Assessing Government Design Practices from a Human-Centered Perspective: Case Study of an Improved Cookstoves Program in Colombia

Abstract

Governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide are promoting the transition to improvedcookstoves (ics), which aim to reduce household air pollution and decrease the use of biomass. This article follows a case-study approach to characterize and assess the design practices applied in a Colombian government-led program to foster the transition to ics in rural households between 2010-2018 in the department of Nariño. Data was collected from direct observation, 23 semi-structured interviews (with program beneficiaries, civil servants, and external stakeholders) and documentary evidence. We assessed the degree to which the program’s formulation, implementation, and evaluation considered the beneficiaries’ specific needs, values, contexts and human experience. We found that the government program design followed a top-down approach focused on a single design principle, efficiency. Moreover, the government’s design methods did not appear to sufficiently involve its potential beneficiaries or consider their actual human experiences and realities. We argue that if the government had applied a more human-centered design approach, it could have enhanced 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.