Experimental games for strengthening collective action?

Learning from field experiments in India and Colombia

Key challenge: Collective action for water management

Need collective action to coordinate water uses, but it often doesn’t emerge

Groundwater especially challenging because of low visibility, understanding of connectedness

When collective action doesn’t emerge spontaneously, it is often difficult to organize

Experimental games used to measure propensity to collective action

Can games be used to strengthen collective action? Games for surface irrigation in Colombia,

groundwater in Andhra Pradesh, India

Methods (groundwater games)

Games Groups of 5 men or women Choose crop A or B with different

water use & returns See effect on water table Multiple years, with and without

communication Individual or community payments

randomized

Community debriefing How this relates to own

experiences and challenges farming

Lessons and insights the participants gained from the experience

Possible solutions

FindingsAvailable Water +++

Flat-Fee

Communication

Round ---

Years in Program ---

Female

Age

Caste

Education ---

Years in Village --

Household Size

Collective Action --

Area Owned --

Area, Tank +

Area, GW +++

15

20

25

30

35

40

Wat

er r

ema

inin

g en

d of

ro

und

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Round

no communication communication

Water remaining per round and treatment

Follow-up

Why didn’t women conserve water?• Follow-up study showed they don’t recognize links

between irrigation and domestic water availability• Domestic water built into revision of the game• Assessing mental models and understanding of GW

Importance of information• Tables tracking water use and levels helpful in game• Recognition of value of information on GW being

promoted in new Water Commons project

Outputs

Propiedad del jugador

A

Propiedad del jugador

B

Propiedad del jugador

C

Propiedad del jugador

D

Propiedad del jugador

E

Cana de irrigación

Propiedad del jugador

A

Propiedad del jugador

B

Propiedad del jugador

C

Propiedad del jugador

D

Propiedad del jugador

E

Cana de irrigación

• Games• Videos• Training NGO Staff• Presentations• Papers

Partners

Universidad de Los Andes: Juan Camilo Cardenas noted legacy effect of games, led to this project, led games in Colombia

Arizona State University: (Resilience Alliance) designed games, help to analyze, designing new games for FES

Foundation for Ecological Security: conducting games in India, expanding their use

Jana Jagriti: implementing games in their areas, interest in using them in own work

Outcomes

Changes in behavior (e.g. adopting drip) FES adopts games as community facilitation

tool in NABARD Hydrology project in Andhra, new HUF project on Water Commons in Andhra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (700 communities in 5 states)

FES working with ASU, IFPRI to develop new games for other commons• Potential to reach 7,000 villages with games for

commons (ecological services)

Lessons, Next Steps

Long-time partnerships needed for short-term results

Willingness of researchers and NGO to compromise led to important research findings

Adapting the games for NGO use:• Multi-player• For other types of commons• As a training tool

Measuring impact on water use is challenging Games as only one tool, not a panacea

Thank you