Strategic Foresight for the UN Sustainable Development Goals
5th October 2022 — From September 13th –30th 2022, the Science Summit took place within the framework of the 77th UN General Assembly. It brought together thousands of stakeholders from science, innovation, policy, finance and the media to develop and discuss solutions for the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The summit took place on-site in New York City and online around the world. DLR Projektträger participated with a session on Strategic Foresight on September 22nd. At this session, DLR Projektträger's own foresight experts discussed how Strategic Foresight can contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs with experts from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Millennium Project and the School of International Futures.
Convincing stakeholders of Strategic Foresight methods
The session started with the question of how to convince relevant stakeholders that Strategic Foresight is necessary for the implementation of the SDGs. In his contribution, Dr Peter Glenday, Programme and Research Director, School of International Futures, stressed: "It takes the willingness of leaders to initiate changes before a crisis happens. This takes courage. They also need to be stewards of performance now and in the future – taking into account the needs of future generations." The panellists made it clear that the task of "futurists" was to encourage long-term thinking. This was the only way to make necessary investments that would have an impact in the future in order to achieve the global goals. Dr Jerome Glenn, Co-Founder and CEO of the Millennium Project, called for a shift in thinking that was needed for the timely implementation of the SDGs. "People still rely on the orthodox cost-effect logic (...). As futurists, we need to push to add a third dimension – the time to impact," Glenn said. According to him, strategies are therefore needed whose effects will unfold in the next ten to 20 years.
How do we increase our understanding of possible futures?
In the course of the session, other important aspects that contribute to shaping a sustainable future were discussed:
Policy & Knowledge Transfer: It is worth looking beyond Europe's borders to learn about approaches to an enhanced "futures literacy" by government officials, i.e. the ability to better understand the role of the future in what people see and do today. "Capacity building is crucial in promoting futures literacy at all levels of government,” Glenday noted. “In our report Features of effective systemic foresight in governments around the world we looked at the institutionalisation among others of the Government of Singapore, which invested heavily in building the futures skills of its civil servants. This helps empower people to become better users and commissioners of foresight work."
Participation & Interest: Foresight processes used in one region of the world to achieve the SDGs cannot, however, be applied in the exact same way to another region of the world. During the panel discussion, Aarathi Krishnan, Senior Advisor Strategic Foresight, UNDP, stated: "In Strategic Foresight, we need to meet people where they are and ground our expectations of the futures with people’s imaginations. We therefore need an equity driven approach and keep in mind that the question who gets to represent a certain group of stakeholders in a Foresight process is a question of power." Dr Simone Weske from DLR Projektträger added: "While Foresight has been embraced by more and more institutions in Europe and beyond, most foresight initiatives still rely on a fairly similar choice of experts. We need to ensure a diversity of perspectives in order to reduce ‘blind spots’. This also means including members of civil society – not only scientific experts or decision-makers."
Further development & special features: The United Nations initiatives to institutionalise Strategic Foresight raise the hope that the possible follow-up goals of the 2030 Agenda will be developed with the help of these instruments. However, the DLR Projektträger’s panel discussion also showed the importance of acknowledging the local conditions. This was also confirmed by Krishnan at the end of the session: "Strategic foresight is not a silver bullet for everything. We have to keep our eye on the target,” she said. “For example if we support countries in designing forward looking national development plans, we need to get an understanding and build on the national institutions’ “internal pipes” to identify how foresight processes can fit best according to the respective context."
SDGs and Strategic Foresight – compelling expertise for a sustainable future
DLR Projektträger supports institutions in designing and implementing the appropriate Foresight process – both nationally and internationally. Last year, at the opening session of the UNGA76 Science Summit "How science will support the attainment of the SDGs", Klaus Uckel, Managing Director of DLR Projektträger, outlined his vision of global cooperation in science. His central message was: "We must leave no one behind."
DLR Projektträger's UNGA77 Session on Strategic Foresight
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In Foresight, we need to ensure a diversity of perspectives to avoid blind spots. This means involving not only scientific experts and decision-makers, but also members of civil society.
