As we wind down our 2024 operations, we reflect on DelAgua’s key achievements this year and celebrate our successes.
Following the distribution of 1.6 million stoves and expansion to 2 West African countries in 2023, the next step for DelAgua was to consolidate its successes so far and strengthen our carbon operations structures. At DelAgua, we strive to consistently go above and beyond the minimum requirements of the methodologies under which our projects are registered.
I am delighted to announce that we have managed to build on our previous gains and adapt the business to the evolving nature of the carbon market which finances our free distribution model.
This year we marked 1 year of our Live Well programme operations in The Gambia and Sierra Leone. The teams on the ground have accomplished so much in a short period of time: conducting monitoring surveys, household visits and delivering immeasurable impact to the communities.
“The Gambian project received its first issuance of carbon credits this year, certainly a step in the right direction and we are looking forward to an impactful 2025. The generation of these credits is an opportunity to raise more funds and distribute more stoves.” – Ousman Badije, Country Representative, The Gambia.
Our Sierra Leone team has more than doubled, from 18 to 50 full time staff and 816 more Youth Volunteers recruited to support the upcoming distribution of an additional 250,000 stoves in 2025.
Our continued collaboration with host Governments has enabled us to sign Letters of Authorisation (LoAs) for our projects in The Gambia and Sierra Leone. This monumental achievement affirms DelAgua’s integrity and expertise in project delivery, exceptional partnerships with Governments that lie at the heart of what we do, and Governments’ commitment to deliver their obligations under the Paris Agreement.
In Rwanda, we have increased the scale of our household visits to more than 100,000 households visited per month since September. The education aspect of these visits drives stove usage by ensuring that we continuously engage stove users. The importance of education cannot be understated and has also been acknowledged in the recently released Clean Cooking & Climate Consortium (4Cs) methodology – CLEAR.
The data collected from household visits informs our decision-making processes on how to make the programme more impactful to the communities we serve and accurately report to our government partners and regulators on the projects’ progress.
This expansion in operations also translates to more recruitments of Community Health Workers (CHWs). This year, we have hired and trained 915 new CHWs, in addition to more than 7,000 CHWs who have previously worked with DelAgua over the past years. By hiring more CHWs, the Tubeho Neza programme is reinvesting revenue back into the communities and providing employment opportunities to its members.
“I am pleased to see the economic and social impact of Tubeho Neza in the communities. Many CHWs say the income they receive from DelAgua supplements their income and helps them cover household costs, paying school fees for children and investment into small businesses and farming activities. This shows the importance and co-benefits of our programme, over and above distribution of cookstoves.” – Monica Keza, Rwanda Country Director
This year we have also invested in ensuring that our projects remain ahead of the curve in the carbon market and clean cooking sectors. To this end, we have deployed Stove Usage Monitors (SUM) and Kitchen Performance Test (KPT) kits for a pilot phase in Rwanda and data analysis is currently ongoing.
The KPTs assess the firewood consumption at the household level in five consecutive days, along with further understanding the cooking behaviours. While we have previously conducted KPTs prior to project implementation, our new strategy includes conducting KPTs more regularly and at scale to ensure more accurate data to calculate the amount of wood being saved. This will further align our projects with the new VM0050 methodology released by Verra.
Stove Usage Monitors on the other hand will analyse the uptake of our stove. The pilot phase for the SUMs was conducted in 15 households within 1 village. We are in the final stages of assessing how to install the sensors and accurately interpreting the data from the sensors. This data is crucial for generating the high-quality carbon credits that we are known for.
We are confident that the addition of these 2 aspects to our project implementation will reaffirm our commitment to delivering impactful projects that bring real change.
In another industry-first achievement, DelAgua partnered with Oka to develop Corresponding Adjustment Protect™, a carbon insurance solution that protects buyers from risks associated with host countries failing to complete Corresponding Adjustments under our LoAs. This partnership brings together Oka’s insurance expertise and our carbon markets experience to offer the security buyers are seeking alongside the high integrity and impact that differentiates DelAgua’s credits.
Participating in local and global events is another key aspect of our networking strategy, as it provides a platform to engage stakeholders, meet industry partners and amplify the work we are doing to increase access to clean cooking in rural African regions.
In the past year, DelAgua was represented at the UK – Rwanda Business Forum, East Africa Carbon Markets Forum, IEA Clean Cooking Summit, Argus Asia Carbon Conference, Sustainable Skies Summit, Invest Africa Summit, Sierra Leone Environment Day run, Rwanda Energy Private Developers Week, Carbon Forward Conference, World Green Economy Summit, Rwanda tree planting event and S&P Global Carbon Markets Conference where our COO Euan McDougall discussed ‘Safeguarding success: Strategies for developing and delivering Article 6 projects amid risks.’
Our Live Well programme has been recognised in several awards including the Reuters Sustainability Awards in the SDG Pioneers category and edie Awards in the Engagement & Behaviour Change Initiative of the Year category.
All these achievements would not be possible without our incredible teams that work diligently to deliver the programme.
All these achievements would not be possible without our incredible teams that work diligently to deliver the programme. I would like to particularly acknowledge some of our Rwandan staff who have been part of the DelAgua team for more than a decade now; Robert Masinde, Jean Pierre Sibomana, Sylvestre Bizimana, Dative Mukeshimana, Kharim Murenzi, Ronald Singoma, Jean Claude Niyibizi, Bruno Nyirimana, Leonard Niyitegeka, Musa Hakizimana and Eric Izerimana. We appreciate your dedication and hard work over the years.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to our sector and financial partners; and greatly commend our host Governments for their valuable partnership that enables DelAgua to reach more people and transform more lives.
On behalf of the entire DelAgua team, I wish you a restful festive season as we look forward to 2025.
Best Wishes,
Neil McDougall
Chairman
Watch our 2024 video highlights below:
