Criticality sdg10 Reduced inequalities

Game-example: Cantor’s World

At a juncture in human history when we are faced with an environmental crisis, it is critical to understand what impact development has on the environment. Indicators such as GDP and HDI that are used to measure a country’s development do not take into account the environment. To address this gap, in 2012, a trio of organizations under the UN umbrella released a report that spoke about an ‘Inclusive Wealth Index’ (IWI). The IWI is a way to acknowledge and articulate the interconnectedness of the economy, environment, and human wellbeing. The game Cantor’s World has been designed for students and policy makers to learn how the IWI complements other indices. In the game players can experiment with different policy choices and experience first hand the tug-of-war between short-term results and long-term sustainability. The game is designed for Masters’ students of economics, public policy, and sustainability studies, and will be played in universities worldwide. The game was developed by Fields of View in collaboration with UNESCO-MGIEP.

There are many learning benefits to the game. First of all, players are taking policy decisions and understanding their impacts on the three capitals (IWI) and the SDGs – 4 (Quality education), 10 (Reduced inequalities) and 13 (Climate action). During the game, participants experience how policy decisions of different temporal scales impact sustainability. They realize the nature of the relationship between Produced capital and Human capital, and also conflict between individual country-wise objectives and global objectives for achieving SDGs, in particular, SDGs 4, 10 and 13.
Through their own actions in the game, players experience trade-offs, resources, and constraints of policy operationalization and its impact on the productivity and sustainability.