Policy Gaming for Humanitarian Missions

Aid workers increasingly face risks when working in crisis regions. In order to improve effectiveness and safety of humanitarians, it is of great importance to provide a well thought out real-time socio-technical support. Thus, new policies and innovative technological solutions need to be developed and integrated into humanitarian workflows. For the requirements elicitation process to realize this aspiration, we employ a board game approach that confronts players with situations aid workers experience in the field. From the first game session, we learned that the game is a valuable tool. It raises awareness to important challenges and trade-offs that humanitarians face. In addition, it is an effective catalyst for initiating a discussion on which system requirements are needed. Future work will include an update of the board game as well as sessions with the target group of practitioners to inform the development of a socio-technical system for humanitarian aid work.

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