Assessing Government Design Practices from a Human-Centered Perspective: Case Study of an Improved Cookstoves Program in Colombia/Analizando las prácticas de diseño gubernamentales desde una perspectiva centrada en las personas: Caso de estudio sobre un programa de estufas mejoradas en Colombia/Analisando as práticas de desenho do governo a partir de uma perspectiva centrada nas pessoas: estudo de caso de um programa de fogões melhorados na Colômbia.
| Autor | Gutiérrez, Juan David |
| Páginas | 1c(38) |
Introduction (1)
Household air pollution (HAP) from biomass fuels in inefficient cookstoves negatively affects the health of 2.6 billion people--especially women and children under five years old in rural areas in developing countries--and has an adverse incidence on climate change--e.g., via deforestation--(World Health Organization [WHO], 2014, 2016, 2021a, 2021b). (2) In fact, "air pollution is now recognized as the single biggest environmental threat to human health, along with climate change" (WHO, 2021b). In Colombia, according to the latest public data from the 2018 Quality-of-Life Survey, 46% of rural households use biomass for cooking their food; in the department of Nariño, this percentage reaches almost 49% (DANE, 2019).
Governments and non-governmental organizations (NGO) worldwide are promoting the transition to new cooking technologies that prevent HAP, namely energy-efficient and fuel-saving cookstoves. In Latin America, programs promoting the adoption of improved cookstoves (ICS) (3) have been implemented in Andean and Central American countries to reduce health and environmental problems caused by cooking with 'dirty' fuels (Ravillard et al., 2020).
This article follows a case-study approach to characterize and assess the "design practices" applied in a Colombian government-led program (4) that fostered the transition to ICS intending to reduce firewood consumption and the emissions of indoor air pollution. We follow Villa Alvarez et al. (2022, p. 93), who define design practice as a "set of activities interconnecting approaches, methodologies, methods and tools, which partitioners apply to run projects, work together and shape objects of design".
The studied case is a program of the Autonomous Corporation of Nariño (Corponariño), a Colombian subnational environmental agency, implemented between 2010-2018 in the department of Nariño. We assessed the degree to which the different stages of the program considered the specific needs, values, and contexts of the beneficiaries, as well as human experience. We collected qualitative data through direct observation and 23 semi-structured interviews with civil servants, program beneficiaries, and external stakeholders. We also reviewed official documents associated with the program's strategic planning and procurement processes.
The research does not intend to offer an outcome or impact evaluation of Corponariño's ICS program. Instead, the study is a process-oriented evaluation. (5) More specifically, the research presents a retrospective characterization and assessment of a specific aspect of the program's processes: the design practices applied by the subnational government environmental agency to formulate, implement, and evaluate its program.
We found that the program design followed a top-down approach focused on a single design principle, efficiency. Moreover, the design methods used by the government did not appear to sufficiently involve its potential beneficiaries nor consider their actual human experiences and realities. We argue that if the government had applied a more human-centered design approach, it could have improved the integration of the socio-cultural backgrounds of the program's beneficiaries. Overall, the results of this study underscore the importance of integrating human-centered design approaches to identify new paths to improve governments' responsiveness and effectiveness.
The article proceeds as follows: Section 2 presents the literature on government-led "clean cookstoves" programs and the literature on human-centered design in government programs and policies. Then, the data and methods section describes the research's methodological approach. Section 4 presents the main findings of our case study. Finally, Section 5 discusses the paper's conclusions and underlines the implications of our case study.
Review of the Literature
Programs that Promote ICS and Factors that Determine ICS Adoption by Household
Governments and NGOs worldwide are promoting the transition to ICS, which aim to reduce household air pollution and decrease the use of biomass. However, after decades of programs that have aimed at disseminating ICS in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the adoption rate has not met expectations (Jan et al., 2017; Jan & Lohano, 2021; Menghwani et al., 2019). Governments have fallen short of effectively promoting the adoption of these new technologies by beneficiary households (Guta, 2020; Hanna et al., 2016; Jan et al., 2017; Jan & Lohano, 2021; Jeuland & Tan Soo, 2016; Jewitt et al., 2020; Menghwani et al., 2019; Rehfuess et al., 2014; Ruiz-Mercado & Masera, 2015).
The literature has identified a wide range of factors that influence the adoption of ICS by households and that may illuminate why some ICS programs are more successful than others. First, the distribution and marketing efforts regarding the ICS appear to influence its practical adoption (Jan & Lohano, 2021). Similarly, the more information potential users of the new technology receive about its benefits, the more likely they will use it once they acquire it (Guta, 2020; Jewitt et al., 2020; Jürisoo et al., 2018; Kanangire & Mbabazize, 2016; Karanja & Gasparatos, 2019).
