The Blue Legume was created as part of a two-day training program which brought leaders and researchers from many disciplines – agriculture, genetics, economics, social science, gender to name a few – lay the foundation for these conversations. The game is built around CGIAR’s goals of improving nutrition and health, income generation, environmental sustainability, and gender equity. | Credit: Roberta Talmage

The Gamification of Complex Development Scenarios

By Isabela Barriga

Games provide players a low-risk opportunity to explore future impacts of climate change that can lead to innovative solutions. Simulating climate change and including a complicated set of factors and variables that need to be addressed over time can draw important insights and spur new ways of thinking without spending money. Gamification allows players to understand the impacts of decisions – good and bad – and can promote learning and dialogue on climate among a range of stakeholders.

Below are some examples of recent USAID in-person facilitations of games that motivated and engaged practitioners in development programming.

Simulation to connect policies with results

At the 2016 USAID Environment Officers Conference, Climate Interactive facilitated a world climate simulation exercise that mimicked an international negotiation session around mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. All attendees represented parties to the United Nations and worked together by using a tool that showed participants how their policy decisions translated into emissions reductions.

“The goal was to walk a group of USAID environment officers through a climate change gaming scenario to comprehensively understand what dynamics are at work in achieving climate mitigation goals,” said Jenny Kane, Biodiversity and Natural Resources Specialist at USAID. The game also allowed players to understand what the various stakeholder interests and motivations are, as well as which greenhouse gas mitigation actions have the most impact.

Board game to stimulate discussions

In 2017, Training Resources Group supported the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research to create a two-day training program that would bring together biophysical and gender researchers to engage in high-quality technical discussions. The training launched a game called “Blue Legume: Creating the NISE Equi-Pea,” which was used to address gaps in the understanding of entry points for collaboration between the biophysical and gender fields.

The board game contained research problem squares where players were tasked to propose a specific challenge around which the research team must design a genetically improved legume. The new legume had to be “NISE” legume, which consists of the following:

  • Improved Nutrition and health
  • Produce Income
  • Natural resource and ecosystems Sustainable
  • Equitable for women, young people and marginalized groups

This game ultimately brought together leaders and researchers from many disciplines across agriculture, genetics, economics, social science, and gender. The goal was to collectively develop research proposals to respond to environmental, technical, market, and population challenges. By addressing these different challenges across sectors, the outcome was to create a pea that is nutritious, provides income, is environmentally sustainable, and creates gender equity.

“A board game brings people together. The outcome was that people were excited, engaged, and had deep conversations, which brought them together to collaborate,” said Roberta Talmage, Organizational Development/Training Consultant at Training Resources Group.

The Blue Legume game and the world climate simulation demonstrated the potential of games to improve lives by motivating and engaging colleagues across disciplines to work together to address climate challenges.

Topics
Adaptation, Emissions, Climate Policy, Food Security, Gender and Social Inclusion, Health, Mitigation, Resilience, Self-Reliance
Region
Global

Isabela Barriga

Isabela es gerente de redes sociales y coordinadora de contenido para Climatelinks a través del proyecto SEEK de USAID. Ella ayuda con la gestión de la información, la investigación y la redacción de blogs. Anteriormente, Isabela brindó apoyo de comunicación y gestión de contenido a organizaciones intergubernamentales, asociaciones público-privadas y misiones diplomáticas, incluidas las Naciones Unidas, GAVI (actualmente, la Alianza de Vacunas) y la Embajada de Ecuador. Isabela tiene un B.S. en Salud Pública y estudios completos en Desarrollo Internacional y Gestión de Conflictos (Universidad de Maryland, College Park).

Related Resources

View All Resources about
Screenshot of the landing page of the Climatelinks Climate Risk Management Portal.
Website

Climate Risk Management Portal

More on the Blog

Did you miss the Climatelinks February newsletter? Here's a recap of the February ‘Climate Finance’ theme.
Sustainable fishing as means to protect reef areas and coastal ecosystems in Masinloc, Zambales
PERU-Hub is a dynamic research and innovation center that explores advanced technologies in climate resilience, crop diversification, and food production to improve the livelihoods of rural farmers in Peru.
Peruvian couple show their coffee that grows among shade trees
The USAID Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions (EPIC) team and EnCompass are thrilled to announce a new mechanism to propel innovative solutions into action: the Innovative Design, Execution, and Acceleration Support (IDEAS) Activity.