Place and Potential Map

TOOL GUIDE VERSION 1.1 Place and Potential Map Find an opportunity that grows from the place. For communities, enterprise teams and institutions exploring a place-based opportunity. Allow 60-90 minutes, followed by local enquiry. The decision this helps you make A shared view of the place, its strengths and relationships, and a choice about which opportunity to investigate before committing resources. 01 Agree the place and the decision Let local participants name the place and explain what connects it. State the decision and a useful boundary; note the relationships and histories that extend beyond it. 02 Listen through four lenses Explore people and power; strengths and knowledge; living systems; history and change. Record who has said what, when and with what permission. 03 Map relationships and compare possibilities Connect the sketch with labelled relationships. Compare at least two opportunities, including a lower-investment or no-new-infrastructure option. Examine benefits, burdens and displacement. 04 Choose the next enquiry together Mark K = known, A = assumed or ? = to explore; add sources and dates. Agree whose missing perspective could change the choice, an enquiry owner and a review point. A place is more than a project site. Look for the distinctive potential of people and living systems together. A neat boundary is a working aid, not a complete hydrological, social or economic system. Participation should influence the decision; attendance alone is not consent or shared authority. Page 2 is an A3 landscape worksheet; page 4 shows a completed teaching example. Type brief notes or print at A3 and draw in the map area. Use PDF annotations for sketches. Save, reopen and check your entries; keep detailed evidence separately. Refuture Africa | Version 1.1 | 20 October 2026 1

FILLABLE PLACE WORKSHEET VERSION 1.1 Place and Potential Map Find an opportunity that grows from the place. Decision and scope Place and period People and date People and power Who is here, who decides and whose perspective could change the decision? Strengths and knowledge What already works? Which skills, relationships and practices could develop further? Living systems and limits Which ecological functions sustain this place? What limits or connections are being overlooked? History and changing conditions What histories, current needs, aspirations and changes shape what is possible here? Place sketch / label relationships and boundary Draw with PDF annotations or on paper. Typed relationship notes also work. Mark sources and uncertainty beside important claims. Opportunity Existing strength / potential Benefits, burdens or displacement Evidence before choosing Priority question or change Next evidence and decision Owner and participants Review point and trigger Refuture Africa | Version 1.1 | 20 October 2026 2

SHARED FICTIONAL TEACHING CASE VERSION 1.1 Solar irrigation as a service What opportunity could strengthen farm livelihoods and the living systems they depend on? A design exercise, not a reported project. A fictional teaching venture. All participants, prices, volumes, costs and test thresholds are invented. No field results or Refuture project are represented. The proposed venture Twenty neighbouring growers each cultivate a quarter-acre vegetable plot: five acres in total. The proposed service uses an existing shared water source in an unnamed Kenyan farming area. Access rights, available water and system capacity still need checking. Growers pay for metered supplementary irrigation delivered to their plots, rather than buying a pump. The proposed operator supplies the equipment, scheduling, operation and maintenance. Growers continue to choose and manage their crops, with agreed crop-water advice. The value and the design tension The commercial proposition is better crop quality, more reliable production and improved crop margins after fees. Stronger soil health and local capability are longer-term intentions that require deliberate practice and separate evidence. A fee for each cubic metre makes the service simple to explain, but can reward selling more water. A viable enterprise must work inside an agreed water budget. If the price or funding model requires over-pumping, redesign the model. Use this tool at this stage Use the map before selecting a pump or promising a service. Compare supplementary irrigation with coordinated soil-water care, planting and scheduling changes. Both may be useful; their dependencies and limits need local evidence. The completed map contains proposed enquiries and assumptions, not findings. Water rights, source capacity, operating conditions, participation and finance are unconfirmed. A committee cannot grant statutory rights or override other users. No paid trial should start before the relevant conditions and responsibilities are agreed. Refuture Africa | Version 1.1 | 20 October 2026 3

WORKED EXAMPLE VERSION 1.1 Place and Potential Map Fictional solar irrigation service / proposed enquiries and assumptions. Decision and scope Solar irrigation service / pre-trial decision Place and period 20 plots + shared source / confirm boundary People and date Proposed team / agree dates People and power Invite growers, tenants, workers and other water users. Ask who controls access to land, water and money; identify people missing from the discussion. These are enquiry priorities, not confirmed representation. Strengths and knowledge Explore existing crop knowledge, repair skills, farmer cooperation and soil-water practices. Check which strengths people themselves value and what they would like to become more able to do. Living systems and limits The shared source, soil, rainfall, drainage and neighbouring users are connected. Establish source conditions and water rights; examine soil cover and infiltration. Five acres is a service boundary, not a watershed. History and changing conditions Ask how cropping, land tenure, water access and markets have changed. Explore seasonal rainfall and price variation. Record differing accounts and their sources instead of inventing a single local story. Place sketch / label relationships and boundary Shared water source 20 vegetable plots Growers + soil functions Other water users Water access / limits Shared source Working boundary: five-acre service area and its source relationships. Extend the enquiry beyond it; this is not a watershed map. Opportunity Existing strength / potential Benefits, burdens or displacement Evidence before choosing Supplementary irrigation service Existing source and farm knowledge, if suitable and accessible Growers may improve production; fees and source pressure may shift costs to others Check rights, water budget, equipment capacity, demand and crop margins Soil-water care + coordinated scheduling Local growing practices, soil cover and farmer coordination May reduce water demand or avoid new pumping; labour, time and benefits differ Compare seasonal performance, labour and farmer priorities; test with local advisers Priority question or change Compare the service with a lower-water-demand option before selecting a trial. Next evidence and decision Agree source rights and a water budget; investigate crop margins, demand and soil-water conditions. Owner and participants Proposed local convenor with growers, tenants, workers, other water users and relevant advisers. Review point and trigger Review before equipment hire or a paid trial. Reopen the boundary if another user or seasonal risk is omitted. Refuture Africa | Version 1.1 | 20 October 2026 4

REVIEW, EVIDENCE AND USE VERSION 1.1 What changes the decision? Keep evidence, uncertainty and responsibility visible. Ask what the map leaves out Return the map to people affected. Confirm permission to share their knowledge, preserve disagreement and show how their input changes the option or next enquiry. Do not publish sensitive local information in a completed worksheet. A useful next decision Choose an opportunity only after its critical conditions are examined. For this case, water rights, source limits and credible customer value come before a paid irrigation trial. The map does not establish agronomic suitability or a regenerative outcome. Sources and attribution Research foundation Isaac Jumba (2026), Designing for Regeneration: A Venture Studio Model to Build Regenerative Ventures in Africa, appendices G, I and X: place, participation, relationships and developmental capacity. Related practice Design Council, Systemic Design Framework. A reference for exploring context, relationships and opportunities for systemic change; this worksheet uses Refuture's own prompts and layout. Original source online Irrigation context FAO (12 April 2018), Positive prospects for solar-powered irrigation systems. The sector guidance explains opportunities and risks, including unsustainable water withdrawal. It does not validate this invented case or its figures. Original source online Original Refuture Africa wording and layout. Use in projects and workshops with attribution; retain the version and source notes. Third-party works retain their own terms. Feedback: refutureafrica.com/resources. Imagine otherwise. Build differently. Refuture Africa | Version 1.1 | 20 October 2026 5