242
Women supported in total by the end of the 2025 programme.
90
Countries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean represented among mentees
Context
Increasing access to clean cooking is a critical and immediate solution to achieving gender equality, addressing climate change, and improving women’s health and safety.
Women play a critical role in increasing awareness and generating demand for clean cooking solutions, partly as a result of their networks and community relationships. The clean cooking value chain also offers new pathways for women’s economic empowerment, providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs to contribute to a thriving global industry for clean cooking.
Since 2021, SEforALL, the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) and the Global Women’s Network for Energy Transition (GWNET) have collaborated on a programme that supports women to build thriving careers in the clean cooking sector through mentorship.
The Women in Clean Cooking (WiCC) mentorship programme provides mentorship and professional development for women in early and mid-management positions, entrepreneurs, and others working in the clean cooking ecosystem.
Objectives
Support professional development
Through mentorship, women in the programme learn valuable skills and gain contacts to help them in their clean cooking careers.
Strengthen the clean cooking sector
Building a strong, diverse clean cooking workforce will help speed up the development of the sector and clean cooking access globally.
Activities
The programme focuses on helping mentees with the following:
- Developing leadership skills and increasing confidence
- Expanding professional networks and opening doors to new opportunities
- Accessing clean cooking sector knowledge and resources
- Joining a powerful, women-led clean cooking community and
- Having the opportunity to become mentors, creating a powerful ripple effect of women supporting women in the clean cooking ecosystem
Participants are assigned a mentor who, over the course of nine months of virtual interaction, provides support toward achieving mutually agreed upon professional development targets and goals. Alongside monthly mentee-mentor meetings, participants also receive exclusive access to curated knowledge transfer webinars and virtual networking sessions.
Results
Since the inaugural cohort in 2021, SEforALL has supported 242 women in the clean cooking sector through the WiCC programme. The programme successfully equips mentees with high-value skills that result in sector-wide impact and leadership development. In 2022, SEforALL sponsored several WiCC mentees to attend the SEforALL Forum in Rwanda and the Clean Cooking Forum in Ghana. Past participants have successfully leveraged their expertise to write and secure competitive grants and funding, train and educate communities on clean cooking solutions, and access top governmental and educational programmes.
WICC has really been a very rich and beneficial journey for me personally and professionally. I’ll be forever indebted. My mentor gave me the hands-on support when I needed it the most. She went out of her comfort zone to be there for me.
Carine Buma Lehtem
Professional Officer, Energy and Low Emission Development at ICLEI Africa (2023)
Through the WiCC Mentorship, I developed practical skills in promoting and implementing clean cookstove technologies, understanding user needs, and engaging with stakeholders and local communities. I now approach my career with a broader perspective, combining technical knowledge with advocacy, education, and innovation. This experience has empowered me to contribute more meaningfully to the clean cooking movement and to pursue roles that drive both environmental and social impact.
Aqeela Mughal
Project Coordinator, Revive Environment Pvt. Ltd., Pakistan (2025)
Project partners
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