We help our clients understand human behaviors and design solutions to scale products, programs and policies.
Nairobi, Kenya
Joined April 2015
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Busara was invited as a strategic partner by World Resources Institute, alongside organizations including FAO, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and The World Bank Group, to the launch of the Homa Bay County Food Loss and Waste Reduction (FLWR) Action Plan, formally launched by HE Danish Otieno Onyango, Deputy Governor of County Government of Homa Bay on 23 September 2026 as Kenya seeks to reduce Food Loss and Waste by 50% by the year 2023.
Busara’s participation was intended to recognize its existing work on food loss and waste and the application of behavioral science to food systems, and to provide an opportunity to showcase our work to key stakeholders.
During the event, Juhi Jain, Director, FARM, shared how behavioral science can help address food loss and waste by understanding the human decisions that contribute to losses across the supply chain as well as at the consumption level. She highlighted practical examples across the value chain and the various intersections in which FLW can happen. From how produce is packed, loaded, and transported; how tools like cold storage units can be better designed for traders' practical use, and how consumer decisions around visually imperfect produce affect purchasing.
Juhi also shared FARM’s work with the Posner Foundation in traditional markets in Kenya and Nigeria on visually imperfect produce, and where targeted interventions increased willingness to purchase imperfect produce by 22%, while reducing spoilage and increasing vendor sales. Busara is excited to further its work and leadership on Food Loss and Waste, specially in Sub Saharan Africa and work with governments and partners to support.
Read our publications in detail (link in comments)
An enlightening conversation on leadership, courage and the work of building peace by Wahu Kaara organized by Busara, @CMDKenya and @Badili_A at the Busara office.
You can catch the live conversation here:
youtube.com/live/7cRdEhQDE5Q…
Understanding people goes beyond knowing who they are. It requires understanding why they make the decisions they do and how those decisions are shaped by their everyday realities.
The GRACE Persona Toolkit brings together behavioral science and human centered design to help researchers, practitioners, and programme teams create evidence based personas that strengthen intervention design. From defining research questions and gathering behavioral insights to applying personas in communication, programme design, and continuous learning, the toolkit provides a practical framework for designing with people rather than assumptions.
Built around the GRACE Framework—Gather, Research, Assemble, Check, and Evolve—the publication shows how personas can become living tools that inform decisions throughout the project lifecycle.
The toolkit was developed through a collaboration between Busara and Glashaus Innovation. It was authored by Juhi Jain and Laura from Busara, alongside Charlotte Schumann and Aline Weinsheimer from Glashaus Innovation, with valuable perspectives from collaborators and partners, including the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, @BiovIntCIAT_eng .
Download the GRACE Persona Toolkit through the link in the comments to explore how behaviorally informed personas can support more effective, context driven, and people centered interventions. Download here
busara.global/our-works/beha…
On 25th September, Busara and @CMDKenya will host Wahu Kaara, peace and political activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, at the Busara office, for a candid conversation on Leadership, Courage and the Work of Building Peace.
Wahu's journey spans some of the most defining chapters in Kenya's democratic history. From her activism as a university student, to her role in the struggle for the release of political prisoners at Freedom Corner, to decades of work in peacebuilding, women's rights and debt justice, her story offers a rare, first hand account of how ordinary citizens have shaped democratic change.
We will be looking forward to engage directly with the choices, values and lessons behind a lifetime of civic leadership, and to reflect on what they mean for how we lead and participate today.
Look out for reflections on this event coming to you soon.
What if your next role gave you the opportunity to work on some of the most complex challenges in governance in the Global South, while using behavioral science to shape how those challenges are understood and solved?
Busara is looking for a Senior Associate – Governance to lead high-impact research and advisory engagements from idea to delivery. You’ll work closely with clients, partners, researchers, and senior leaders; lead multidisciplinary teams; shape research and prototypes; and take ownership of projects that can influence how organizations and institutions operate.
This is a role for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, leading people, building strong partnerships, and turning rigorous research into practical solutions, with strong project and team management experience, alongside a background in behavioral science, research, public policy, governance, or a related field.
Apply here: lnkd.in/dA-Rxms2
Busara retweeted
Recently @VisionFundKE partnered with @VisionFund , @BusaraCenter , @Kiva & IBISA for the ClimaCash Co-Design Workshop.
Together, we co-created practical solutions to improve access to climate finance, strengthen client experience & build climate-resilient livelihoods.
Busara retweeted
What does courage in public life actually look like?😀
On 25th September, CMD will host Wahu Kaara, peace and political activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, for a candid conversation on Leadership, Courage and the Work of Building Peace🤩🎊
Wahu's journey spans some of the most defining chapters in Kenya's democratic history. From her activism as a university student, to her role in the struggle for the release of political prisoners at Freedom Corner, to decades of work in peacebuilding, women's rights and debt justice, her story offers a rare, first hand account of how ordinary citizens have shaped democratic change.💡
This is more than a chance to hear her story. It's an opportunity for young Kenyans to engage directly with the choices, values and lessons behind a lifetime of civic leadership, and to reflect on what they mean for how we lead and participate today.🗒️
@Badili_A
@BusaraCenter
#FormNiDialouge
The future of Africa's food systems depends not only on better technologies and stronger policies but also on understanding the people making decisions every day.
