INITIATIVE | UNDP RBAP's Reimagining Development: Research and Thought Leadership on Long-term Views of Development Trajectories and Tipping Points

➡️ Back to the Strategic Foresight Dashboard 

"How often do we draw from the riches of our local context to inform the way we "do" development?"

Background 

Our ambition is to bring to life possible realities of an intangible far away future. In 2022 under our Reimagining Development initiative, we will release a range of Foresight Briefs written by leading academics, blending futures analysis on ‘development nudges’ or emerging policy issues. The key objectives of this initiative are therefore:

• Publishing Foresight Briefs in 2022: Exploratory written products from thought leaders and academics
• To grapple with potential policy and programming implications of new topics that are challenging traditional development practice, and that point towards new perspectives and approaches

Inclusive Imaginaries 

As part of this initiative, we invite country offices to take part in an Inclusive Imaginaries exercise. Asia and the Pacific are among the most socially, culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the world, yet how often do we draw from the riches of our local context to inform the way we "do" development?

We are complementing the rigour of academic futures analysis with a collaborative Inclusive Imaginaries initiative to support the creation of more just, equitable and inclusive futures. Here, we explore tensions and synergies between academic analysis and contextual imaginations emerging from lived experience:

• Co-create and collaborate, starting with Accelerator Labs and Youth Co:Labs, to explore what flourishing means in the futures of youth and local communities
• To cultivate culturally driven, locally contextualized imaginations of the futures of Asia and the Pacific
• To be intentional about inclusion: with an eye to who's not in the room and allowing participatory visions to shape our decisions and actions.
• COs involved in the 2021-22 pilot: Nepal, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Samoa, Pacific/Fiji

? Watch our UNDP RBAP Strategic Foresight Week 2022 Session on Reimagining Development here!

⬇️ Read the Reimagining Development concept note below

? COMING SOON: Foresight Briefs and results of Inclusive Imaginaries pilot

Meanwhile, check out what inspires us in our efforts to balance analytical rigour with unleashing of the imagination and tapping into unconventional sources of knowledge and insight!

? Back to the Strategic Foresight Network Dashboard. Click to register your interest in the Network.