Millennium Project Newsletter 7.0

1. What's Next for the COVID Pandemic?
2. World Future Day March 1, 2021
3. TIA for Pakistan 's State of the Future Index
4. The Philippines Becomes the 67th Node
5. Short Video Reports from Nodes Available
6. RIBER (Ibero-American Prospective Network)
7. FEN (Foresight European Network)
8. Narrow AI to Artificial General Intelligence

https://mailchi.mp/millennium-project/socio-economic-rtdelphi-2549486

Watch Online - Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for Africa in 2021

Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. EST
Online: https://www.brookings.edu/events/foresight-africa-top-priorities-for-africa-in-2021/

Beyond the staggering tragedy that is the death and illness of thousands of people the world over, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought unprecedented economic disorder, decimating economies and livelihoods of citizens in rich and poor nations alike. Although the virus was slow to arrive on Africa’s shores, the economic impacts of the disease were not, as the global economy halted and Africa’s growing, largely service-based economy was forcibly shut down to preempt the disease’s spread.

As the region looks to open back up, African and world leaders have had to balance the health and economic wellness of the region. Global momentum and progress toward vital human development goals cannot just be dropped or forgotten, but efforts to recover from the immediate twin crises must also be bolstered. Indeed, now we must take stock of the lessons learned and, more importantly, consider what we can do better.

In this way, this year’s Foresight Africa launch will examine the most pressing issues facing the region in 2021. This year’s panel will feature high-level global experts to discuss critical issues for the region’s recovery, including policies for economic recovery, ensuring successful economic integration, supporting African-owned businesses, preparing for the next pandemic, and recovering the ground lost on recent socioeconomic gains—all underscored by good governance.

The Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) at Brookings explores these trends and features diverse expert viewpoints in Foresight Africa, its annual flagship report.

On January 27, AGI will host its annual Foresight Africa launch featuring a high-level panel of leading experts to offer insights on regional trends along with recommendations for the global community, national governments, regional organizations, multilateral institutions, the private sector, and civil society actors as they forge ahead in 2021.

Viewers can submit questions for panelists by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via Twitter @BrookingsGlobal by using #ForesightAfrica.

Futures Literacy Summit 2020 (Virtual)
8-12 December 2020

UNESCO is inviting the world to learn about Futures Literacy at an innovative virtual Summit that will start on December 8th and run to December 12th. This event marks the culmination of a highly successful strand of UNESCO’s work as a global laboratory of ideas. By collecting evidence of the power and impact of empowering people to ‘use-the-future’ more effectively UNESCO has set the stage for advancing a new essential competency for the 21st Century: Futures Literacy. The Covid-19 pandemic shock has amply demonstrated both the importance and timeliness of this work by pointing out that yesterday’s approaches to the future generate dangerous fragility and brittleness. Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century (available in English, Arabic and French)

Register: https://unes.co/futures-literacy-summit-register

Webinar: Future Scenarios for South African Coal – Exports and Eskom 21 October 2020

With global sentiment around coal having never been so negative, and South Africa still highly dependent on the fuel for years to come, what are the potential future pathways for both the South African export price, as well as local coal prices for Eskom?

This webinar, presented by African Source Markets CEO Bevan Jones and hosted by Creamer Media’s Contract Publishing, aims to explore some of the key drivers and issues facing both domestic and export coal markets. It will also consider the changing South African landscape, as both production and demand start to shut down. It will also focus on issues around the Just Transition, and whether the weak South African Rand will continue to save South Africa’s coal miners.

This is a must attend webinar for anyone interested in the future of the South African energy sector, exploring some of the likely pathways from 2020 to 2040.

https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/webinar-future-scenarios-for-south-african-coal-exports-and-eskom-2020-10-06

Capacity to Decolonise (C2D)

The co-design workshop held in May 2020 allowed for the creative, collective design of the C2D project, using Futures Literacy (FL) as a method.

In an increasingly complicated, fractured and uncertain world, it is becoming even more important for communities to build their capacities to imagine and ultimately design their own futures – even more so in a post-colonial context. This realisation has profound but unresolved implications for traditional development research, practice and funding theories and practices.

The Capacity to Decolonise (C2D) is a proposition for a large, multi-year action research programme focused on the role of “futures literacy”* as a core capability to expanding imagination, choice and agency for action. As such, we hypothesise that building FL in communities can contribute to empowering them through and for decolonisation. The premise is to use the future in capability-based development which makes that development novel and efficient by strengthening a community’s ability to use their own local traditions, culture and values in defining and addressing local key challenges. Geographically the project focuses initially on Africa, but will also acknowledge the global context.

http://foresightfordevelopment.org/c2d/

Imagining Feminist Futures After COVID-19 methodology now online

The COVID-19 crisis is highlighting the flaws in our societies. From the patriarchal, capitalist, racist underpinnings of everyday life to the staggering inequalities within and between countries.

Imagining Feminist Futures After COVID-19 is a project coordinated by IWDA with support from actors across the feminist movement. It aims to enable feminist organisations and networks to imagine COVID-19 as a catalyst of future opportunity providing tools to think through the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis is changing the future trajectories – both positive and negative – for feminist social change.

Step 1: Convene – Host a workshop with your organisation or networks to explore feminist futures in 2030 using a new, adaptable methodology designed by Changeist with a consortium of feminist futurists.

Step 2: Share, reflect and organise! – Use the outcomes of your workshop to inform your own storytelling, advocacy and organising. Share the findings with IWDA so they can be added to this webpage and contribute to the broader Imagining Feminist Futures After COVID-19 project, and help build a diverse, vibrant and multifaceted picture of possible feminist futures in 2030!

https://iwda.org.au/feminist-futures/