MONROVIA, June 18, 2026 – An important training has been conducted to unlock investment and market development across the Clean Cooking Sector in Liberia. This training brought together 43 participants from the Liberian government, development partners, private sector and civil society actors, and other stakeholders to review and validate the findings, recommendations, and proposed strategic directions emerging from the Clean Cooking Advisory Services and Analytics (ASA).
This exercise was conducted by the World Bank Group (WBG) along with the Energy Sector
Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), in collaboration with the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency (RREA).
An assessment, conducted between February and June 2026, produced three flagship deliverables: a technical report mapping clean cooking fuels, technologies, user demand, and key supply-chain actors across Liberia; a strategic note providing evidence-based inputs for the development of Liberia’s first National Clean Cooking Strategy; and a concept note outlining the design of a proposed WBG–supported National Clean Cooking Program.
The analysis underscores both the severity of the challenge and the scale of the opportunity. Liberia has one of the lowest clean cooking access rates in the world — just 0.8% of the population uses clean fuels, a figure virtually unchanged for more than two decades. Some 96.1% of households continue to rely on firewood or charcoal, with three-quarters falling into the lowest tier of cooking energy access. The WBG’s cost of inaction analysis, conducted as part of the assessment, estimates the annual economic burden of this reliance at approximately US$3.08 billion — equivalent to 64% of Liberia’s GDP — driven by health impacts (US$1.01 billion), gender-related productivity losses (US$1.88 billion), and climate externalities (US$190 million). Without intervention, Liberia’s clean cooking access rate is projected to reach only 1.1% by 2035.
“This analytical work aligns with the Government of Liberia Energy Compact, and it will facilitate access to clean cooking solutions, policy development, and technical assistance,” said Omar V. Al Sherif, Energy Specialist at the World Bank Liberia Country Office.
During the training, participants highlighted the importance of directly engaging with key consumers and end-users (households, communities, institutions etc.), embedding gender and social inclusion across programmatic work. This formalizes clean cooking enterprises, ensuring coordination mechanisms are tied to implementation realities, and phasing project implementation to set the foundations, activate the market, and scale up, thus ensuring that no Liberians are left behind.
“The WBG ongoing support to Liberia’s clean cooking commitments within the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID) represents a significant step toward achieving universal access to modern clean energy solutions that would lay the foundation for private sector participation,” said Joebarline Gbozee, Director, Bureau of Energy Planning, Research and Policy, Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Ultimately, clean cooking in Liberia is not only an energy access challenge — it is a public health, gender equality, climate, forestry, and poverty-reduction priority. The WBG remains committed to supporting Liberia’s clean cooking transition as part of its broader energy access and climate agenda.