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

Findings Available 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 +++

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 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)

NGO Facilitation Process Community Groundwater Rules Groundwater Use Behavior Groundwater Level Environment Crop Returns State Policies Other Factors Affecting Collective Action Experimental Games Watershed Management Programs Rainfall Groundwater Recharge Water Harvesting Community Under- standing Impact Pathway

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