Millennium Village Simulation
Partner(s): Jeffrey Sachs, Gordon McCord - The Earth Institute, SIPA |
The Millennium Village Simulation is a web-based simulation of economics and survival for one family and their village in a sub-Saharan African village. In a virtual world of extreme poverty, disease, and environmental variability, students are challenged to help a family of two survive and prosper over a fifty-year period. By making decisions regarding the family's allocation of time and financial resources, students develop a greater understanding of the manifold disciplines -- such as agronomy, nutrition, economics, epidemiology, public health and development management -- that constitute sustainable development and how those disciplines interact with each other in "real world" scenarios. The simulation's creators hope that, by immersing themselves in the daily life of a family, students will identify more deeply with the local experience of extreme poverty.
The simulation was created as a study tool for students in Professor Jeffrey Sachs' undergraduate course Challenges of Sustainable Development, and is freely available to sustainable development practitioners and the general public.
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