Improved Jikos - Better Living for Rural Population

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard improved-cooking-stove project in Kenya has a confirmed investment-test additionality and a reputable VVB (TÜV NORD), but is undermined by the absence of a buffer pool, an unaddressed reversal risk, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible,' and multiple open corrective actions including an unresolved Forward Action Request. The verified usage rate (86.68%) exceeds the assumed rate (82.4%), which is reassuring, yet the lifetime ex-ante ERR figure could not be cross-checked against a verified total because the verified ERR is not stated in the extracted record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool is stated in any available document, leaving no financial backstop against reversal (households reverting to traditional stoves).
• ⚠Reversal risk is explicitly 'not addressed' in the verification record rather than quantified or mitigated.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with only a 'deemed negligible' justification, which is weak for a household-stove project where substitution and reversion are plausible.
• ⚠FAR 3 remains open and the monitoring was carried out in deviation from the registered PDD monitoring plan, with Gold Standard granting a temporary deviation.
• ⚠Surveys for 2021 and 2022 show average stove ages below the required threshold for some age groups, casting doubt on the usage-rate calculation.

Credit Vintages