Lessons from a year of playing 'Games for the SDGs'

For our first news item of the new year, we thought we would share our 2017 experiences with running the series 'Games for the SDGs'. In 2017, Progress Namibia, together with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, National Youth Coalition on Climate Change, National Youth Council, and the Namibian University of Science and Technology, conducted a series of monthly games aimed at citizen awareness and active participation of and for the Sustainable Development Goals. We played a total of eight games, and thanks to committed support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation, we will be continuing the series into 2018. There is a lot of research that shows that simple, interactive games can help people to more easily understand complex challenges and think 'outside the box' to come up with possible solutions and self-action. The Sustainable Development Goals, through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which Namibia has committed to, are complex and interlinked, and require systems and critical thinking to fully understand and act upon. The Games for the SDGs use simulation, gaming and other interactive tools and methods for (mostly young) Namibians to learn about and discuss the Sustainable Development Goals freely and informally. The games aim to promote understanding of systems thinking. For those of you who are interested in the types of games played, and lessons learned from our year of testing this method, please see our report: 'Games for the SDGs: Lessons from a year of using simulation games and tools to create awareness and mobilisation on the Sustainable Development Goals among young people in Namibia'. Picture Credit: Think Namibia, Hanns Seidel Foundation.