In Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, over 65 million people still cook on traditional biomass stoves that contribute to local natural resource degradation and generate significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and smoke that pollute kitchens and the ambient air.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), no less than 60,000 people die each year in these countries as a consequence of inhaling smoke from cooking – a number close to the amount of deaths caused by diarrhoea, malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. This health-hazard can be drastically reduced by advanced biomass cookstoves that are cleaner, more energy efficient and safer than traditional stoves.

The "Market Acceleration of Advanced Clean Cookstoves in the Greater Mekong Sub-region" project is implemented by GIZ and SNV under the global multi-donor Energising Development (EnDev) partnership. It aims to start a sustainable market for clean smokeless cookstoves through the sales of 120,000 devices in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam during 2015-2019. The project employs an innovative Results Based Finance (RBF) scheme that strengthens the involvement of supply chain actors in the nascent market of advanced clean cookstoves.