ABOUT US
Next Generation Foresight Practitioners
Launched in 2018 by the School of International Futures (SOIF), the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) is a network of over 900 people from all over the world who are using futures and foresight to create positive impact and systemic transformation globally.
Our members come from various geographies, areas of expertise, and walks of life – from working with food systems in India to developing new technologies in Kenya to reshaping the future of elections in the US to redesigning interspecies friendly cities in Germany. What they all have in common are exceptional projects and ideas with the potential to shape the future of communities, countries, and sectors.
Through SOIF’s expertise of doing foresight with impact, its connections with the broader futures and foresight field, and the support of the NGFP team, we offer our members a nurturing environment and enabling conditions for their projects and ideas to flourish and expand their positive impact in the world. This includes providing:
- foresight capacity building
- mentorship
- funding
- safe spaces for collaboration with peers
- participation in relevant events around the world
- visibility in the media, and
- meaningful connections with decision-makers at the highest levels.
Our ultimate objective is to democratise the futures and foresight field, so we have diverse voices from younger generations participating equally in the co-creation of better, fairer, and more equitable futures for all.
What is foresight?
Foresight is a systematic way of engaging with uncertainty by exploring alternative futures, including aspirational ones. As a discipline, it has the potential to shape the future. It is not about predicting the future, but understanding your current and future operating environment. Insights gained from foresight equip communities and organisations to recognise and respond to emerging threats and opportunities by developing enhanced competitiveness, resilience and agility.
A foresight practitioner is anyone who takes a futures approach to their work to explore and understand the impacts of longer-term factors and drivers of change on the future, to understand better how different futures might evolve, and to generate insights for decisions made today.
Our Vision
We foresee transformed and more inclusive futures envisioned and shaped by diverse voices.
Our Mission
Our mission is to identify, accelerate, amplify, and connect a Global South-anchored network of emerging next-generation foresight practitioners to leverage power for transformation.
Our Guiding Principles
- We recognise youth’s powerful role in guiding and forming futures development strategies.
- We are driven by non-extractive and mutually supportive engagement.
- We believe compensation for collaboration should always be made, and based on specific needs.
- We value clear communication with our members and openness around their expectations and needs.
Our Objectives
- We will ensure changemakers and community leaders have access to and use contextually appropriate and locally informed futures tools to drive transformation.
- We strive for a world with more foresight and futures tools and frameworks emerging from the Global South and being widely used.
- We aim to achieve fair funding and compensation for foresight practices at all levels.
- We want the next generation of changemakers to challenge and inform policy and funding decisions.
- We aspire for diverse organisations to look to NGFP for the latest thinking and cutting-edge collaborators.
- We want the next generation of leaders to find solidarity, support, and connections as they take risks to challenge the status quo.
Our Values
- Purpose: we are focused on changing the world and making a better future for all.
- Collaborating for Impact: our way of working is participatory. We believe in shared responsibility.
- Diversity & Inclusion: we are committed to futures’ democratisation. Nothing about us without us.
- Respect and equity: we nurture respectful and peer relationships with everyone.
- Reciprocity: we establish win-win relationships, with fair exchange of value
- Innovation and Learning: we build capacity for impact/change among ourselves and beyond