What will you learn?

Decisions and policies within public institutions are typically a result of a rigid decision-making process that entails extrapolation of current trends based on past data. The results, policies and decisions, are passively accepted as given or as ‘the best practice’. What if there are alternatives to this?  Increasingly, governments are looking to engage in longer-term strategic planning over horizons of typically up to 10-20 years into the future. Such techniques were first introduced during post-war reconstruction in military and spatial planning, and started to appear in corporate planning in the 1960s. Within mainstream public administration, foresight came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, usually focusing on scientific and technological development. 

Using foresight methodologies, the webinar explored the premise that the future is still in the making and can be actively influenced to construct development narratives otherwise deemed impossible, by the governments and institutions alike.

Who attended?

Senior public officials interested in deepening their understanding of how foresight methodologies  can effectively contribute to policy development and decision-making. 

Lecturers

• Julia Staudt, Policy Analyst, Anticipatory Innovation Governance & Centres of Government at OECD

Julia is strategic foresight lead at the OECD’s Observatory for Public Sector Innovation. She supports governments in upgrading their systematic capacity to anticipate and act upon emerging change. With experience working with dozens of governments and international organisations, she designs and delivers interventions and processes to build anticipatory innovation governance in a range of settings. Prior to joining OPSI, Julia helped institutionalise foresight at Germany’s Federal Chancellery, producing futures insights for the Chancellor and leading foresight projects across the Federal Government. She also worked in the Office of the Secretary General at the OECD, at the UN and in several private sector roles. Julia holds an MSc in Management from HEC Paris and an MA in Public Affairs from Freie Universität Berlin.

•  Davide Albeggiani, Policy Analyst, Anticipatory Innovation Governance & Centres of Government at OECD

Davide is a Public Sector Innovation Analyst at the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation. His work focuses on anticipatory innovation governance and on cross-border innovation—exploring innovative public sector practices for collaboration among countries and jurisdictions. Before joining the OECD, Davide worked on climate and biodiversity conservation policy at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Exeter in the UK and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Politics from Sciences Po Paris. 

• Tea Danilov, Head of the Foresight Centre, Estonia 

Tea Danilov is the Head of Foresight Centre at the Riigikogu. She’s built the Foresight Centre up from scratch, since the adoption of the Foresight Act by the Riigikogu in 2016. Previously, she was the director of entrepreneurship and export in the Estonian Enterprise Development Agency (2015-2016), director of internal market department in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (2012-2015) and director of economic development department in the same ministry (2007-2012). Tea holds a master’s degree (MA) in econometrics and economic theory from Tartu University.  

 

 

 

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: