Since its inception, the stove movement has consistently maintained that the users and local stakeholders must be the drivers of innovation. The German development agency, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), and many other organizations, have made it clear that successful stove solutions come from the users.
In 1987, Dr. Samuel Baldwin outlined how stoves should be evolved by design committees comprised of cooks, retailers, distributors, manufacturers, engineers, and funders who interact together to create an appropriate technology. Along with technologies that are capable of reducing harmful emissions and increasing efficient heat transfer to reduce fuel use, the local evolution of practical, market viable stoves that are also great at cooking continues to be a necessity.