IDCOL Improved Cook Stove (ICS) program was inaugurated by the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh in May 2013 with the aim to create a sustainable market for adoption of higher efficiency cookstoves in the country. The initial target of 1 million ICS installation in Bangladesh within December 2018 was successfully achieved by IDCOL in January 2017 and since then, a total of 4.1 million ICS have been installed till December 2023. IDCOL now aims to finance a total of 5 million ICS. IDCOL has received necessary financial support from the GoB, the World Bank and Green Climate Fund (GCF) for implementing the program.

IDCOL’s ICS Program is the first clean cooking program in the world to receive GCF funding. The program is registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and is certified to earn emission reduction credits issued by the UNFCCC. Under the program, IDCOL provides institutional development grants and technical assistance to its Partner organizations (POs). Currently, the program is being implemented in 61 districts of the country by 76 POs. IDCOL’s focus is on commercialization of ICS, which would allow the ICS market to develop and flourish after the completion of the program.

The program is being implemented by a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) whereas IDCOL Board is responsible for oversight, policy guidance and monitoring of the PMU. The key players in the structure of the program are the donors, IDCOL, POs, stove manufacturers, households, technical standard committees, entrepreneurs etc. The overall program structure is shown in the figure. IDCOL undertook R&D initiatives with BUET to upgrade the stoves under the program from Tier 1 (>=15%) to Tier 3 (>=35%) level of thermal efficiency. Now, all the stoves being disseminated under the Program are

Tier 3 stoves which can be produced in decentralized Upazila level production centers using local resources. With increases in thermal efficiency, the stoves burn lesser amount of fuel and therefore, GHG Emission and IAP decrease significantly. During March 2022, IDCOL conducted an extensive Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) study by Berkeley Air Monitoring Group (BAMG) in partnership with International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) where it was found that ICS reduces Kitchen Concentration of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) and Personal Exposure of Carbon Monoxide (CO) emission by more than 85%.