Evaluating the application of design thinking and systems thinking for climate adaptation and resilience

The Design for Climate Solutions (D4CS) Programme is a pilot initiative that aims to foster co-creation and innovations that address climate adaptation and resilience challenges. D4CS is hosted by the University of Cape Town’s African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) in partnership with Bertha Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika. Four South African based teams were invited to co-design user-oriented solutions for different climate-related challenges.

Systems thinking and design thinking for climate action

Climate impacts are damaging and costly, undermining individual and household well-being, and community, settlement and sectoral development. As ACDI researcher Anna Taylor says, “if we are to reduce climate risks and increase resilience to climate and other shocks, we need more implementable solutions, ones that are tailored to the diverse contextual specificities of places and people in South Africa”.

Despite the growing interest and efforts in developing actions towards adaptation and resilience, we have limited evidence of achieving lasting transformative change. Innovations that significantly reduce climate risk and vulnerability are needed; and South African universities can play a critical role in the innovation ecosystem. Innovation is a complex process influenced by both theory and practice. In the climate adaptation and resilience space innovation can be used for creating value by developing and implementing novel solutions to climate adaptation challenges.

We have been applying an adaptive learning approach in designing and implementing the D4CS programme, as flexibility is required to support multi-stakeholder teams, especially those addressing complex issues in new ways. “This is exciting because we are exploring new ways of approaching climate adaptation and resilience. We are working across disciplinary boundaries and learning a lot about the science-society interface. In this programme we try to acknowledge the complexity and embrace the uncertainty of challenges in a way that supports co-creation from the bottom-up,” explains Lavinia Perumal, Programme Leader

Designing climate solutions

D4CS has a dual purpose. This is an opportunity for teams to find a solution to a climate and development challenge they are interested in. One of the goals is to guide multi-stakeholder teams to co-design actionable climate solutions (i.e. actions, services or goods that reduce climate risks and increase climate resilience) in diverse South African contexts. We offer teams a semi-structured process, a collaborative space, trained facilitators, coaches and researchers, and access to resources that are needed to work together to co-create a solution. The second purpose is research focused. A strong learning element is embedded in D4CS, for both the participants and research team. This is a unique opportunity to explore the various pathways that can foster innovations for adaptation and resilience.

D4CS has 3 phases, each designed to facilitate co-creation. Phase 1 includes hybrid sessions for challenge preparation and systems-level understanding of the challenge. Teams navigate the complexity of the challenge integrating different perspectives, tools and techniques to frame and re-frame their understanding. In phase 2 teams go through a 5-day in-person design thinking workshop, adopting a human-centred design approach, where user-oriented solutions are developed and prototyped. Phase 3 is a systems entrepreneurship incubator track in which selected teams will shift from prototype towards implementation, where teams are supported to develop their proof of concept.

“The design thinking process offers an opportunity to cut through the noise of so many conversations about what is needed, and which solutions can work. We must focus on finding tangible and practical ways of addressing the impact climate change is having on African communities,” says Mark Jackson, d-school Afrika lead coach.

Each team began by framing the key challenges they aimed to address, posing questions such as:

• ‘How might we support home food growing in a way that fosters sustainable food security and community economic empowerment’, 
• ‘How can we leverage nature-based solutions for climate resilience in peri-urban informal settlements around Durban’,
• ‘How might we assist communities in Ermelo co-create new and sustainable economic opportunities as part of the just transition’, and
• ‘How might our foundation improve and enhance the initiatives to boost its impact and align with local climate goals’

Learning about co-creation and innovation

All teams have completed Phase 2 and have taken time to reflect on their experiences thus far. Participants shared that they felt challenged by the complexity of the issues they were tackling, as well as communicating in new ways with users and stakeholders, and navigating the collaborative nature of the D4CS programme. On the other hand, participants also report significant personal and collective gains. Data processing and analysis will occur later in 2024 once Phase 3 is complete. Two teams are expected to develop their prototypes in Phase 3.

ACDI Director Quote: “I love how this project actively engages actors outside of the university grappling with how to build climate adaptation and resilience, whilst drawing on the strengths of the university to provide support, insight and co-ordination to enable innovation. We need more of these types of processes to enable societal and environmental change,” says Gina Ziervogel, ACDI director.

This pilot has already improved our understanding of co-creation and the potential pathways to innovation in this space. We’re learning a lot about how people and teams navigate co-creation, as well as the impact in terms of the ability of this programme to deliver actionable solutions that have significant outcomes for adaptation and resilience. We are starting to harvest deep insights into the potential barriers and enablers of innovation and look forward to taking this further, both in terms of theoretical understanding and sharing with a wider audience.

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The Design for Climate Solutions Programme is run separately for each team between March and December 2024. The programme is hosted by the African Climate & Development Initiative and funded by the South Africa / Flanders Climate Adaptation Research and Training Partnership (SAF-ADAPT). This article was written by Lavinia Perumal (D4CS Programme Lead) with input from Anna Taylor, Gina Ziervogel, Mark New and Mark Jackson.