New ‘Future in Focus’ review spotlights UN DESA’s foresight efforts

Our complicated modern era requires leaders to use foresight to make strategic choices to shape a resilient, inclusive and sustainable world.

A new report from UN DESA shows how its work provides policymakers with strategic foresight analysis and other tools to help them understand emerging trends, as well as leverage new opportunities for sustainable development. 

This review, Future in Focus: Preparing for What’s Ahead, illustrates what UN DESA does to help countries in their forward-planning to address new technologies, build national capacities to achieve a just energy transition, and build statistical capacities, for example.   

This foresight effort is informed by two of the Department’s flagship products—the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2025 (WESP) and the World Population Prospects 2024 (WPP). These products were highlighted at an online Global Policy Dialogue on 28 January as examples of just some of the forward-looking tools UN DESA offers policymakers. 

“If you know what your economy’s growth path is going to be over the next two or three years, it helps you plan a little bit what your expenditures would be,” said Shantanu Mukherjee, Director of UN DESA’s Economic Analysis and Policy Division, which produced the WESP report.

“If it looks like your economy is not going to do so well, maybe you need to set some money aside to help people who would be out of work or at risk of falling into poverty.  If your economy looks like it is going to do well, maybe you’ll have money for more investment,” he said.

Data from the WPP can also be used to prepare for changes in fertility, lifespan and migration, ensuring that these changes benefit society. For instance, the data can influence how many schools are built, how many crops are planted, and where new cities are constructed. 

“This data has an incredible potential to be utilized, and I think it can be utilized more,” said Clare Menozzi, Chief of the Demographic Analysis Section of UN DESA’s Population Division that produced the WPP. “One of its strengths is that it is far more predictable, especially in the short and medium term than other trends, including anticipating the speed at which technology will develop, or economic trends.”

You can explore all the ways UN DESA supports UN Member States in their foresight efforts in the Future in Focus: Preparing for What Lies Ahead review online. You can also watch the latest Global Policy Dialogue featuring this review on UN Web TV. 

Photo credit: UN DESA / Finbar Hefferon