The aim of the partnership is to address the burden of disease from household air pollution in Kenya through community health promotion and clean cooking.

The partnership will see 130,000 Kenyan community health workers from all 47 of Kenya’s counties trained in the prevention of household air pollution to address the associated burden of disease. It will also help drive the clean cooking agenda in Kenya by providing policy-relevant evidence for scaling the transition to clean fuels in households and public institutions to meet Sustainable Goal 7 “universal access to clean modern energy”.

Dr. John Chumo, CEO of the Mama Doing Good Foundation and chief advisor to the First Lady of Kenya, said: “This partnership reinforces the First Lady’s commitment to ensuring that women are socially and economically empowered to transition from solid biomass cooking methods to clean cooking methods, which will reduce household air pollution and air pollution-related disease burden through behaviour change communication by the Community Health Workers.”

Dr. James Mwitari, a senior research fellow at KEMRI and co-Director of CLEAN-Air(Africa), said: “The partnership will help Kenya lead the way in primary and secondary prevention of household air pollution-related illness through clean cooking and the empowerment of the community health workforce.”

Professor Daniel Pope, Director of CLEAN-Air(Africa) and Professor of Global Health at the University of Liverpool said, “This partnership will help drive policy to benefit millions of Kenyans through cleaner air and will set the scene for similar action across East Africa and the sub-Saharan African region.”

This partnership will enhance coordination, consultation, and exchange of information, which will lead to increased demand for clean cooking solutions and a reduction in air pollution, and improved community health.