Serious Fun: Scaling Up Community Based Adaptation through experiential learning

The paper examines the challenges of scaling up community-based adaptation (CBA), noting that conventional linear communication often fails to engage citizens or account for cognitive biases like 'motivated avoidance' and 'omission bias'. The authors propose experiential learning—defined as knowledge created through the transformation of experience—as a way to help diverse stakeholders navigate complex climate risk management. The document details five case studies of participatory games used to communicate forecasts, manage risk investments, explain index-based micro-insurance, and understand the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. These games are presented as safe spaces for collaboration and 'aha!' moments that reveal the consequences of decisions. The authors conclude that while these tools are powerful, their success depends on skilled facilitators who can manage power dynamics, gender, and hierarchy within communities.

• Conventional communication methods for climate adaptation are often ineffective because they rely on linear, unidirectional information flows and treat the public as passive recipients rather than active community participants.
• Psychological barriers, such as 'motivated avoidance' (avoiding issues where losses are inevitable) and 'omission bias' (preferring losses from inaction over those from direct action), hinder the growth of community-based adaptation.
• Participatory games can effectively demonstrate the risks of information distortion in early warning systems; in one Senegal-based exercise, a specific rainfall forecast was radically altered as it passed through a communication chain, illustrating how crucial warnings can break down.
• Experiential learning through games like 'Early Warning, Early Action' and 'Dissolving Disasters' allows stakeholders to explore the trade-offs of climate risk management and the consequences of changing probabilities under climate change in a safe environment.
• Game-based tools have proven to be as effective as conventional lectures in conveying index-based micro-insurance concepts to subsistence farmers in Ethiopia and Malawi, and were significantly more effective at building trust.
• The success of experiential learning in CBA depends on skilled facilitators who can navigate social complexities, including power dynamics, gender, and hierarchy, to ensure a safe and inclusive learning space.

APA

Suarez, P., de Suarez, J. M., Koelle, B., & Boykoff, M. (2012). Serious Fun: Scaling Up Community Based Adaptation through experiential learning. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Red-Cross-paper-2.pdf

Chicago

Suarez, Pablo, Janot Mendler de Suarez, Bettina Koelle, and Maxwell Boykoff. Serious Fun: Scaling Up Community Based Adaptation through experiential learning. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2012. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Red-Cross-paper-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Suarez |first1=Pablo |last2=de Suarez |first2=Janot Mendler |last3=Koelle |first3=Bettina |last4=Boykoff |first4=Maxwell |title=Serious Fun: Scaling Up Community Based Adaptation through experiential learning |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=11 February 2012 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Red-Cross-paper-2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{suarez2012serious, author = {Suarez, Pablo and de Suarez, Janot Mendler and Koelle, Bettina and Boykoff, Maxwell}, title = {{Serious Fun: Scaling Up Community Based Adaptation through experiential learning}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2012}, month = feb, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Red-Cross-paper-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }