The Red Cross / Red Crescent Climate Centre, in collaboration with START, is working with partners in humanitarian and development organizations, building capacity to explore new ways to support community-level work, training, planning, and advocacy. The 3-day workshop convened humanitarian practitioners and scholars, including about a dozen young researchers who received a travel grant for fieldwork in Africa, in the context of a project entitled “Forecast-based humanitarian decisions: Designing tools and processes to link knowledge with action” – supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). This intensely participatory workshop focused on an innovative approach: games that simulate the complexity of decision making of people and organizations confronting serious challenges on climate, disasters and ecosystems. Through presentations, small group tasks, plenary discussions and gameplay, we discussed how new tools can support existing initiatives for climate-compatible development. To learn more about this program please visit: http://start.org/programs/grad-student-climate-risk-mgmt