A popular retail technique, the 'Groupon', is a system in which returns to an individual consumer are enhanced if he or she can convince others to participate as well. Analogs to the Groupon are possible in land management, where bonus payments based on the participation of neighbors can be employed to achieve contiguity of land use, prevention of land degradation, enhancement of biodiversity and other ecological services. Such payments - termed 'agglomeration payments' in the ecological economics literature - may also offset some program costs by reducing moral hazard and encouraging sustained adoption. This study applies agglomeration payments as part of an encouragement design for land conservation practices in Malawi's Shire Valley basin. In partnership with the Malawi Department of Land Resources and Conservation (DLRC) and the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM), our research will evaluate the impacts of agglomeration payments on the adoption of agricultural conservation technologies being promoted currently by the Government of Malawi, and the positive externalities for the Shire Valley basin that may accrue from the resulting spatial contiguity of adopting farms. The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in this area is still modest, making it challenging to evaluate impacts. Our two-pronged research strategy includes first a pilot study with a 4-treatment encouragement design to evaluate strategies for improving adoption of conservation agricultural (CA) technologies under DLRC-led programs in the Shire Valley. The treatments will compare the roles of extension services, conventional payments, and agglomeration payments in encouraging adoption of sustainable agricultural practices such as CA. Second, we propose to develop an agent-based model (ABM) of the Shire Valley basin system to evaluate consequences of improved adoption of sustainable agricultural practices for the enhanced provision of ecosystem services such as improved water quality and runoff regulation, or increased natural predator and pollination services. Agent-based models treat actors in the system (such as farmers) as individual agents whose decisions and interactions lead to emergent landscape-level outcomes such as land cover, water quality or ecosystem-level impacts. Data on social interactions and decision making from our pilot study will inform this regional-scale ABM which, coupled to soil-water assessment models already developed for Sub-Saharan Africa and to literature models for provision of predator and pollination services, will allow assessment of the landscape-scale consequences of the different incentives evaluated in the pilot study. A challenge in evaluating impacts from projects focused on sustainable agricultural practices is that while some impacts (such as reduced costs and labor) accrue rapidly, others (such as shifts in yields or water quality) may take years of consistent CA implementation to emerge. The design proposed here overcomes this limitation by combining field data collection with modeling, aiming to address three key questions: Q1) How do agglomeration payments shift interactions among farmers, as well as rates/patterns of adoption of practices such as CA? Q2) Can agglomeration payments lead to enhanced landscape-scale ecosystem service provision? Q3) Do agglomeration payments facilitate cost-effective ecosystem service provision, relative to conventional incentives?

Central and Southern Africa (C&SA) exemplifies the issues that FCFA aims to address: a complex mix of remote and regional climate drivers that challenge conventional climate model simulations, high levels of poorly simulated multi-year climate variability, an extremely low level of investment in climate science relative even to other parts of Africa but particularly West Africa; high physical and socio-economic exposure to climate that projections indicate may become drier and more variable in the future; and low adaptive capacity resulting in decision-making and medium-term planning that is inhibited by significant political, institutional and economic barriers. Meanwhile economic growth and significant infrastructure planning is taking place within C&SA in the absence of adequate climate information. Deficient understanding of many key climate features in C&SA is one barrier to the integration of climate information into decision-making. UMFULA will provide a step-change in climate science in C&SA. Our objectives include: (i) fundamental research into key climate processes over C&SA and how these are dealt with in models; (ii) a process-based evaluation to determine how models invoke change and whether that change is credible; (iii) production of novel climate products (Work Packages WP1-2) encompassing convection permitting and very high resolution (c4 km) ocean-atmosphere coupled simulations that will reveal processes of high impact events and as yet unexplored complexities of the climate change signal. We will also focus on neglected but critical elements of the circulation such as the links between C&SA and the role of local features including the Angolan Low, Botswana anticyclone, Angola/Benguela Frontal Zone, and the Seychelles-Chagos thermocline ridge. Based on this research and through co-production with stakeholders we will generate improved and streamlined climate information for decision-makers (WP3). We will use a deliberative and participatory methodology to test findings from FCFA pillars 1 and 2 with stakeholders based on deep engagement in two contrasting case studies: the Rufiji river basin in Tanzania, and sub-national decision-making in Malawi. They are carefully selected as exemplars of multi-sector, multi-stakeholder, and multi-scale decision situations which can be compared for transferable lessons on the effective use of climate services. In-depth understanding of decision-making contexts, including political economy, theories of institutional change, and individual motivation from behavioural sciences will inform how to tailor and target climate projections for most effective use (WP4). The case study areas (WP5-6) will test these findings through a co-produced framework of C&SA-appropriate decision-making under climate uncertainty to identify robust climate services-informed intervention pathways (portfolios of policies and investments that could work well over a broad range of climatic and socio-economic futures). Our Capstone Work Package (WP7), and major outcome, will be the synthesis of best decision-making models and appraisal methods that are transferable in the African context and enable effective use of climate information in medium-term decision-making. The seven UMFULA Work Packages cut across the three FCFA pillars to ensure maximum complementarity and integration. We are a consortium with world-leading expertise in climate science, decision science and adaptation research and practice, together with stakeholder networks and strong, long-standing relationships in C&SA. We comprise 5 UK and 13 African institutions.

