GS1340 Efficient cookstoves in Burkina Faso - VPA-08 - tiipaalga F3PA cookstoves in Bam and Loroum

Audit Analysis

A long-running Gold Standard cookstove project in conflict-affected Burkina Faso with verified additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but undermined by numerous material findings, 16 corrective actions, security-driven monitoring gaps, a project-specific baseline, and no buffer pool. The usage-rate assumption aligns closely with field-verified data, but the overall documentation and reporting quality is weakened by hidden spreadsheet rows, inconsistent reporting across documents, and a medium-confidence extraction record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠16 corrective actions required in the 2024 verification report, including missing grievance log evidence, unconfirmed design-change approvals, and an inconsistency between estimated ERs and registered VPA DDs
• ⚠Hidden rows in the ER Excel sheet were discovered and made visible only during verification — a material transparency failure
• ⚠55 sampled households could not be visited due to insecurity and were assigned a 0% usage rate, inflating the apparent usage gap and raising questions about representativeness
• ⚠FPIC status is contradictory: the PDD (2022) states FPIC was conducted, while the 2023 verification report records it as not conducted

Credit Vintages