Can games help people manage the climate risks they face? The participatory design of educational games

This research paper discusses the use of participatory games and simulations as tools to help humanitarian and development professionals manage climate risks by reflecting complex systems and promoting dialogue among stakeholders.

• Humanitarian organizations must evolve into knowledge-based entities capable of rapidly absorbing and acting on scientific climate information to improve outcomes, as simply increasing staff or training is insufficient to address rising disaster impacts in developing countries.
• Participatory games and simulations are proposed as innovative tools for disaster risk management because they can approximate real-life complexity, facilitate learning and dialogue among stakeholders, and elicit deeper insights from humanitarian and development professionals during the design process.
• The paper is part of a CDKN-funded project titled 'Forecast-based humanitarian decisions: designing tools and processes to link knowledge with action,' which aims to integrate science into humanitarian work to manage climate risks and improve development and adaptation responses in Africa.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2014). Can games help people manage the climate risks they face? The participatory design of educational games. https://cdkn.org/resource/participatory-design-of-educational-games

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Can games help people manage the climate risks they face? The participatory design of educational games. 2014. https://cdkn.org/resource/participatory-design-of-educational-games.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Can games help people manage the climate risks they face? The participatory design of educational games |date=30 July 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/participatory-design-of-educational-games |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2014can, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Can games help people manage the climate risks they face? The participatory design of educational games}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = jul, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/participatory-design-of-educational-games}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }