Designing Disaster Diplomacy in the Context of a Climate Change Water Game

In this paper, we explore how a climate change game can be designed to enhance trans-boundary water partnerships between governments and provide a window of opportunity to challenge the status quo, leading to change. The primary focus of the paper is to discuss a theoretical framework that utilizes “Disaster Diplomacy” as a pre-disaster capacity development tool for policymakers. The Nile Basin by 2050 scenarios, guided us in the design of the theoretical framework. The framework established a foundation for the design of the climate change game known as Nile WeShareIt. This game was played in October 2014, with policymakers from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, in Nairobi, Kenya. Findings indicate that climate change games may challenge the current perceptions of normality and possibly lead to increased situation awareness, trust, and collaboration. Future work will entail redesigning the game, based on the initial outcomes and its application in the river Nzoia catchment, in West-Kenya.