Hifadhi-Livelihoods Improved Cookstove Project in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Audit Analysis

The Hifadhi cookstove project has VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal risk as an avoidance project, but suffers from a severe 70.4% under-delivery against ex-ante estimates, seven corrective action requests, and multiple data contradictions across verification reports. The 0% leakage deduction (down from 5% in an earlier report) and the use of KPT data from a different project raise material concerns about MRV robustness and baseline integrity.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Actual emission reductions are 70.4% lower than ex-ante estimates due to COVID-19 distribution delays, indicating the original project design assumptions were significantly overstated
• ⚠Seven corrective action requests (CARs) were raised in the verification report, covering MRV format errors, usage rate calculation flaws, KPT sampling validity, and baseline stove usage inconsistencies
• ⚠A temporary deviation was approved to use KPT (Kitchen Performance Test) results from a different project (GS-2898) due to travel restrictions, undermining the independence of the monitoring data
• ⚠The same validation team conducted the verification scope, raising impartiality concerns that the VVB itself flagged as requiring justification
• ⚠Leakage deduction was reduced from 5% (validation report, Nov 2024) to 0% (verification report, Apr 2026) with justification shifting from 'quantified' to 'deemed negligible', a material change without clear supporting evidence

Credit Vintages