Beyond buying: The application of service design methodology to understand adoption of clean cookstoves in Kenya and Zambia

A shift to advanced cookstoves can bring significant health and environmental benefits, but only with proper and consistent use. Despite this, the empirical evidence of what drives the initial purchase, and in particular, the continued use of advance cooking technologies remains limited. This paper describes two case studies in peri-urban Kiambu County (Kenya) and urban Lusaka (Zambia) where we examine the factors influencing the purchase and use of clean biomass cookstoves over time. We apply service design methodology to build “user journeys” to illustrate the cook’s experience with the technology, from the point of hearing about it, to purchasing it, learning to use it, and making it part of their daily routine. We find that often, the primary factors influencing initial purchase do not motivate people to use the stove regularly in the longer term. From the user-journey mapping, we identify some key behaviour change techniques that could be applied, primarily by cookstove implementers, at different phases in the adoption journey to support users in the process of overcoming behavioural barriers to adopting a new technology. Our findings emphasize that complex factors affect people's decision-making around the purchase and use of clean cookstoves, and highlight the need to carefully map user’s experience to pinpoint where support is most needed in the process of change.