December 2nd, 2022 is the first World Futures Day!
In this inaugural celebration, World Futures Day will focus on improving long-term resilience through futures and anticipatory approaches, including strategic foresight. Strategic foresight is also at the core of the Futures Project, new initiative that Cooperation Canada recently launched with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The project aims to reimagine global development cooperation futures and inform the positioning of international cooperation actors in a post-2030 era when the Sustainable Development Goals will expire. We will do this by working with international and Canadian stakeholders identify, understand and think about alternative futures in global development cooperation to better respond to emerging challenges and strategic surprises. Strategic foresight tools and processes will be used to develop three plausible futures for global development cooperation (worst plausible, best plausible, and transformative) and consider their implications. Through this process, the project will also seek to raise awareness of strategic foresight tools among civil society actors engaged in global development cooperation.
Using foresight and futures literacy, we can question the current way we understand the world, move out from our comfort zone and expand our imagination.
Images of the future are a powerful force, influencing not only what we perceive and pay attention to in the world, but also shaping our hopes and fears. Perception precedes action. Understanding the sources of our images of the future is of great importance. World Futures Day highlights human anticipatory activities, nurtures collective intelligence processes, and promotes the research of futures thinking and its application in different contexts. This is a fitting opportunity for governments and non-governmental actors to celebrate and embrace new ways to envision the future. In October of this year, Cooperation Canada’s International Cooperation Futures Festival set the tone of our forward-looking perspective and thought leadership on international cooperation, preparing for a future that is fair, just and sustainable for everyone, everywhere.
Watch out for updates about our Futures Project and ways to get involved in this collective learning opportunity!