Across the Global South, our researchers partner with governments, development organizations, farmers, NGOs, and the private sector to understand why people behave the way they do and how behavioral science can help create food systems that are more resilient, sustainable, and nutritious.
Our work focuses on four connected thematic areas, namely:
✅ Produce - Adoption of climate-smart practices by producers and improved market access: strengthening farmer decision-making and de-risking pilot-to-scale transitions for climate-smart and agritech-enabled solutions to improve incomes and well-being.
✅ Planet - Promoting sustainable-consumption and climate-adaptation behaviors of consumers and communities: reducing food loss/waste and building resilience to climate and heat stress at the household and community levels.
✅ Plate - Improving nutrition and food choice behaviors of consumers, particularly last-mile behavior change, school feeding, and policy-facing program redesign.
✅ Preserve - Protecting ecosystems through community-led conservation, natural resource management, and indigenous knowledge systems.
This week, we are taking you inside each of these themes. Stay tuned.
#BehaviourForFoodSystems #FoodSystems #BehaviouralScience #BusaraFaRMWeek2026
Alongside this, we've examined digital agriculture, sustainable procurement, farmer training, market linkages, gamification, and gender and youth inclusion all in service of understanding how agricultural innovation scales in ways that are practical, inclusive, and sustainable. When programs are designed around the realities of how decisions actually get made, they are more likely to be adopted, sustained, and scaled.
See some of our work in the comment section below 👇
This post draws on several projects within the FARM portfolio, including:-
✅ How Can Farmers Producing High Value Products in Indonesia Be Eased into Adoption of PGS ROLES and Digital Tools?
busara.global/our-works/how-…
✅ Youth Are Interested in Farming. How Can We Enable Participation?
busara.global/our-works/yout…
✅ What Are the Barriers and Enablers to the Uptake of Chisel Ploughing?
busara.global/our-works/what…
Toolkit for Digital Service Providers: Using Behavioural Science and Human Centred Design to Drive Adoption Among Smallholder Farmers, Can Digital Platforms Help Improve Farmer Livelihoods?
busara.global/wp-content/upl…
Gamification in Agriculture in East and Southern Africa, Behavioural Insights for Sustainable Procurement Practices, and Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Analysis Report – Feed the Future Kenya Food Systems Activity.
busara.global/farm-team/
AI is making climate information more accessible than ever before.
Yet one question continues to shape whether that information creates real impact. Why do many farmers still choose not to act on accurate AI-generated advice?
At the Africa Food Systems Forum, Busara, CGIAR, and Athena Infonomics are bringing together experts in behavioral science, inclusive design, and AI development to explore how technology can move beyond accurate predictions to support real-world decision-making.
The session will be moderated by Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Managing Director, Africa, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and will feature speakers (@BiovIntCIAT_eng):
✅ Juhi Jain - Engagement Director, Busara
She will discuss how behavioral science can improve the uptake and scaling of climate innovations and inform the design of AI-enabled technologies.
✅ Anna Muller, PhD - Senior Scientist and Team Lead for Inclusive Design and User Research, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT / CGIAR
She will share lessons from the field on how user-centered design influences the success of agricultural innovations.(@BiovIntCIAT_eng / @CGIAR )
✅ Nakul Jain - Partner, Athena Infonomics
He will give the technology leader’s perspective on building AI solutions for climate resilience. (@a_infonomics )
Connect with Juhi Jain and the panel at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda to explore this further.
#AFSForum202 #AfricanFoodSystems
Busara’s Active Citizen Forum opened with a clear call to action: stronger partnerships, deeper citizen engagement, and evidence that leads to better governance.
Our first day featured powerful reflections on what it takes to build citizen agency and strengthen accountability.
#ActiveCitizenForum #CitizenEngagement #BehavioralScience #Governance #ACF2026
The conversations raised an important question: how can governments, civil society, and researchers work together to ensure citizens are not only heard, but actively shape the decisions that affect their lives?
#ActiveCitizenForum #CitizenEngagement #BehavioralScience #Governance #ACF2026
At the Active Citizen Forum, Busara reflected on a decade of learning with Gideon Too, Salim Kombo, Brenda Ogutu, and James Kanga, examining how civic participation, behavioral science, research, and partnerships have evolved, and what these lessons mean for the next ten years.
The session unpacked several lessons from Busara’s work. Behavioral science has moved from being largely academic and theory driven to a more practical and applied discipline.
The discussion also confronted a persistent gap between research and policy. Researchers can produce rigorous evidence, but if findings arrive too late, focus on data without clear implications, or fail to align with government priorities, their potential to influence policy diminishes.
This is part of the thinking behind the Behavioral Science for Governance Lab (BeGov Lab), which brings together behavioral science, embedded partnerships, and different policy actors to support the use of evidence in policy and governance.
#ActiveCitizenForum #CitizenAgency #BehavioralScience #Governance #BeGovLab
