"Evaluation of UNESCO Anticipation and Foresight Program"

By Philippe Larrue and Soheir Dani, UNESCO, July 2006. (IOS/EVS/PI/64) (PDF, 67 pages.)

Foresight activities are an integral part of UNESCO’s mission to be a “Laboratory of Ideas.” It is administered as part of UNESCO's program in the Social and Human Sciences.

The goal of the program:

"In order to capture the complexity of the global developments, especially those related to the emergence of knowledge societies, UNESCO will undertake and draw on future-oriented studies and scenarios. This effort will seek to analyse and capture the main components and processes inherent in knowledge societies with a view to articulating a common and shared vision and to design strategies for developing open knowledge societies."

The program is composed of two main activities:

• Preparation and development of the UNESCO World Report every two years, and

• The 21st-Century Talks and Dialogues, that seek to gather together leading figures from different regions of the world.

Over the period 1999-2005, 27 “21st Century Talks and Dialogues” were organised involving 118 speeches by 95 different speakers. Three books – and a total of 21 translated versions - were published. The program contributed contributed to 28 radio and TV broadcasts or programmes, with many more “ad hoc” contributions (e.g. at conferences and the like).

Visit the website for UNESCO's Prospective Studies program.

UNESCO World Report: Towards Knowledge Societies (2005)