Meet Leslie Waliko — District Clean Cooking Officer, iRise Carbon

Getting cookstoves into communities is not just logistics. It is conversation, trust, and showing up every day with the same standard.

Leslie Waliko is 49 years old and based in Balaka District in southern Malawi — a region where most households still cook over three-stone fires, and where the gap between knowing that clean cookstoves exist and actually having one in the kitchen comes down to people like him.

As District Clean Cooking Officer for iRise Carbon, Leslie works directly with local communities to shift that gap. His job, in plain terms, is to meet people where they are — in their villages, in their assumptions, in their daily routines — and to explain, demonstrate, and distribute. Then to come back and do it again.

“Professionalism and clear methodology when interacting with all relevant sectors and partners in my day-to-day affairs.”

— Leslie Waliko, District Clean Cooking Officer, iRise Carbon

From interest to field work

Leslie's path into clean cooking came through a growing awareness of what uncontrolled carbon emissions were doing to the natural world. He had been following discussions about greenhouse gas emissions through various NGO channels, reading further, and building an understanding of how deforestation and cooking practices were connected to larger environmental changes.

He wanted to be part of the solution — specifically, part of an organisation that delivered with integrity and commitment in the carbon industry. That is what brought him to iRise Carbon.

What the field actually looks like

A day in Balaka District is not always easy. Leslie is honest about what community engagement involves: some households welcome the cookstoves immediately. Others push back — questioning the value of a device when their immediate priority is food security. One of the hardest parts of the role, he says, is shifting mindsets that have been shaped by generations of tradition.

A win in two weeks

The results, when the engagement works, are concrete. Across T/A Phimbi, T/A Nkaya, and S.T/A Mgomwa, Leslie and his team distributed 5,783 cookstoves in two weeks. A total of 20,700 stoves have now been received across 14 training sites in these areas — each one representing a household moving away from three-stone fire cooking and toward cleaner, more efficient energy use.

Those numbers are the result of consultations, community meetings, and relationship-building that happened first. The stoves do not move without the trust.

What community engagement actually means

Ask Leslie what iRise Carbon's approach looks like on the ground, and he describes something straightforward: honesty, professional interaction, and communication that reaches everyone — not just community leaders, but the full range of people in each area. He talks about "all-inclusive interactions" as both a practical strategy and a value.

Community consent, he observes, shows up in behaviour: in the eagerness of households to start using their stoves, in the questions they ask during training sessions, in the trust that builds when they see that the process is the same for everyone and that no shortcuts are made.

“They believe that iRise Carbon has integrity in the carbon business, because no short-cuts are made in how the processes are followed.”

— Leslie Waliko, District Clean Cooking Officer, iRise Carbon

To anyone considering joining or partnering

Leslie is one of a growing team of field professionals across iRise Carbon's Clean Cooking, Reforestation, Finance and Operations divisions — each bringing commitment, rigour, and genuine care to the work of building a carbon programme that communities and buyers can trust.

Follow iRise Carbon on LinkedIn for the next article in the Meet the Team series — every Friday for 15 weeks.

www.irisecarbon.com · Carbon with Integrity