GAME OF CHOICE,
NOT CHANCE.
Empowering choices & voices through mobile gaming innovation
Game of Choice, Not Chance is an initiative developing mobile games to support young people in becoming active decision-makers in their own lives. Our first game is being co-designed with girls in India to provide an entertaining and safe space for exploration, discovery, and learning through interactive role-play in a virtual world. Within the game, girls can experience the power of their choices, get connected to vital information and real-world resources, and become better equipped to shape their futures with confidence.
The Game of Choice, Not Chance game is the central component of a direct-to-consumer model for positively impacting girls’ lives through game-based learning. The digital platform is a choice-based, story-driven mobile game, with in-game reproductive health information and linkages to relevant products and care, and an integrated game microsite where girls can dig deeper into topics introduced within the game.
Launch of the Game of Choice, Not Chance brand and initial game are planned for October 2021, and scale-up throughout India’s Hindi Belt and beyond is expected through social media, government, education, and foundation partners, with leverage from private sector collaborations.
THE GOAL:
Advance & support reproductive health behaviors through mobile gameplay
Knowledge Matters
The Challenge:
There are few sources of information on fertility awareness and other family planning/reproductive health challenges targeted towards adolescents in India.
The Opportunity:
The game provides safe, confidential and accurate information as well as access points to adolescent health products and services in an approachable and fun format.
Tech as a Learning Tool
The Challenge:
Many girls do not have the agency to refuse sex and negotiate contraception.
The Opportunity:
The game provides an opportunity for girls to have an immersive virtual experience to build their confidence to negotiate choices and to ‘try again’ with different outcomes.
Actions and Outcomes
The Challenge:
Early marriage and adolescent pregnancy are on the rise.
The Opportunity:
The game offers outcomes from real-life choices, illustrating that the adolescents’ actions are tied directly to their choices—and are not just elements of chance.
A Platform for Partnerships
The Challenge:
There are a variety of NGO, government, private-sector, and educational initiatives that exist to address adolescent health needs, yet no one portal ties it all together.
The Opportunity:
The game provides a direct-to-consumer gateway for girls to access products and services within the game.
Data is Key
The Challenge:
There is limited available data regarding the complexities and nuances of the decision-making process among adolescents on family planning and reproductive health issues.
The Opportunity:
The game structure itself provides for back end data analytics to capture game play, decision points, choices made and changes to choices.
Key Players
DONOR
U.S. Agency for International Development
PRIME
Howard Delafield International
COLLABORATING PARTNERS
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Cycle Technologies
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Girl Effect
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Indusgeeks
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Nam ER Technology @VSGI
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Vihara Innovation Networks
HOWARD DELAFIELD INTERNATIONAL is a women-owned consulting firm founded in 1995 that combines the best practices from behavioral and social sciences with emerging mobile and social technologies, human-centered design, and innovations in communication, marketing, and private sector partnerships to address health and environmental problems of underserved and vulnerable populations throughout the world.
NAM ER TECHNOLOGY provides custom AR/VR solutions and services to enhance existing reality with AR/VR game technologies. Nam ER Tech specializes in designing and developing new experiences, pushing the limits of hardware, software, and social connectivity to establish "enhanced reality" experiences at the absolute limit of possibility. Advanced AR/VR interface, interactivity and natural interactions are areas where we excel. Also, Nam ER Tech builds serious/functional games and provides gamified strategies to share the social benefits of games.
GIRL EFFECT is a creative non-profit - experts in media, mobile, brand and international development. We build youth brands and mobile platforms that empower girls to change their lives and we're active in over 60 countries.
Girls, particularly those who are the most vulnerable - from hard to reach communities or humanitarian settings - are rarely involved in research due to inadequate research methods. These either do not reach them directly, or, if they do, they don’t allow them to participate due to the lack of trust or permission from their gatekeepers. But interventions can only be effective if informed by the people they aim to benefit.
Girl Effect wanted to tackle this challenge head on, so created TEGA, a first-of-its-kind smartphone based, peer-to-peer research tool that allows girls in hard-to-reach communities to gather information on the lives of their peers.
CYCLE TECHNOLOGIES is a social impact company focused on women’s reproductive health. It has introduced several technologies designed to help women manage their fertility including the CycleBeads and Dot apps. These technologies have been used widely in low resource settings and undergone both efficacy and usability testing.
The company has extensive experience with technology design and implementation as well as direct-to-consumer marketing and client support for mHealth interventions.
The Game of Choice, Not Chance project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of the Cooperative Agreement No. 7200AA18CA00046.
US/Global Advisory Board
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Sharon Stash, Independent Global Health Consultant
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Dolly Oberoi, CEO C2 Technologies
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John Tifft, CEO Ambac Assurance UK Limited, London
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Shomu Banerjee, Professor Pedagogy, Emory University
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Colette Auerswald, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Adolescent Medicine, UC Berkeley, School of Public Health
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Rajeeb Satyal, Private Sector Partnership Advisor for South Asia/Australia
Contact: Sylvia Delafield, Co-Director/Founder, Howard Delafield International
Email: info@howard-delafield.com
India Advisory Board
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Priya Jha, India Project Director, Evidence Action
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Aparajita Gogoi, Centre for Catalyzing Change C3
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Lalita Shankar, Independent Consultant
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Dipa Nag Chowdhury, Independent Consultant
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Shailja Mehta, DASRA
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Anand Sinha, India Country Advisor, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Contact: Lalita Shankar, India County Director, Howard Delafield International
Email: info@howard-delafield.com
BECOME A SUPPORTING TEAM PLAYER
Game of Choice, Not Chance works with industry leaders and stakeholders to support this work and to provide services and opportunities to young people.
If you are interested in partnering with this initiative, please email