Little by little: How accessible loans are opening the door to clean cooking in Mauritania

Every morning, before the heat settles over Mbera Refugee Camp in eastern Mauritania, Hanou prepares tea and breakfast for her children and grandson. For years, this daily routine meant cooking over charcoal, filling her shelter with thick smoke that burned her eyes, irritated her lungs, and lingered long after the meal was finished.

“The smoke was everywhere,” she remembers. “It didn’t just come from our own cooking, but from our neighbors too. It made it hard to breathe and sometimes caused tension between us.”

Today, Hanou cooks differently. A mother, grandmother, and community leader, she is among the women in Mbera gradually shifting away from charcoal and firewood toward cleaner cooking solutions. The change did not happen overnight. Instead, it continues to happen little by little, through small, manageable payments, learning, and support.

In Mbera, this “little by little” shift is made possible through a small-scale loan tied specifically for use on cleaner fuels — an approach that links clean cooking with climate and environmental benefits, while making access affordable for families. Rather than asking households to make large upfront payments that few can afford, this energy transition–focused loan helps spread the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) over time, aligning payment structures with the way families already purchase fuel. The result is a transition that feels familiar, flexible, and achievable, rather than risky or out of reach.

A woman at the heart of community action

Hanou is a leader of VRPC (Volontaires Réfugiés pour la Propreté du Camp), one of the first refugee-led organizations in Mbera — a camp hosting approximately 120,000 Malian refugees. Every day, members of VRPC work to keep the camp clean while also engaging in agriculture and environmental protection activities. Their work supports both refugee and host communities, helping reduce environmental pressure and improve living conditions.

Living and working in the Fassala Commune, a dry and environmentally fragile area, Hanou has seen how heavy reliance on firewood and charcoal affects health, livelihoods, and the land itself. Trees disappear quickly, and smoke from indoor cooking takes a toll on women and children who spend long hours near cooking fires.

“For us, clean cooking is not just about comfort,” Hanou explains. “It’s about health, dignity, and protecting the environment for our children and grandchildren.”

Learning to cook — and pay — differently

With support from the Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund, the UNHCR Mauritania operation worked with refuges, host communities, and local businesses to find ways in which LPG could be paid for in small amounts, instead of the only existing option of buying a full and costly cannister. After encountering challenges with partnership options, UNHCR partnered with the microfinance institution Djikké to co-design, alongside refugees, a loan product that was clear, accessible and adapted to their needs — given that they are often excluded from formal financial services.

After the design of this approach, extensive training sessions were organized for more than one thousand people from both refugee and host communities. These trainings took place wherever people gathered, inside community rooms, under trees, and in open spaces both inside and outside the camp. Participants learned how to use LPG safely, how the payment system works, and how to manage cooking gas alongside their household budgets.

“I was happy to know I was selected for the LPG project,” Hanou says. “But at first, I had many questions. I didn’t know exactly how to use the gas or how the payment system with Djikké worked.”

Over time, those questions turned into confidence.

Making gas affordable, one refill at a time

What made the difference for Hanou was affordability. Instead of paying a large amount upfront, she could go directly to Djikké, which covered around 50 percent of the cost of refilling the gas cylinder.

“With the money I used to spend on charcoal, I can now pay for the gas,” she explains. “Little by little, it becomes possible.”

Using LPG also changed how Hanou organizes her day. Cooking takes less time, allowing her to spend more hours in the vegetable garden and on VRPC’s activities.

“When I wake up in the morning, I prepare tea and breakfast with the gas,” she says. “Then I go to the garden. Preparing lunch later doesn’t take long anymore.”

Time once lost to fuel preparation and long cooking hours is now reclaimed for productive and community-focused work and — importantly — for rest. In this already very arid environment facing many days of extreme heat, reducing a driver of deforestation will also have wider environmental benefits for the whole community — from increased shade cover to more substantial barriers against dust storms and improved water retention.

Building confidence and safety together

Like many families, Hanou initially worried about safety, especially cooking with gas in a shelter shared with children. Some households were unsure where to place cylinders or how to store them properly, and misinformation sometimes led to unsafe practices.

“These fears come from not knowing enough,” Hanou explains, speaking about the practice of burying LPG cylinders, which some communities believed to be the best storage method. “People want to protect their children, but they need clear information.”

Continuous training, demonstrations, and peer learning have been essential. As a community leader, Hanou now helps others understand safe practices, encouraging neighbors to ask questions and learn together, rather than rely on rumors.

An evolving programme with lessons learned

Hanou’s experience reflects a broader shift that has been unfolding in Mauritania for several years. Since 2022, UNHCR Mauritania has been piloting the Cash for Gas programme, which has so far supported more than 4,000 households to access cleaner cooking solutions. A major challenge for longer term transition to cleaner cooking, however, is that after the initial cash assistance, most households go back to using coal as they cannot afford a new cannister. Experimenting with options was essential to find out how to make this an affordable practice for refugees.

In 2023, support from the Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund created an opportunity to test partial refilling of gas cylinders — an idea inspired by the way households traditionally purchase charcoal, in small, affordable amounts. It became clear partial refilling of cannisters and only paying for the refilled amount would not work, as this created many regulatory problems. The project had to evolve, adapting to the local context and specific challenges of Mbera. As a result, focus shifted to strengthening collaboration with Djikké to support households both to access an initial LPG kit and to continue refilling their cylinders over time.

This evolution was not only crucial for finding a workable solution, but also became the backbone of how the practice could scale organically. Not only do refugees now learn about how this works from their peers, but also an institution present locally has a readily available product for them to use directly — reducing reliance on humanitarian assistance. This has opened a market space for financial services that is bringing opportunities to refugees and host communities alike.

For Hanou, the flexibility of the system is what makes the difference.

“If we can pay little by little, like we used to do with charcoal, then gas becomes possible,” she says. “That’s how change really happens.”

Breathing easier, looking ahead

The most immediate change in Hanou’s home is simple but powerful: cleaner air.

“Before, the smoke filled our space,” she says. “Now the air is clearer, cooking is faster, and life feels easier.”

Her story shows that clean cooking transitions are not about sudden transformation. They are about bridging the gap — step by step — between daily realities and longer-term solutions.

A January 2026 MOU between UNHCR and Banque Centrale de Mauritanie now offers promising prospects for expanding inclusive financial access moving forward, making this pay-as-you-go approach sustainable in the long term.

As Hanou continues her work with VRPC, tending the garden and keeping the camp clean, she sees LPG not as an end point, but as part of a wider effort to build healthier, more sustainable communities.

“Little by little,” she says, “we are changing how we live.”

Find out more about the Environment and Climate Action Innovation Fund.