Nexleaf’s StoveTrace platform, in collaboration with Vodafone M-Pesa, has enabled 22 women in rural India to begin receiving climate credits: payments made directly to women’s mobile phones every month in exchange for their climate stewardship. The purpose of this new program is to allow rural women to afford and to use the cleanest cooking technologies. Through introductory sessions, women are informed that the more they use clean cookstoves, the more money they will receive via payment to their mobile phones.
The StoveTrace platform allows for data calculation of household-level stove usage every month to measure exactly how much each woman should be paid for her clean cookstove use. This program was launched in Notarpalli village in Nayagarh District in Odisha, India. Nexleaf aims to get 1,000 women enrolled in the M-Pesa program by next year.
Nexleaf is partnering with several local NGOs to make this program possible: the Saunta Gaunta Foundation and Sambhav in Odisha, India, Hand in Hand in Tamil Nadu, India and the Renewable Energy Programme (RUWES) in Nigeria. Nexleaf Analytics wishes to extend a special thank you to our long-standing supporters: Qualcomm Wireless Reach, Leslie and Mac McQuown, and Beneventures Foundation for making this innovative program possible.