This high-level event explored how integrating futures thinking and strategic foresight into decision-making processes can enhance governance and support policymakers in building a more anticipatory multilateral system fit for future generations.

BACKGROUND

The UN Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda report in 2021 underscored the need for the UN and the multilateral system to be better prepared for major global risks while ensuring that policy decisions consider their impact on future generations. To this end, the UN Futures Lab was established in 2023 (per Our Common Agenda proposal) to support and empower the UN system and beyond to use futures thinking and strategic foresight in planning, policy- and decision-making.

The OECD has long championed the use of strategic foresight to support more effective and resilient public policy within Governments and across the Organization, and for over a decade, has also managed the OECD Government Foresight Community (GFC), the world’s largest network of public sector foresight practitioners which works to establish and share best practices in the field.

At a moment of increasingly complex and complicated sets of risks affecting our societies and a rapid pace of change that is fundamentally challenging our governance systems, the UN Futures Lab and the OECD hosted a high-level side event to share important lessons learned and forward-looking considerations for the development of world-class foresight ecosystems. The event demonstrated the importance of collaboration and exchange of experiences as a crucial way to strengthening anticipatory approaches and using strategic foresight as a critical tool for effective decision-making and action. Strategic foresight is a structured and systematic way of using ideas about the future to anticipate possible opportunities and challenges and better prepare for change. Futures thinking and strategic foresight also play a significant role in promoting inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism championed by the UN system and the OECD. By fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including Governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector, strategic foresight can encourage a holistic understanding of global challenges through an inclusive approach that ultimately delivers better outcomes for people and the planet.

The Summit of the Future on 22 and 23 September 2024 provided a watershed moment bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus – a Pact for the Future – on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future. To generate additional opportunities for the engagement of all actors, the UN Secretary-General convened the Summit of the Future Action Days on 20 and 21 September 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York which brought together representatives from Member States, civil society, private sector, academia, local and regional authorities, youth, and many more.

The Summit of the Future Action Days thus provided the ideal opportunity for the UN Futures Lab and  the OECD – in partnership with the Kingdom of Spain and the IDRC – to bring diverse stakeholders together in a side-event to exchange on the use of futures thinking, including the use of strategic foresight at the core of modern and evidence-based policy-making and decision-making and contribute towards building a more anticipatory and resilient multilateral system.

OUTCOMES

The side-event sought to:

(i) deepen understandings of how futures thinking and foresight can drive organizational change, enhance governance, and contribute to more effective and inclusive multilateralism;

(ii)  act as an accelerator for the growth of anticipatory approaches and collaboration on futures and foresight between the UN, the OECD, and other actors in the multilateral system; and

(iii) further support the UN Futures Lab Network in its role to empower the UN system and beyond to use futures thinking and strategic foresight in planning, policy- and decision-making.

READ THE EVENT OUTCOME SUMMARY HERE

WATCH THE RECORDING ON UN WEBTV HERE

PANELISTS

Read more about the panelists here