Reimagining next-generation global development cooperation futures

This project aims to help international and Canadian stakeholders identify, understand and think about alternative futures in global development cooperation to improve responses to emerging challenges and strategic surprises. It will use a range of foresight tools and processes to develop three plausible futures for global development cooperation (worst plausible, best plausible and transformative) and consider their implications looking forward.

Through this process, the project will contribute to several secondary objectives beyond the creation of these three plausible futures. It will raise awareness of strategic foresight tools among civil society actors engaged in global development cooperation; assess the utility of these tools from a development practitioner perspective; and adopt a learning orientation by identifying and disseminating lessons on how civil society and other development practitioners can make use of strategic foresight methodologies.

In terms of immediate outcomes, the initiative intends to provide greater clarity on plausible global development cooperation futures that will inform the long-term vision, priorities and actions of Canadian and global civil society organizations. It also intends to foster a better participant understanding of the use and utility of different strategic foresight tools and methodologies for imagining the future, and to create a community of stakeholders engaged in strategic foresight globally and in Canada.