For more than 20 years many development organisations have worked on the development and dissemination of improved cookstoves. Not all programmes were succesful, often because of a lack of attention for social, economic and institutional issues. Initially, the focus was on improving efficiencies, but later the attention shifted towards other issues such as health and gender. Many cookstove programmes have been reviewed, which contributed to the better understanding of factors of success and failures. This information is available in numeruous publications, generally available to experts, but usually not to experts. Since it has become clear that the success of introducing improved cookstoves depends a lot on the knowledge and commitment of field staff, the report aims to provide them with basic information on the development and dissemination of improved cookstoves.
