Anticipation in an Era of Volatility
In an era increasingly shaped by technological disruption, demographic transitions, the climate crisis, and geopolitical uncertainty, UNESCO’s function as a global laboratory of ideas – leveraging foresight, anticipation and futures thinking to inform policy and inspire collective action – is essential for addressing the impacts of volatility.
Societies and governments must navigate the multifaceted global challenges incurred by systemic disruptions and new sources of instability to address the widening inequalities among and between countries. Considering the rapid pace of change and increasing volatility we are facing today, anticipatory governance, rooted in futures literacy and foresight, is needed for governments and societies to be agile, adaptive, forward-looking and better able to respond to shocks.
This year’s World Futures Day will highlight UNESCO’s intersectoral and multidisciplinary approach to addressing today’s major challenges through futures thinking and foresight and will illustrate the benefits of the practical application of foresight in policy-making when navigating in an era of volatility. It will also leverage the interdisciplinary network of over 1100 UNESCO University Chairs1, including 35 UNESCO Chairs in Futures Studies across the world as antennas who are identifying and exploring issues that are emerging and on the horizon in their diverse fields of expertise.
World Futures Day will also be the occasion to announce UNESCO’s Global Anticipatory Policy Coalition , led by UNESCO’s MOST Programme. Serving as a global platform, the Coalition will foster knowledge exchange and peer learning by convening government officials and foresight experts experienced in applying foresight to share lessons and best practices to promote foresight and anticipation capabilities across Member States and advance forward-looking, equity-driven policy solutions for social transformation. The Coalition will operate in an interdisciplinary manner, engaging across sectors to ensure that foresight and anticipation is mainstreamed into policy development and implementation.
A provisional agenda can be found HERE with further information available from the dedicated website HERE
