A facilitated board game designed to strengthen disaster risk awareness and preparedness among communities in island and coastal contexts, using Seychelles-specific hazards as examples that can be adapted to other Indian Ocean islands.
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Disaster Challenge Game
General Information
ISIG
A community-based educational board game that helps participants learn about natural hazards, preparedness actions, and response behaviours relevant to island environments. It is supported by a structured facilitator manual to ensure accurate learning outcomes.
The solution aims to increase disaster risk awareness and preparedness through interactive learning, enabling participants to recognise local hazards, understand appropriate preparedness actions, and discuss risk-reducing behaviours relevant to Seychelles island communities.
Small island states in the Indian Ocean, including Seychelles, face high exposure to climate-related and coastal hazards combined with limited land area, dispersed populations, and constrained emergency response capacity. Community awareness and preparedness are therefore critical components of disaster risk reduction. The board game was developed within a regional Indian Ocean risk reduction framework to provide an accessible, culturally adaptable tool for educating communities about local disaster risks and appropriate preparedness behaviours.
The board game focuses on hazards affecting Seychelles, particularly hydro-meteorological and coastal risks, but the structure allows adaptation to other island territories in the Indian Ocean.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Geographical Scope
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
Many island communities have limited access to engaging, practical disaster preparedness education, particularly outside formal training environments. Traditional information campaigns often fail to translate risk knowledge into actionable understanding, especially youth and community groups. The solution addresses the gap between awareness and preparedness by providing an interactive, facilitated learning tool that translates hazard knowledge into practical decision-making.
The solution particularly supports children, youth, and coastal island communities, who are often more exposed to climate-related hazards and may have limited access to formal disaster preparedness training. Indirectly, families and caregivers also benefit through knowledge transfer from participants.
The solution operates under a multistakeholder and decentralised governance model. Strategic coordination is typically led by humanitarian organisations (e.g. Red Cross National Societies), while implementation is carried out locally through schools, community groups, and civil protection partners. This model allows local adaptation while maintaining consistent learning objectives.
The board game strengthens basic preparedness, focusing on awareness, recognition of warning signs, and appropriate first actions before and during disasters.
The solution requires minimal infrastructure: printed game materials, a facilitator, and a suitable indoor space. It can be implemented in low-resource environments without digital connectivity.
To actively involve community members in disaster preparedness learning, enabling discussion, reflection, and shared understanding of local risks.
- Facilitated group gameplay
- Guided discussion and reflection
- Question-and-answer scenarios
- Peer learning during session
Participants influence discussions and learning outcomes but do not co-design policies or preparedness plans.
The solution builds foundational disaster literacy, supporting long-term empowerment by enabling communities to recognise risks, discuss preparedness at household level, and better engage with official guidance in future emergencies.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Infrastructure Readiness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
The solution combines game-based learning with a structured facilitator manual, ensuring accurate and consistent messaging. Its key innovation lies in translating disaster risk concepts into interactive decision-making scenarios that can be easily adapted to different island contexts without requiring digital tools or advanced infrastructure.
- English
- French (adaptable)
The structure allows translation into local and regional languages for wider Indian Ocean use.
Originally implemented by the Seychelles Red Cross Society, the solution can be implemented by Red Cross / Red Crescent National Societies, NGOs, civil protection agencies, schools, and community-based organisations in other island and coastal contexts with basic facilitation capacity.
Implementing organisations typically have extensive experience in community-based DRR, volunteer mobilisation, preparedness education, and humanitarian response. Red Cross National Societies in particular bring strong local networks and trusted community presence.
- Seychelles Red Cross Society
- Local civil protection and disaster management authorities
- Schools and youth organisations
- Community facilitators and volunteers
- Indian Ocean regional DRR partners (PIROI framework)
- Contextualise hazards and examples to the target island/community
- Train facilitators using the manual
- Deliver facilitated game sessions
- Conduct guided debrief and discussion
- Reinforce messages through follow-up materials or sessions
Resources include printed materials, facilitator time, training support, and coordination. No specialised equipment or long-term funding is required.
The solution follows a structured but flexible framework: preparation and adaptation, facilitator training, delivery, and reflection. It is repeatable and adaptable rather than time-bound.
Experience of the Implementing Organisation in DRM
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
- Interactive formats significantly improve retention of preparedness messages
- Facilitator-led discussion is essential to avoid misinformation
- Local adaptation increases community ownership and relevance
- Low-tech tools are particularly effective in island settings
- Challenge: Varied literacy and age levels
Adaptation: Visual gameplay and oral facilitation - Challenge: Hazard relevance differs between islands
Adaptation: Replace questions and examples with locally relevant risks - Challenge: Maintaining facilitator quality
Adaptation: Use of standardised facilitator manual and training
- Low engagement → use age-appropriate facilitation and group discussion
- Misinterpretation of risks → structured facilitator debrief
- Context mismatch → adapt hazard examples locally before delivery
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The solution is sustainable through local ownership, low costs, and reuse of materials. Once facilitators are trained, sessions can be repeated without external funding.
The solution is highly scalable and adaptable. Hazard content can be modified for different islands or coastal regions, while the core gameplay and facilitation structure remain unchanged. It is suitable for replication across the Indian Ocean and other small island developing states.
The solution’s innovation lies in its adaptive, low-tech learning architecture rather than digital technology. By combining a modular board-game design with a standardised facilitator manual, it ensures that disaster risk messages remain accurate while allowing hazards, questions, and examples to be easily localised for different island contexts. The game simulates decision-making under risk in a safe environment, encouraging reflection, peer learning, and discussion. Its simplicity enables deployment in low-resource settings while still delivering structured, repeatable learning outcomes.
Once developed and printed, the materials can be reused multiple times. Sustainability relies on local facilitation capacity rather than continuous external funding.
Direct costs likely include:
- Initial design and printing of board game and manuals
- Translation and localisation (one-off)
Operational costs likely include:
- Facilitator training and coordination
- Session delivery (staff/volunteer time)
- Minimal venue and logistics costs
Costs are low to moderate and manageable within local preparedness or education budgets.
- Low-tech tools increase reach in island contexts
- Facilitator guidance is critical to learning quality
- Adaptability of hazard content enables regional scalability
- Reusable materials support long-term programme continuity