Participatory elicitation of development needs in conflict environments

We report the results of developing a novel framework based on participatory social simulation to determine the development needs of populations. The framework remedies some of the shortcomings of survey-based need elicitation approaches in armed conflict or sensitive environments. We implemented the framework as a “development game” with the powerbrokers of the Baluchi Valley in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. In its simplest form, the development game does not require multiple interactions with players and produces data that can be used in an inverse simulation process that captures the players' private beliefs on development needs of the Baluchi Valley.