Lifelines – Supply in Emergency Simulation Game

Catherine Benedict

At Imaginetic, we continually develop new training games and gaming methods to allow players from around the world to cultivate requisite skills in the accessible, fail-safe environment that gaming provides. As Leo Buscaglia once said, “Change is the end result of all true learning,” and our experience in facilitating and observing behavioural change at the individual and the organizational level during gameplay has convinced us that game-based learning lies at the nexus of next-generation humanitarian training opportunities.

In early March of 2021, UNHCR supply personnel from timezones as far east as Bangladesh and as far west as Mexico gathered virtually (and simultaneously) to play the first live digital version of the Lifelines – Supply in Emergency simulation game.  The Lifelines simulation game was created in coordination with UNHCR supply and training leadership to realistically simulate the emergency management, logistics, and procurement tasks (and stresses) of deployment for participants prior to being sent into the field. Over the course of five days, participants played on three parallel teams to execute a fictional emergency supply response to an unfolding humanitarian crisis. The Lifelines simulation game included planned and random game challenges, such as severe weather events, and unexpected fighting requiring the relocation of a UNHCR displaced persons’ camp.  The game also had its lighter moments, including mock interviews with facilitators costumed and broadcasting as international network news reporters, and visits by other facilitators posing as celebrity donors.

“whole lifelines experience [was] itself a complete package which we can never forget.”

As previous research within gaming has shown, the use of game-based training proves highly effective and enjoyable for the player participants.  By the end of the LIfelines simulation game training, fully 95% of participants reported that they had “received new information, knowledge, and skills relevant to their work.”  Eleven of the twelve reporting participants (92%) felt that the simulation game and debriefings had been either “more” or “much more effective” than a traditional PowerPoint and lecture format for their learning.  Moreover, even thirty days after the end of their simulation game experience, nine out of ten reporting participants (90%) ranked “how much they had learned” at a level of 4 or 5 on a five point scale of learning. Game facilitators similarly noticed large improvements in the speed and situational awareness of the supply response planning executed by the teams from game start to game finish.

While Imaginetic developers and UNHCR facilitators remained focused on the successful achievement of the game’s learning outcomes, participants’ comments a month later spoke most strongly for the game’s success. As one participant put it, the “whole lifelines experience [was] itself a complete package which we can never forget.”