Second, cooking time is also necessary because "if an ICS saves fuelwood, but takes a lot more time to operate, it is not clear cooks would be willing to adopt and regularly use that technology" (Bluffstone et al., 2022, p. 282). Third, some investigations suggest that the use of ICS tends to decline over time due to problems with maintenance (Furszyfer del Rio et al., 2020; Jürisoo et al., 2018).
Fourth, recent studies suggest that the design of the stove is fundamental (Furszyfer del Rio et al., 2020; Jagger & Jumbe, 2016; Jan & Lohano, 2021; Jürisoo et al., 2018; Karanja & Gasparatos, 2019). The main reason is that the model of the ICS must, in addition to allowing food to be cooked, adjust to users' needs and requirements. In other words, it must be convenient, easy to use and clean.
Finally, some studies have found that some people might prefer a traditional version of stoves (an open fire) over an ICS due to cultural customs (Bielecki & Wingenbach, 2014; Guta, 2020; Jan & Lohano, 2021; Karanja & Gasparatos, 2019; Tidze & Tchouamo, 2018). The fact that an ICS uses less wood might not be as important for potential users as cultural factors are --if it allows them to prepare traditional foods (Bielecki & Wingenbach, 2014; Karanja & Gasparatos, 2019); the food taste (Jan & Lohano, 2021; Jewitt et al., 2020; Malla & Timilsina, 2014; Tidze & Tchouamo, 2018); if pots of different sizes can be placed on it and it can cook for many people (Jewitt et al., 2020; Malla & Timilsina, 2014; Tidze & Tchouamo, 2018); if it provides heat and light (Guta, 2020), and if it serves as a social gathering point (Bielecki & Wingenbach, 2014; Guta, 2020, p. 2).
While energy efficiency is one of the main attributes that explain why governments promote the transition to ICS, "higher efficiency stoves are not necessarily user-friendly and, hence, do not make cooking/food preparation easy" (Jan & Lohano, 2021, p. 2). Cookstove programs should involve potential users, particularly women, at the design stage to ensure cookstoves' design and attributes meet the users' needs, expectations and values (Karanja & Gasparatos, 2019). Furthermore, the stoves with the highest absorption rates are those "stoves that are similar to a traditional stove, designed according to consumer preference, easy to light, use different wood sizes, and are produced by local artisans using local materials" (Jagger & Jumbe, 2016, p. 410).
Most studies on the factors that explain the adoption of this type of clean cooking technology by the beneficiaries have been conducted in Asian (Carter et al., 2020; Menghwani et al., 2019; Shan et al., 2017) and African (Bensch et al., 2015; Beyene & Koch, 2013; Bluffstone et al., 2022; Fingleton-Smith, 2022; Molla Adane et al., 2020; Pakravan & MacCarty, 2020b; Tidze & Tchouamo, 2018; Yayeh et al., 2021) countries and Latin America to a lesser extent (Bielecki & Wingenbach, 2014; Gómez et al., 2014; Pakravan & MacCarty, 2020a; Ruiz-Mercado & Masera, 2015).
The article's main contributions regarding literature on ICS programs are two-fold. First, it contributes by examining ICS programs in Colombia, which has been understudied compared to other world regions. (6) Second, our results align with those of other studies in that they underscore the nexus between the sociocultural realities of potential beneficiaries and the effective adoption of ics.
Policy Design and Human-Centered Approaches
The use of design in government and the study of the application of different design approaches to policy is not new. Mintrom and Luetjens (2016, p. 391) claim that in the field of public policy theory, "design has long been as a component of policy development." Similarly, Clarke and Craft (2019, p. 5) contend that the concept of "policy design" emerged in the 1950s and, since then, it "has been contested, reimagined, ignored and revived." (7) Moreover, Howlett et al. (2017, p. 129) argue that policy design is a "major theme in contemporary policy research" (p. 129) and define it as governments' attempt to improve "the understanding of how the processes, methods and tools of policy-making are employed to better formulate effective policies and programs" (p. 129).
The policy design scholarship, part of the policy studies literature, has been traditionally underpinned by a "rational-instrumental logic." In the last years, an alternative approach has incorporated elements of design studies into public sector processes (Clarke & Craft, 2019). (8) The emerging field denominated "design for policy" addresses new approaches for designing government policies and programs. According to Bason (2020), "design for policy" offers three promises: 1) new means to understand public problems through diverse analytical...
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