INTPA Strategic Foresight

NB: We recommend you to download the introduction document, available in both English and Spanish here!

ARE YOU READY TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE?

Welcome to the beginning of your foresight journey! This is a journey where you will learn to see the world in a different way. With a wider gaze and eyes full of curiosity, a journey to transform your mind-set and even to start shaping the future.

So let us start from the beginning - what is foresight? 

At its simplest, Foresight is the structured process of thinking about possible futures. The future is yet to be written, so it is up to us to shape it!

But thinking about the future actually is not easy. There are so many possibilities that it is easy to get lost, lose hope or simply repeat stories about the future that we already know and have heard before.

This toolkit offers a set of structured approaches that will help youth to think creatively, build their skills in thinking about multiple futures and develop novel recommendations for policymakers. 

The skills involved in ‘futures thinking’ also allow us to better understand the role that the future plays in our own lives. We hope that by using this toolkit young people will experience the personal benefits of being better at anticipating and planning for their own futures. 

WHY SHOULD YOUTH ADVISORY STRUCTURES THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE?

In line with the European Commission’s commitment to embed Foresight in better policymaking, INTPA management approved on 17 March 2022 a 5-year incremental approach for the rollout of Strategic Foresight. The approach sets down three objectives: (1) to build an institutional Foresight culture; (2) to inform (the mid-term review and) the next programming; and (3) to position INTPA as a leading futures-shaper partner in the international arena. 

The INTPA Foresight Hub is a community of 150 colleagues from HQ and EU Delegations. Members have set up a Youth4Foresight group whose goal is to provide foresight-related methodological, conceptual, and content guidance for those colleagues interested in better understanding young people’s aspirations and frustrations, hopes and fears, and providing them with spaces and tools to co-shape their future, in line with Tool#20 of the Better Regulation Toolbox, as communicated in the Commission's last update on the European Year of Youth 2022

Youth 

Young people will inherit the consequences of today’s decisions, but all too often have no say in them. The Youth Action Plan in EU external action (YAP) sets a great framework for the EU to better engage with and empower young people worldwide. However, a strong institutional mind-set still leads to blind spots, ways of thinking and methods that do not cater for the concerns of young people.

Different youth collectives engaging with our colleagues will apply foresight in different ways, but the approach has the potential to offer value to young people regardless of how the engagement and the collective is structured. Foresight is a methodology with tools that can create space for young people to think freely, outside of institutional norms, and offer alternatives to current decision-making paradigms. Combining a structured yet creative approach to thinking through policy problems can help young people to: 

• Generate genuinely novel ideas 
  and policy messages

• Build young people’s legitimacy in expert spaces

• Give young people a mandate to speak truth to power

• Make complex topics energising and exciting

Youth focal points and colleagues

YFPs from EU Delegations co-created this toolkit designed to help you support youth  to most effectively influence EU programmes, projects and policies. Many YFPs and colleagues have limited time and resources to plan and design activities for their group - this toolkit aims to do some of that thinking for you.

In particular, the toolkit responds to three challenges and opportunities YFPs and youth advisory structures members spotted:

• Driving engagement. To drive engagement and cohesion within the youth collectives engaging with us. 
• Creating policy messages. To help youth collectives to create novel and interesting policy messages.
• Taking action. To support youth to take action in their own committees, projects and communities.

The toolkit is designed for colleagues to facilitate it, but the materials are self-explanatory enough for youth collectives to take the lead on the activities themselves if they want to do so. When a contracted youth coordinator expert or technical assistants manage activities, we suggest colleagues work together with them to adapt and implement the toolkit.

DESIGNING A FORESIGHT JOURNEY FOR YOUR GROUP

The toolkit includes six different tools to help youth collectives think about the future. The tools can be used either in order, with each tool building on one another’s outputs, or individually, as each tool has a slightly different purpose. 

Each tool fits within a three stage process: (1) Developing a mind-set to think about the future; (2) Exploring multiple different future possibilities; and (3) Deciding on actions to take forward and recommend. 

Running the tools with youth advisory structures

Each tool can be led by the YFPs for the whole youth advisory group, in smaller groups organised by specific topics or in their committees. Many youth advisory structures are already divided into thematic committees, but those structures without committees could work on a specific, or split them into group on specific topics for the purposes of some exercises.

The way each youth advisory structure usually meets can also slightly differ. You will need to think through how these sessions can fit best with how your group meets. For example, you might initially run a few tools with the whole group online or at a weekend residence. Then, over their mandate, you might encourage them to have a go themselves in specific thematic committees. 

The following table shows each tool and some recommendations about how each tool can be facilitated:

FACILITATING THE JOURNEY

Whether you are a seasoned facilitator or it is your first time, these tips should help you make the sessions go smoothly. But don’t worry - preparing for these sessions won’t take long at all.

