The Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development in Bonn, Germany. Photo: photothek/Ina Fassbender, Courtesy United Nations
What is the name of the game? Playable Policy Conference. But what is the end goal? Development.
The first ever Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development – held in Bonn, Germany – promises to be a path-finding and trouble-shooting event.
The United Nations’ conference – bringing exciting new players into the gameplaying and debates towards the goal of equitable development – seeks to use a new way of thinking to address some of the world’s most complex development challenges.
The conference saw technology experts, gamers and activists exchange ideas on figuring out how best to help countries implement the UN vision of a more just and equitable world, where no one is left behind.
Ryan Hooks, manager of a software company called Huxley, showed off his ‘hands-free gardening” app.
“It’s an AI (Artificial Intelligence) and augmented reality for plants. Greenhouses that use hydroponics to circulate the water are very complex systems and it’s hard to scale water efficient food solutions. I’ve found that augmented reality and AI can be really useful for reducing labour cost,” he told UN News.
In order to demonstrate the app’s capabilities, Mr. Hook pointed his phone at a plant on the table and his app identified it as “apple mint.”
“It’s augmented reality, it knows what kind of plant it is, what percentage its health is, when to pick it, pack it, ship it and the environment (around it), so people can have hands-free augmented gardening,” he explained.
The hands-free gardening app, Hooks continued, makes it more efficient to use hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil, which also uses 95 per cent less water to grow plants, according to a UN release.
Another interesting segment of the conference saw participants at the Festival engrossed in the 2030 Hive Mind game, where they played for a hypothetical country, planning policies, and convincing other players to join forces with them.
The Festival organizers say that the game, which focuses on the SDGs (sustainable development goals) and the 2030 Agenda, reveals the tough choices and trade-offs that might have be made along the road to sustainable development for all over the next 13 years.
According to a description, Tom Juntunen, of the U Begin company, was playing for Goal 9, which focusses on building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
When Mr. Juntunen is not at his booth in the exhibit, he walked around the conference center trying to convince other players to support his policies.
“There’s a lot of negotiations, it’s a very robust simulation of real life dynamics with policy negotiation. Everyone has what’s important to them and what’s not important. In playing the game, you experience the parallel of that in a virtual environment. It is challenging as it is in real life,” he said of Hive Mind 2030.
“We have to make the world aware of this […] agenda that is definitely going to transform the planet and that is going to ensure that no one is left behind,” Cristina Gallach, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said.
“The more we communicate about the SDGs and make people aware of the agenda, the more the governments we will be accountable and will ensure that it is implemented,” she added.
The UN Department of Public Information (DPI), headed by Ms. Gallach, is the Organization’s entity tasked with informing the wider world on the SDGs and ensuring that the 17 goals are known and understood. To that end, 17 ‘icons’ – each with a designated bright color, short name phrase and single image – have been created to illustrate each Global Goal.
