Forward7 Award Advisory Board Announcement – Deadline Extension to 10^th August 2026

As a member of the Forward7 Clean Cooking Award Advisory Panel, I’m pleased to share that the application deadline has been extended to 10 August 2026, giving more entities the opportunity to showcase their work.

If your organisation or one within your network is advancing clean cooking through innovative and practical solutions, I encourage you to apply.

Several encouraging trends have emerged from this year’s applicant pool:

• Strong participation from Rwanda, which currently leads with 21 applicants, exceeding the combined total from Nigeria and Kenya.
• A highly entrepreneurial field, with 37 startups represented and only three grant-dependent NGOs among the applicants.
• Representation from nine African markets and counting, spanning from Kigali and Lagos to Cape Town.

In order to encourage maximum participation, especially in the countries with larger African populations, the Forward7 team has elected to extend the deadline to 10 August 2026, to enable the right operators with serious projects across Africa submit their applications.  

We are looking for initiatives that are improving access, strengthening LPG distribution, expanding last-mile delivery, increasing affordability, supporting sustained adoption, or scaling clean cooking solutions across Africa.

The Award offers a total prize fund of USD 45,000, with USD 15,000 awarded to one winner in each of the three categories:

• Frontier Contexts
• Continuity & Loyalty
• Urban Scale-Up

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing your innovative solutions.

Anibor Kragha, Executive Secretary, ARDA.