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Nigerian Okey Esse says it was his childhood experience of seeing the difficulties that women faced as they often had to travel far to gather firewood to burn for cooking, that later led him to develop a smokeless powerstove. The low-cost stainless steel cookstove uses 'bio-pellets' made from diverse waste materials in its built-in burn chamber, and is regulated by an airflow system. It is safer and more environmentally friendly than traditional cooking methods that use wood, coal and kerosene and emit harmful air pollution. The powerstove has won wide acclaim and recently picked up an award - jointly presented by the Gender Lens Initiative for Switzerland and UNDP - that is specifically for ideas that advance gender equality and the empowerment of women. Okey Esse has been telling Focus on Africa's Audrey Brown more about his innovation and how it was the input of women that helped him to get it right. Image: A cooking pot on the smokeless PowerStove. Credit: Powerstove Energy.