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INTPA Strategic Foresight

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Last Updated: 10 August 2026
In line with the European Commission’s embedding of Strategic Foresight in better policymaking, DG International Partnerships uses Foresight to shift our mind-set from the here-and-now (reactive) to future-in-the-making (anticipatory). In a world facing global challenges such as climate change, digital and green transitions, health emergencies, inflation, wars, power shifts and geopolitical tensions strategic foresight helps organisations like ours to anticipate long-term change to make better decisions in the present day. In this page you can find key resources such as the Youth4Foresight Toolkit.

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Chile’s Youth use foresight to shape their future role and influence

Young people need more than a seat at the table: they also need tools to reflect on the future, identify priorities, and turn ideas into action. This is the purpose of the Youth4Foresight (Y4F) toolkit, developed by DG International Partnerships, which supports youth participation through practical foresight methods that help to think strategically, collaboratively, and over the long term.

In Chile, “Voces del Futuro”, aptly named EU’s Youth Sounding Board (YSB), practiced “futures thinking” recently. Launched in 2025, the group brings together 21 young people from 13 regions of the country, from as far north as Arica and as far south as Aysén. Since its creation, members have contributed to activities promoted by the EU Delegation in Chile, including thematic trainings, capacity-building initiatives, and work on sustainability, governance, and gender equality.

As the group entered its second year, members wanted to clarify how they could contribute more as an advisory body and where they could have the greatest impact. They co-designed a foresight exercise to reflect on the type of influence they would like to have in Chile, to identify priority themes for the coming period, and to define more concrete steps forward together with the EU Delegation.

The final workshop took place on 23 June 2026 using the Three Horizons method from the Youth4Foresight toolkit. Participants explored:

  • their preferred future for the initiative,
  • the current challenges and limitations,
  • existing “seeds of the future” already visible today,
  • innovations and changes needed to move forward,
  • and practical action points for the next phase.

The session was delivered in a hybrid format, with 7 participants in the room and 4 online. This made it the first successful hybrid Youth4Foresight session with a Youth Sounding Board in an EU Delegation. The experience showed that hybrid foresight can work well when facilitation is strong and the technical set-up is reliable. Furthermore, in a country such as Chile, where events and activities are largely concentrated in the capital, Santiago, and where the country's long and narrow geography results in considerable distances between cities and regions, the hybrid format proved particularly effective in ensuring the broadest possible participation of YSB members from across the country. Moreover, the workshop was facilitated by the young people themselves. This strengthened ownership, created a highly participatory dynamic, and participants felt more in control of shaping the future of their initiative.

Group of young people in a hybrid format workshop

Overall, the group appreciated the structured discussion and the opportunity to lead it themselves, while organisers highlighted the exercise’s value for boosting the “Voces del Futuro” initiative and identifying concrete steps for the YSB involvement in EU activities in Chile. As the next step, a roadmap for the YSB Chile is being produced and will be used as a tool for the planning of the YSB’s activities over 2026-2027. 

In short, the workshop illustrated how foresight can help youth groups move from broad ambition to clearer priorities, stronger coordination, and more strategic engagement with the EU.

Aligned with the EU Youth Action Plan (2022–2027) and its three pillars (empower, engage and connect) the Y4F toolkit helps young people strengthen their agency and contribute more meaningfully to dialogue and decision-making processes linked to the EU’s external action. The toolkit was primarily designed for EU Delegations engaging with young people but can be used by anyone interested in running a foresight workshop and is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. 

Would you like to explore how Youth4Foresight can support youth participation in other contexts? You can find the Y4F toolkit, alongside examples and reflections from across EU Delegations on here on Capacity4Dev.