This article focuses on cooking energy and the role of donor organisations in the introduction and dissemination of improved stoves. After presenting some basic facts on cooking energy, the article discusses the cooking energy-poverty nexus and possible reasons for the often neglect of this topic in the context of development cooperation. Clean and efficient technologies for cooking are presented and a short introduction to different dissemination approaches shows the changes that occurred in the last years. The importance of public sector investments to increase the supply and use of clean cooking energy technologies in developing countries is analysed and underlined by GTZ's experiences in this field. The case study of Uganda finally demonstrates how cooking energy interventions work in the field and points out that investment pays off. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.