DIRECTOR OF KHRC URGES CLEAN COOKING RESEARCH COMMUNITY TO USE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO DEVELOP IMPACTFUL INTERVENTIONS
October 12, 2022 | News | Reading time: 4 min
The Director of KHRC, Dr. Kwaku Poku Asante has urged the clean cooking research community to package the current state of evidence in a way that will be appropriate to all stakeholders, especially to drive more investments for the research area and to enhance the use of evidence for policy decisions to save lives through large-scale clean cooking transitions.
Dr. Asante made this statement in his keynote address at the Clean Cooking State of the Evidence Base Workshop held on October 10, 2022 in Accra. The workshop, organised by Clean Cooking Alliance in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aimed to showcase the advances made in the clean cooking evidence base in the last 10 years and to pave the way forward for utilizing evidence to drive large-scale clean cooking.
Speaking on the back of WHO data that indicates that the combined impacts of ambient air pollution and household air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths yearly, he underlined the need for the research community to move forward with the evidence obtained to developing impactful interventions.
He highlighted KHRC’s experiences in disseminating research findings to relevant stakeholders for discussions, as well as participating in discussions about household clean energy transitions. He further emphasized the need to build capacity most importantly, local capacity, in order to enhance the air pollution and climate agenda.
Dr. Asante urged funders of research to include local capacity building particularly, PhD trainings as an integral part of funded research activity.
Dr. Sulemana Watara Abubakari,Mr.Mujtaba Mohammed Nuhu and Ms.Theresa Tawiah also attended the workshop. The workshop was organized around themes related to the co benefits of clean cooking, including climate, health, and women’s empowerment.