Main Areas of Work
Futures Thinking/Strategic Foresight
For millennia, our species has learned from the past, observed contemporary trends and considered possible and plausible futures – sometimes investigating lines of inquiry that have revolutionalised the way in which we see our world, with advances in science and technology that have increased longevity and improved living standards, sometimes taking steps to avert or mitigate disaster, at other times, failing to respond in time or with sufficient creativity to avoid catastrophic suffering and loss.
Futures thinking restores human agency, opening up spaces to test assumptions about how the world is and how we got here and to explore possible futures and providing the tools and techniques required for collective intelligence to reinforce anticipatory leadership and experimentation. In workshops and roundtable discussions with representatives of the public and private sectors, academic institutions and civil society, with support from leading “futurist” practitioners, Incitare has played an important role in International Geneva and beyond, on topics as wide ranging as learning and livelihoods, migration and peace, local food systems and global supply chains.
Innovative Partnerships
Collaboration and cooperation are the hall marks of succesful societies. Much is made in global development and humanitarian sectors of the importance of inclusion and participation and mult-sector or multi-stakeholder engagement; however, given the “shift” needed in thinking and behaviour to achieve Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, much more needs to be done – in terms of, firstly, processes and the so called “soft skills” that the World Economic Forum and many others have recognised will be more highly valued in a highly automated and digitised world, secondly, the use and impact of science and technology, and thirdly, SDG purposed financing.
Accountability for Transformation
If our intention is truly transformational – paradigm shifting, systems changing, wealth redistributing – it is clear that the continued use of economic and financial models that perpetuate unfair advantage, over-consumption and inequality and assess performance on the basis of returns to shareholders/profitability or at best compliance with Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) threshholds will not serve us well. A more comprehensive approach is needed, with standards and indicators that measure intra- and inter-generational transformation in systems and relationships.
