This Pakistani startup bags $100,000 grant at Dubai Expo Live for its fuel-efficient stove

Jaan Pakistan, a company developing innovative smoke-free and fuel-efficient cooking stoves to prevent fatal respiratory illness could now save 11,000 more lives with the recent grant of $100,000 and support received by Expo Live, a global social impact program, run by the organizers of the next World Expo and Expo 2020 Dubai.

Expo Live’s Innovation Impact Grant Program attracted more than 2,300 applicants from 136 countries. Following a rigorous evaluation process, which included live presentations in Dubai, 70 grantees from 42 countries have joined Expo Live’s community of Global Innovators where Jaan Pakistan is representing Pakistan.

More than 4.3 million people – mostly women and children – die in impoverished remote communities around the world, due to respiratory illnesses. These illnesses are often caused by harmful smoke emitted from open fires for cooking that is fuelled by wood, crop residue or other solid carbon fuels.

To prevent these unnecessary deaths, Khizr Imran Tajammul, the founder of Jaan Pakistan, developed a stove that requires a low amount of biofuel and also limits the release of harmful smoke, reducing not only health problems but also air pollution and deforestation.

The stove’s smart thermodynamic design and chimney improves its efficiency by up to 40 percent, reducing the amount of biofuel required, adding to families’ cost savings. Tajammul also built insulation traps to prevent the stove’s heat from burning family members or their home, while still safely heating the room.

The cooking stoves currently cost families about $24, which Jaan Pakistan said was recovered in fuel savings within two months. The firm has sold more than 800 cooking stoves and is working on two cheaper prototypes. By 2021, the company aims to sell 375,000 cooking stoves across Pakistan, positively influencing 1.8 million lives. Sharing his plans to utilize the grant, Tajammul said,

“Thanks to the Expo Live grant, we will produce and sell 1,600 additional cooking stoves across Pakistan’s remote northern areas, preventing fatal respiratory illnesses and potentially saving up to 11,200 lives. We will also launch a behaviour change advocacy campaign on social media, radio and cable television networks, educating communities on the harmful effects of open fires, deforestation and the inhalation of solid fuel fumes.”

Jaan Pakistan has also been a part of invest2innovate’s fifth incubation cycle. In 2014, Tajammul also bagged the first prize for One Young World Summit.

About Expo 2020

Expo Live is Expo 2020 Dubai’s innovation and partnership programme and has an allocation of USD 100 million to back projects that offer creative solutions to pressing challenges that impact people’s lives or help preserve the planet – or both. organizers are looking for projects that would not reach their full potential without its support. Yousuf Caires, Vice President – Expo Live at Expo 2020 Dubai said,

“Jaan Pakistan has the potential to have a direct, tangible impact on both the lives of millions of people and the environment. This is the kind of project that Expo Live wants to support, hopefully also encouraging many more social entrepreneurs to act and improve our world.”

Kamran Khan, Commercial Secretary at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi said,

“I’m glad to see a Pakistani entrepreneur receive an Expo Live grant, and I think this is going to encourage others. There are a lot of entrepreneurs in Pakistan and Expo Live is the best place for them to showcase their innovations.”

Expo 2020 Dubai will take place from 20 October 2020 to 10 April, 2021 and will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region. It will be a festival of human ingenuity that gives a glimpse into the future, guided by its three pillars: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.