SDG Detail

INAF U4420 Oil, Rights and Development

Undergraduate course

Project description

This multi-layered role-playing simulation, based on a fictitious country, allows exploration of the challenges associated with initiation of a major industrial venture in a developing country as regards any or all of the following: macro-economic and political factors; identification of priorities; environmental management; complications arising from ethnic and religious conflicts; health management (including HIV/AIDS); community development aspects; reconciliation of the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders; media management; achievement of the largest possible Circle of Consensus. The simulation is conducted over two consecutive days and some 50 to 80 participants role-play up to twenty separate entities, including an international industrial company and its competitor, government factions, opposition groups, a local community and wide varieties of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and of media. As in real life, some more general knowledge of the situation is available to all entities, but each one has sole access to information (which may overlap with that of others) which is unique to its own perspective. The emphasis is therefore on sharing and on cooperation to make progress against tight deadlines, on managing information of various degrees of reliability and of balancing conflicting demands. There is no "single right answer" but through the process participants have an opportunity to explore the interplay of a very wide range of factors and develop strategies which are based on a holistic appreciation of the problems involved and on creation of alliances which are by no means obvious at the beginning of the simulation.