional consumers in selected communities;
R3.2 Innovative Demand Side Subsidies are operational and accessible to targeted consumers in selected countries.

Key Results Intervention Area 4 – Data for evidence-based Clean Cooking policies
R4.1 A Clean Cooking Energy Database is built and operational as part of the ECOWAS Energy Information System (ECOWAS EIS) and also embedded in the ECOWREX Platform;
R4.2 A minimum of three different clean cooking policy relevant in-depth studies and lessons learnt are made available for governments and experts to broaden the knowledge base in West Africa.

COORDINATED AND IMPLEMENTED BY

Explore the ReCCAWA Community of Practice (RCoP) Portal, a dynamic online platform dedicated to connecting policymakers, practitioners, researchers, development partners, financial institutions, private sector actors, and other clean cooking stakeholders across the ECOWAS region. The portal serves as a hub for knowledge exchange, peer learning, and regional collaboration, providing access to best practices, technical resources, publications, discussion forums, events, and innovative solutions that support the advancement of clean cooking initiatives in West Africa.

RCoP Coming soon.