Putting Vulnerable People at the Center of Communication for Adaptation: Knowledge Sharing through Participatory Games and Video Tools

This research paper argues that involving vulnerable populations as co-producers of knowledge through participatory video and experiential games can overcome information barriers and accelerate the adoption of climate adaptation strategies.

• Participatory approaches to community-level risk management, which treat end users as partners in co-learning rather than just a target audience, can significantly increase the benefits derived from climate information.
• Participatory video allows vulnerable groups to shape and create their own films to share adaptation stories, which can lead to increased willingness to adopt adaptation strategies. In Malawi, a farmer-led video highlighting six strategies—including crop diversification and duck rearing—resulted in farmers in the village of Kasache saving their harvests in January 2009, while those who had not seen the video required food aid.
• Participatory video has been used in other regions to drive bottom-up advocacy and environmental improvement: children in Nepal filmed climate-related problems to promote community-based adaptation, and rural women in Ethiopia's Ebinat district produced a film to accelerate the adoption of fuel-efficient woodstoves, leading to visible improvements in forest cover.
• Experiential games are effective for conveying the complexity of climate-sensitive systems—including non-linearities and trade-offs—which are often poorly handled by linear educational methods like PowerPoint presentations.
• Game-based tools can improve humanitarian decision-making and the design of early warning systems. For example, the "Early Warning, Early Action" card game played in a Senegal fishing village led to the creation of a new early warning system.
• Games can be used to teach complex financial concepts like index-based micro-insurance to illiterate or innumerate farmers. In Ethiopia and Malawi, a game using coupons and dice was found to be at least as effective as conventional lectures in conveying insurance concepts and superior in building trust.

APA

Suarez, P., Benn, J., & Macklin, C. (2010). Putting Vulnerable People at the Center of Communication for Adaptation: Knowledge Sharing through Participatory Games and Video Tools. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-5-response-3.pdf

Chicago

Suarez, Pablo, Justin Benn, and Colleen Macklin. Putting Vulnerable People at the Center of Communication for Adaptation: Knowledge Sharing through Participatory Games and Video Tools. World Resources Institute, 2010. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-5-response-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Suarez |first1=Pablo |last2=Benn |first2=Justin |last3=Macklin |first3=Colleen |title=Putting Vulnerable People at the Center of Communication for Adaptation: Knowledge Sharing through Participatory Games and Video Tools |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2010 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-5-response-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{suarez2010putting, author = {Suarez, Pablo and Benn, Justin and Macklin, Colleen}, title = {{Putting Vulnerable People at the Center of Communication for Adaptation: Knowledge Sharing through Participatory Games and Video Tools}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-5-response-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }