Embedding Strategic Foresight into Strategic Planning and Management: International Recommendations

Governments across the globe and at all levels are engaging with strategic foresight tools as a means to become more resilient and robust. At their best, such tools indeed enable policymakers, public managers, and other professionals to better prepare for the future today and be ready for absorbing future shocks. Yet, despite strategic foresight’s popularity, it is often detached from more ongoing strategic planning and management in government. This goes against the origins of strategic foresight,
which was developed as an approach to making strategic planning and management more future-oriented.

This report makes the claim that when strategic foresight and strategic planning and management are better integrated, the effectiveness of both approaches in government and for government enhances greatly. But how to provide such integration? Four cases of strategic foresight from across the globe are analyzed in this report, namely:

• Strategic Insights and Analyses Team of the Flemish Government
• Centre for Strategic Futures of the Singaporean Government
• Strategic Foresight of the European Commission
• Center for Strategic Foresight of the United States’ Government Accountability Office

These cases come from Asia, Europe, and the U S , as well as from federal, regional, and supranational government entities. Drawing on the cases, public administration research about strategic planning and management, and the author’s experience, a total of 27 recommendations are offered to help integrate strategic foresight into ongoing strategic planning and management. These recommendations are systemic and represent four crucial dimensions where integration needs to occur, namely: Governance, Capabilities, Processes, and Practice.

In an era of great turbulence, this report hopes to help governments across the
globe engage in sustainable foresight practices that facilitate strategic thinking, acting, and learning.