GS1340 Efficient cookstoves in Burkina Faso – VPA-28 – Solidagro F3PA cookstoves in Passoré

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Burkina Faso with a VVB-verified combined additionality test, measured project-specific baseline, and a quantified 5% leakage deduction. However, the absence of a stated buffer pool, 16 corrective actions required by the VVB, and multiple inter-document contradictions (particularly on safeguards, grievance mechanisms, and usage monitoring) significantly undermine confidence in the data integrity and permanence of the claimed reductions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠16 corrective actions required by SustainCERT in the verification report, including inconsistencies in fixed ex-ante values, discount factors, and household number discrepancies, indicating material data quality issues
• ⚠Contradictions between the 2022 and 2023 monitoring reports on safeguards (absent vs. present) and grievance mechanism (absent vs. present), with the verification report resolving in favour of presence but the underlying gap unresolved
• ⚠Usage monitoring method described as 'assumed' in the 2022 monitoring report but 'annual survey' in the 2024 verification report, and corrective actions explicitly call for clarification of the usage rate calculation and household number discrepancies

Credit Vintages