Design Thinking for Social Innovation in Rural Mozambique

Abstract

Rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa face ongoing challenges related to poverty, limited infrastructure, and restricted access to markets. In small-scale fisheries women play an important role in post-harvest activities, yet their work is often informal and constrained by limited resources. In Linga Linga, Mozambique, these challenges are reflected in the short shelf life of fish, limited use of available fish resources, and limited opportunities for value creation. This study explores how the design thinking process can support value creation for female entrepreneurs in rural Mozambique. It also examines to what extent the resulting solutions contribute to social innovation, understood through the dimen sions of addressing human needs, changes in social relations, and empowerment and agency. The research is based on a qualitative case study conducted in collaboration with the non-profit organization Project Vita. Data were collected through a two-month field study, including observations, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and participatory methods adapted to the local context. Design thinking structured both the fieldwork and the analysis through the stages of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test, while social innovation served as the analytical lens. The study resulted in four contextually grounded solutions: fish powder, fish samosas, raised drying racks, and solar tent dryers. These solutions address immediate needs related to fish preservation, food security, and income generation, showing a strong contribution to the dimension of addressing human needs. However, their impact on social relations and empowerment is more limited, reflecting the difficulty of achieving broader structural change within a short time frame and in a resource constrained setting. Based on these findings, the study develops a conceptual model that not only illus trates how different stages of the design thinking process contribute unevenly to the dimensions of social innovation, but also proposes how aspects of social relations and empowerment can be more deliberately integrated into short-term, resource constrained design processes