This project seeks to understand the barriers that have prevented the large-scale uptake of improved cook stoves in Southern Africa. By learning from successful projects in East Africa, a roadmap to overcome these obstacles will be produced. It is estimated that 2.7 billion people worldwide, who mostly live on incomes of less than US$2/day, depend on solid biomass fuels (fuelwood, charcoal, animal dung, grass, shrubs, agricultural residue) to meet their basic energy needs for cooking and heating. Many of these people cook on open fires, often inside their homes. As well as being very inefficient in the use of scarce firewood, women and children are exposed to harmful levels of wood smoke, which is a major cause of respiratory disease and premature death. Cook stoves are estimated to contribute around a third of global carbon monoxide emissions while the black carbon particles and other pollutants in biomass smoke are also thought to play a role in global warming. Improved cook stoves, designed to burn biomass fuels more cleanly and efficiently than traditional stoves, have been promoted by charities and governments in many developing countries since the 1970s. A variety of approaches have been tried, including "build-your-own stove" projects, community-focused participatory schemes, manufacturing stoves in remote villages and market-based commercial activities. In some countries, these new stoves have been well-received. For example, in Kenya 80% of urban families use a metal "jiko" charcoal stove for cooking, which uses 50% less fuel and also decreases cooking time. The cost of the stove can be recovered in fuel savings in just a few months. It is estimated that the widespread uptake of the jiko stove in Kenya saves 206,000 tonnes of wood (570,000 hectares of trees) per year. In other countries, the progress has been less spectacular. Schemes have failed for a whole range of reasons which are only partially understood. Reasons for failure include: cost of the new stoves, cultural resistance to change, negative experience with previous "development" projects, lack of fuel, failure to understand users' needs and so on. Some stove initiatives have relied solely on the attraction of new technologies rather than taking a more holistic approach which learns from past mistakes and also from successful intervention projects. The proposed research analyses improved cook stoves and their uptake, with a particular focus on South-South learning and knowledge transfer. Countries to be studied include Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa, and Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa in Southern Africa. A cross-disciplinary approach is required to fully understand the barriers and to create an environment that is required for improved cook stove uptake in Southern Africa. To ensure that the problem is tackled from a variety of viewpoints, project partners include engineers, social scientists, nongovernmental organisations, stove manufacturers and distributors. The full list of project partners is: * The University of Nottingham * Practical Action * The Household Energy Network * AFREPREN: an Africa-wide network of researchers, policy makers & civil society representatives * The Energy, Poverty & Development Group at the Energy Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa * The Center of Energy & Environment, University of Zambia * Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Malawi * The Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics & Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria * Ashden: a charity championing the use of sustainable energy at a local level The intended outcome of the project will be a set of resources useful to the project partners and other organisations involved in the distribution of improved cook stoves, with the ultimate aim to reduce fuel poverty and to improve the health and environment for the 2.7 billion people who currently depend on biomass stoves.

Agricultural entrepreneurship (agropreneurship) is critically important in Malawi and Uganda for two reason. First the production and processing of agriculture-based products and services has untapped potential for development in addressing the job creation crises. Secondly, circular economy-based agropreneurship is a key leverage point for the global climate change challenge. In particular, agropreneurs can develop next-generation opportunities to address these challenges in novel way. However, Malawian and Ugandan, like other Sub-Saharan (SSA) HEI graduates lack the 21st century key competencies needed to think systematically, act entrepreneurially and to be expert in the climate-smart agriculture. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a powerful research-based methodology that HAMK and UCPH have extensively used in international development effort. PBL integrates the complexity of real-world problems into curricula implementation, and this helps students to create problem solving and critical thinking skills upon which the entrepreneurship decision making rests. AgrGROW capacitates HEIs in student-centered learning, in network-based learning ecosystem building and in practices of climate-smart agropreneurship. AgrGROW undertakes PBL- and climate-smart agropreneurship trainings and the methodology is piloted and contextualized through students online and field works. Each HEI will take a specific role: HAMK and UCPH facilitate methodology, climate-smart agropreneurship and institutional capacity building and RUFORUM leads the quality process. Malawian and Ugandan HEIs participate AgrGROW with their expertise and defined objectives. The project deliverables, information kits of PBL-based curricula revisions, teacher trainings and collaborative learning ecosystem building are all done together. RUFORUM’s PBL-expert teacher network is strengthened when new trained members join it for peer support and further development of the curricula and methods. All HEIs participatxxx