PRO-POOR FORESIGHT
How can the poor participate in shaping our global future? While many corporations, organizations, and government agencies frequently apply foresight methods, poverty is rarely included as an explicit issue for consideration. To change that, the Institute for Alternative Futures, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, has developed an approach to applying foresight methods to expand social and economic opportunities for poor and marginalized populations worldwide.
As part of this effort, IAF convened a workshop of leading foresight experts at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference facilities in Bellagio, Italy on March 16-20, 2009. The meeting, which was co-chaired by Leon Fuerth and David Jhirad, highlighted the rationale and practice of pro-poor foresight in accelerating and enhancing “smart globalization” and in gaining a better understanding of foresight in relation to a set of key issues that are relevant to the global South.
The full report on the 2009 conference:
Foresight for Smart Globalization: Accelerating & Enhancing Pro-Poor Development Opportunities
PRO-POOR SCENARIO TOOLKIT
A free toolkit for communities, countries, and regions to explore their own futures
IAF has developed a free "pro-poor scenario toolkit" for use by communities, countries, and regions to develop scenarios of their own futures that explicitly include poor and marginalized populations.
Pro-Poor Scenario Toolkit: Workshop Materials and Global Forecasts for 2039
A sheet of "ground rules" for the scenario workshop can be found here.
PRO-POOR SCENARIOS COMPETITION
The Pro-Poor Scenarios Competition was a global contest that invited policy‐makers, futurists, academics and active citizens around the world to develop scenarios that include people from poor and marginalized populations in the creation of images of the future that include surprising successes for the world’s poor. The following three scenarios were judged most commendable by an international panel of experts from the fields of foresight and international development and have been awarded a cash prize:
- Engaging the Shipibo-Coniba Community, Submitted by Gonzalo Alcalde, Romeld Bustamante, and Ruth Llacsahuanga from Peru.
- Mineral Extraction and Pro-poor Futures in Afghanistan, Submitted by Umar Sheraz from Pakistan.
- Poverty 2039 – Exercises in Pro-Poor Foresight, Submitted by Rex Troumbley and Heather Frey from Hawaii.
Honorable mentions go to:
- King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality Scenarios 2030, Submitted by Lee Rosenzweig, Geci Karuri-Sebina, Monwabisi Mbana, and Louis van der Merwe from South Africa.
- Pro-Poor Scenarios for Pakistan, Submitted by Mariya Absar and Ali Shah from Pakistan.
- Visions of Somalia in 2039, Submitted by Tessa Finlev and Aaron Gardner from New York.
Click here to learn more and view the scenarios