Preparing for a session: 

• Make sure you will create safe spaces for youth to share and discuss their thoughts and feelings about the futures. It is important to provide and ensure a safe space for youth, where they are not going to be judged or evaluated. A space where cultural differences are acknowledged and respected. It should be a space for learning and growth, where facilitators themselves and participants listen respectfully to others and show curiosity and openness.
• Share an agenda for the session and decide on groups ahead of time.
• Prepare any materials for the session, which might include setting up the Miro boards or printing the templates provided in this toolkit for each tool. Make sure everyone has the links and/or the information they need to join the session.
• Each activity has recommended timings in the tool instructions. These are intended as loose guidance, for you to edit and meet your needs and time availability. Groups will often need time at the beginning of a session to get settled, open the right links or find the right table., so plan in spare time to transition into and out of activities.
• When designing a session that lasts longer than 90 minutes, we recommend making sure there are breaks.

During the session:

• Start a session with an ice breaker. This is a fun activity to get people loosened up and energised. For example, you could get everyone to answer a question about themselves, or do a fun activity. Some ideas for icebreakers can be found here.
• While a colleague may introduce the activity, most group activities can be self-facilitated by youth . At the beginning of each session, it is important to clearly explain the steps involved in the use of the tool, before letting groups break out and try it on their own. It may be helpful to share the tool instruction for participants to read before the session.

Closing and following up on the session:

• Think about how you will capture the outputs of a session and share it back with the group. You might not need to capture everything - perhaps the final discussion is enough.
• It will be important to close a session by framing the next steps and outlining where the process is going. This sense of direction will lead to increased engagement.

Think about what outputs might be inputs for the next session, or might be useful to discuss further, such as action ideas and next steps that arise from the session.

HOW OTHERS HAVE USED THE TOOLKIT?

The toolkit was created in close consultation with YFPs, in particular from Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mauritius/Seychelles, Colombia, and Nicaragua and tools from the toolkit were piloted with a number of these EU Delegations youth advisory structures. You can hear some of their reflections on the process in this video.

This is a live section of the toolkit where we plan to add new examples as more groups use the toolkit activities.

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, YFP Pablo Molina Del Pozo scheduled a 3-hour session as part of a residential weekend. Members of the Youth Sounding Board used the Detectives of the Future tool in their thematic committees, each working at a separate table.

The main objective was for YSB members to learn the skills needed to understand change in their local and global environments. By the end, the groups had identified a series of trends (on post-it notes) that will be important in shaping their context in Ethiopia.

Studying trends and signals of change helped us recognize important factors that could shape the future context we'll be operating in. This highlighted areas we need to respond and adapt to

I learned the importance of staying up to date on key trends, both within my industry and more broadly, that could impact my work in the future. I plan to implement a regular trend monitoring process to look for new signals and game-changing developments

Ecuador

Ecuador’s YFP Michaela Zelenanska organised a two-day meeting with their advisory structure (CoCoECU) to:

• Explain the purpose of CoCoECU and have a clear vision of its work with the Delegation.
• Approve subcommittees work plans so that they can organise to have a real impact.
• Create a sense of unity among members to improve their functioning as a group.

GETTING STARTED

So you have read the introduction, but how do you get started using the toolkit? The steps will probably differ slightly for each specific case, but here are some to think about:

• Read the instructions for the tools you are planning to use, and watch the accompanying videos.
• Decide what you want to achieve with your group and which tools will help to achieve that. You may want to run a series of sessions that link together.
• Figure out how the tools will fit within the meeting schedule of your group, including if they are online, or in person. The tools could be implemented over a residential week(end), or spread out over a number of months to coincide with key milestones or thematic committees meetings. 
• Will committees work in their own time or in centrally convened spaces? This may depend on the ability of the members to self-organise.
• Will the activity be done with the whole group or in specific thematic committees? Most of the tools are intended to be used in groups of 3-8 people.
• Introduce your structure to the concept of foresight and why you will be using this toolkit. You can share the Introduction to the toolkit and the Introduction to Foresight videos with them for inspiration.
• Figure out which tools can and will be self-facilitated by youth, and which ones will require your facilitation or the one of the experts/technical assistants. 
• Encourage the members to watch the videos and read the relevant tools’ rationales, instructions, and facilitation tips when needed (you can download the Word versions of the tools, edit and adjust them), so they understand why they are using them or they can take the lead on the exercises themselves.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FORESIGHT?

Further resources: 

Become a member of the INTPA Foresight Hub and/or the Youth4Foresight group! Access the first INTPA Foresight Express series of webinars (5 modules of 30 minutes each), engage in the INTPA Horizon Scanning process and Foresight practice workshops, or consult the toolbox (including some of the tools of this toolkit) for organising Foresight exercises in other internal settings and spaces. 

The platform Ted-Ed in collaboration with the European Commission has launched a special micro-site called “Futures - Forward” with a collection of videos to learn more about: Perception of time, futures mind-set, multiple futures, investing in imagination and taking action. 

The Youth4Foresight group in the INTPA Foresight Hub can also provide advice and support if you need it along your journey! There is an available support from external experts on Foresight and Youth until September 2024. 

We hope as an EU colleague you have been inspired to learn more about foresight and take the next step on your journey. Check out more about Foresight in INTPA here and send your application to the PA01 team:

INTPA-PA01-FORESIGHT@ec.europa.eu 

You can come and go as you wish, participate in only one or more activities, depending on your interest and availability.