Clean Cooking Webinar: The Hidden Side of Energy Access – Understanding Clean Cooking

Pablo Fajnzylber, Acting Vice President, Infrastructure Practice Group, World Bank

Pablo Fajnzylber is Acting Vice President and Director of Strategy and Operations for the Infrastructure Practice Group, covering Energy and Extractives, Transport, Digital Development and Infrastructure Finance, Public Private Partnerships and Guarantees. The World Bank’s active portfolio in these areas consists of more than 400 operations for a total value of USD 75 billion, focused on providing sustainable solutions to close infrastructure gaps in developing and emerging economies. A Chilean national, Pablo has over 20 years of experience in technical and leadership positions in international development. In previous assignments at the World Bank, he has been Manager for Economic Management and Country Programs at the Independent Evaluation Group, Manager for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in the Africa Region, and Lead Economist for Brazil. Pablo holds a PhD in economics from Michigan State University and has published extensively on a variety of development topics.

Franck Gbaguidi, Adviser to the Managing Director, IFC

Franck Gbaguidi currently works as an Adviser to the Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). He joined the World Bank Group in 2015 as a Jr. International Affairs Associate at the Paris office. Most recently, he worked as an Infrastructure Specialist in the office of the World Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure and as a member of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)’s clean cooking team. He previously worked as a Program Manager at the French National School of Administration (ENA), where he was in charge of designing study visits on public policy for African and Middle Eastern high-ranking civil servants. Passionate about energy and climate change, Franck has undertaken consultancy work on carbon risk management for the European Investment Bank (EIB) and on clean cooking for the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). Franck holds a Master of Public Policy (Energy & Sustainability) from Sciences Po Paris and a Master of Public Administration (Energy & Environment) from Columbia University.

Franziska Deininger, Consultant, ESMAP

Franziska Deininger is a consultant with the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), supporting work for the Clean Cooking Fund (CCF) and ESMAP’s external engagements. Prior to this role, Franziska was the project leader on the first capstone engagement between the World Bank and the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po. She is a dual Master’s degree candidate in Economic Policy and International Political Economy from the Paris School of International Affairs and the London School of Economics.

Ed Brown, Professor of Global Energy Challenges, Loughborough University

Ed Brown is the MECS Research Director. He is a Professor of Global Energy Challenges at Loughborough University with research interests in the fields of governance and international development issues with current research outputs focusing on questions of transparency and corruption; financial globalization and the financial needs of the poor; and energy access and low carbon energy transitions. Recently, much of Ed's activity has been focused on issues surrounding the uptake of low carbon energy technologies within the Global South. He is PI on a new multi-million DFID-funded research program on Modern Energy Cooking Services which are running in collaboration with a range of UK universities, ESMAP and the Clean Cooking Alliance. Ed is the Co-Coordinator of the UK Low Carbon Energy for Development Network through which they are building bridges between the divergent branches of academia working on energy and international development issues.

Charlot Magayi is the founder and CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves. Orphaned at the age of 10, Charlot grew up in Mukuru, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, and became a mother at age 16. When her two-year-old daughter suffered a severe burn injury caused by a traditional stove, Charlot was moved to provide safer cooking technologies for her community. She founded Mukuru Clean Stoves to help mothers keep their children safe, save on fuel consumption, and reduce household air pollution. She has been recognized and awarded for her fight against household air pollution and global poverty and her work to empower marginalized women in western Kenya. She won the Waislitz Global Citizen Award in 2019, The World Bank’s inaugural SDGs and Her Award in 2018, and the AWIEF Empowerment Award in 2019. Charlot believes in a toxin- and smoke-free world and has dedicated her time, skills, and experience to fighting household air pollution. Charlot is a 2020 Echoing Green Fellow.

Marc Jeuland, Associate Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy & Co-founder, Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative

Marc Jeuland is an Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, with a joint appointment in the Duke Global Health Institute. His research interests include nonmarket valuation, water and sanitation, environmental health, energy poverty and transitions, trans-boundary water resource planning and management, and the impacts and economics of climate change. Marc has conducted multiple field experiments on issues such as the demand for and impacts of cleaner cookstoves on household well-being. He is also engaged with several projects with the Energy Access Project at Duke and is a co-founder of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI). His energy portfolio includes work related to evaluation of cleaner cooking interventions, measuring energy access and reliability, and reviews of the drivers and impacts literature related to energy. Marc has worked in the past with the World Bank, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, UNICEF, and many field-based NGOs and community-based implementing organizations. Prior to his graduate studies and work with the World Bank, Marc was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa.

Vijay Bhopal, Managing Director, Connected Energy Technologies

Vijay Bhopal has worked in renewable energy since 2010, initially in Scotland where he designed and led a range of medium sized wind, hydro and solar projects. In recent years his focus turned toward integrated local energy systems and how to utilize ICTs in energy provision. Since 2014 Vijay has thrown himself at the energy access challenge, first spearheading Urjaa Samadhan, an Odisha, India, based social enterprise working with poor users of off-grid solar equipment in India (now part of Connected Energy). Having seen how local companies are disadvantaged in the energy access market, he conceptualized and has driven the development of Cloud Solar - one of Connected Energy's first products. He has also been supporting the clean cooking sector through Connected Energy's work in biogas. Beyond day-to-day business, Vijay likes to research, write and get stuck into data - i.e., to continually learn about energy systems and energy access. He has contributed to various research projects and publications, including the Poor People’s Energy Outlook in 2017 and 2018. 

Asna Towfiq (Policy Manager, Clean Cooking Alliance)

Asna Towfiq is the Manager, Policy for the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA). With over 12 years of experience in the international development sector, Asna has extensive knowledge and experience in project implementation, design and analysis. Prior to joining CCA she has worked with several development organizations across a number of different sectors including renewable energy, agriculture and tourism. In her current role, she is leading CCA’s policy efforts and has been working on developing a new policy strategy working closely with policy makers, stakeholders and local alliances.  Asna has a master’s in development studies and bachelor’s in business administrations. She is also trained in Project Management and Gender Mainstreaming. Asna was awarded Inspiring Women Leader in Bangladesh in 2018 for her leadership and contributions to the household energy sector in Bangladesh.

Dr. Shonali Pachauri is the Research Group Leader of the newly formed Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions (TISS) Research Group in the Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. She has served as Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2016. She is a Lead Author for the IPCC WGIII AR6 report, serves on the Science Advisory Panel of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), and on the Advisory Group of the International Network on Gender & Energy (ENERGIA). Dr. Pachauri researches the role of technological, institutional, and social innovations for inclusive human development, particularly for populations without access to basic infrastructures and services. She has published extensively on these topics, both in the form of scientific peer-reviewed articles and policy reports. Dr. Pachauri has a Ph.D. in Energy Policy and Economics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and a M.Sc. In Environmental & Resource Economics from University College London.