Foresight for Development: contributions to Forward-looking Territorial Governance

Against the backdrop of cascading crises in the region and a volatile global context, there is a need to strengthen countries’ planning processes and the exercise of anticipatory governance to identify and shape possible futures and respond to changes in the environment. This document seeks to promote reflection on foresight for development and the importance of citizen deliberation in the ownership of future scenarios. It therefore draws on the forms that foresight exercises have taken in the region, led by the State at different territorial scales, the characteristics and approaches of these exercises, as well as the conditions and obstacles to their institutionalization in the State apparatus. The document also aims to serve as a starting point for the definition of methodological pathways as flexible courses of action in exercises incorporating a collective vision of the future and for formulating policies and programmes that offer new development opportunities, as well as for expanding the institutionalization of foresight in the public apparatus.