Foresight for Development is an initiative that aims to create an online platform to aggregate and promote futures thinking and practice related to Africa. The platform consolidates a repository of foresight content, resources, tools, and networks from across the continent. It also assembles a community of African futurists and practitioners to share knowledge through features like discussion forums, project collaboration, and a marketplace. The goal is to make foresight more accessible and visible to support development in Africa by building on existing work and enabling knowledge sharing.

1. ForesightForDevelopment
Profile

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FORESIGHT FOR DEVELOPMENT is a foresight to build on work that could be impactful in the
initiative targeted at the African continent. It aims development area; i.e. know where to
to develop and pilot a joint platform for synergise and where not to duplicate or
developing, storing, updating and accessing overlook work and experience that exist
foresight knowledge, information, products, tools, already.
practice and practitioner networks in Africa.
Foresight for Development is piloted and initiated KEY FEATURES & SERVICES
by the South African Node of the Millennium
Project (SA Node) with support from The Foresight For Development: Community
Rockefeller Foundation. The community feature allows users to register a
free account to access interactive features, and
Vision also automatically records them on the mailing list.
To promote the effective use of foresight towards a They can chat with other registered users, as well
brighter future for Africa. as engage each other on the discussion forum by
creating new threads or participating in existing
Mission threads. Other typical social network features are
To create an online platform that will aggregate, available (commenting, reviewing, searching, etc.).
enhance, and promote futures thinking and
practice in Africa. Foresight For Development: Knowledge
Users can access and contribute to an aggregated
Objectives database of Africa‐related foresight content. There
 To consolidate a repository of Africa’s key is also a database of foresight practitioners that is
regional foresight content from futures envisaged to grow over time as more people utilise
practice, activities and sources; the platform. The African regional horizon
 To assemble a regional community of futurists scanning newsletters being produced as part of the
and foresight Practitioners; Rockefeller Foundation’s Searchlight initiative are
 To share foresight case studies, also loaded on a monthly basis, and members can
methodologies, tools, news, calendars, etc.; retrieve other newsletters via an evolving set of
 To feature African foresight initiatives and web links that are listed under the knowledge
practitioners; and feature.
 To provide a gateway to relevant Foresight
products and resources. Foresight For Development: Projects
Members may request access to create and run
Rationale time‐based, relevant group projects on the FFD
The concept is premised on the idea that platform. They can form working‐groups with
 The foresight community involved in secured workspace, sharing and linking project
developing contexts is fragmented; content and communication.
 Foresight products / knowledge / experience in
or about these contexts is not easily located, Foresight For Development: News and Events
acquired, or shared with everyone who wants Latest news and events are available in this feature
it or could benefit from it; in the form of a customizable newsfeed
 Given limited breadth of capacity in the area aggregator. Any member of the platform can add,
of foresight, knowledge consolidation and a view or comment on any event or news
collective approach greatly enhances article.
efficiency in the use of resources available to
practitioners and consumers; Foresight For Development: Market Place
 To support the agenda of highlighting and The platform’s marketplace is divided into two
mainstreaming foresight as critical to categories:
development; foresight needs greater access  Classifieds: Allows any member to advertise
and visibility of what is known, and what has their foresight products on the platform;
been done / achieved, especially in the  eStore: Provides users with access to foresight
development field; products available from pre‐defined vendor
 A source of foresight reference material would sources (e.g. Kalahari.net) and foresight
greatly advance the ability of practitioners and organizations (e.g. Millennium Project).
academics (as well as other interested parties)
foresight@foresightfordevelopment.org
Tel: +27 (0) 12 382 3046 Fax: +27 (0) 86 517 8278
www.foresightfordevelopment.org