SEI INITIATIVE The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice

The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice focuses on understanding why technical solutions in developing countries often fail due to a lack of user adoption. By collaborating with experts in behavioural economics and design research, the initiative seeks to create a framework that accounts for individual, relational, and structural drivers of behaviour. Initial empirical work focuses on the adoption of advanced biomass-pellet cookstoves in Kenya, specifically in Kiambu and Nakuru, to address high mortality rates from household air pollution. The initiative intends to produce a set of tools to help public and private sector actors design policies and products that better respond to user perspectives.

• Technical solutions in the developing world frequently fail because the intended beneficiaries do not embrace them, often due to a lack of understanding regarding the drivers of behaviour that influence technology uptake.
• The initiative will develop an analytical framework to understand the psychological and social factors influencing behaviour, focusing on three core research themes: drivers of individual behaviour, the impact of relational/peer effects, and actor-structure relationships.
• In Kenya, traditional biomass cookstoves contribute to 14,300 deaths annually, primarily among women and children, yet less than 5% of the population uses gas as a primary fuel.
• While approximately 30% of Kenyan households use an "improved" wood-burning stove, there is almost no adoption of the advanced biomass stoves recommended by the World Health Organisation for significant health benefits.
• The initiative's first-year activities will specifically investigate the determinants of household decision-making regarding biomass pellet cookstoves in Kiambu and Nakuru, Kenya, using social network analysis, service design, and political economy analysis.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2014). SEI INITIATIVE The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-initiative-brief-behaviour-choice-rvsd.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. SEI INITIATIVE The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice. 2014. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-initiative-brief-behaviour-choice-rvsd.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=SEI INITIATIVE The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice |date=2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-initiative-brief-behaviour-choice-rvsd.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2014sei, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{SEI INITIATIVE The SEI Initiative on Behaviour and Choice}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-initiative-brief-behaviour-choice-rvsd.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }