Games as Capacity Building Instruments How seriously has “Serious Play” been applied in Urban Planning?

Why Games in Capacity Building? Complements “Traditional” Training Supports WBI ‘action learning” Scalability Revisit Lessons Reflection Implementation Action Plan/ Strategy Team Problem Solving Problem Identification/challenge Action Learning

Educational Games in Urban Planning ? Type of Games Participatory Games Decision Making Games Specialized Games Computer Games PlastiCity SimCity Ecopolicy Madison 2000 Non-Computer Games ‘Citizen Lane’ Transport Planning Board Game Land Use Planning and Zoning Board Game Blended Games The Harbour Game

WBI Urban Street Addressing Board Game Background: request from the African Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) for a course on street addressing Objective: Rely on simple interactive techniques to develop an educational game on “Street Addressing” that will familiarize technical concepts and demonstrate the importance of street addressing to developing countries. Learning objectives: To learn about the benefits and applications of street addressing in an urban setting; To be aware of the challenges and issues of implementing a street addressing strategy; To develop collaborating, problem solving, resource management and team building skills through strategic play; To learn important street addressing terminologies.

WBI Urban Street Addressing Board Game Game Mechanic Concepts 3-6 players 45 minutes to an hour of play time Can be facilitated in workshop settings. Rule book will be in different languages “Challenges” of differing severity levels, both positive and negative to allow for an element of chance. Derived from real life case examples of urban management issues in cities. “Resources” (eg. Municipal revenue, grant, street fixtures, street numbers etc.) used to progress in the game and encouraging resource management. growth in the physical form of the city

Conclusion Games used in Ad Hoc fashion for informal role playing activities in WBI workshops/courses. Design educational games or ‘capacity games’ in more structured and targeted manner. Games appear to assist in i) raising awareness through play, ii) influence behavior and decision making and iii) sensitize on policy issues. Still lot to learn about their potential as didactic tools in building capacity.

Expectations from this Seminar The objective is to gather good practice and learn how to apply it in ‘capacity building games”- such as deciding on specifics of the street addressing game Floor to the Experts!