About the Session
Raise Your Voice is a strategy game we developed in collaboration with CARE International to explore the impact of AI on communities, governance, and organisational strategy, particularly on humanitarian work in the Global South. It’s designed to be played from different stakeholder perspectives - civil society/NGOs, local actors, researchers, tech companies - to explore the need for inclusive design and deployment of AI technologies... which should align closely with this year’s theme of Being.
The methodology behind the game draws on the practoice of wargaming but flips it on its head as a participatory design methodology. It invites players not just to observe, but to step inside contested spaces, negotiating, allying, and influencing possible futures. We designed it to be radically accessible: a tactile, DIY aesthetic that deliberately avoids corporate polish in favour of something that feels grassroots and human-made, and the materials are all easily accessible and even the mechanics are designed to be customisable to the players’ specific cultural and political context. Our aim was to create something that didn’t just represent voices, but actually made space for them – to centre care, perspective-taking, and identity in how we design for emerging tech futures.
The game isn’t just educational, it’s a practical tool for exploring the potential futures of this space in a safe-to-fail environment. We think there’s a rich connection to the themes of community-led design, ethical AI, and inclusive storytelling. We’ll soon be making the game available open-source under a Creative Commons licence so that civil society groups and communities can print-and-play or adapt it freely at: https://github.com/Accenture/raiseyourvoice
