Foresight partnership Forum: Forum report (26 April 2023)
Background | The challenges facing food, land, and water systems are numerous and complex. In addressing these interlinked challenges, the choices facing governments and their development partners have also become increasingly complicated. Synergies are possible, but trade-offs are often unavoidable. Decision-makers need better evidence to help them choose actions that minimize trade-offs and advance progress towards collective goals. The CGIAR Foresight Initiative aims to inform these choices and enhance decision-making about the future by combining advanced analytics and close engagement with national, regional, and global partners. The Initiative forms part of CGIAR’s new research portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
Objectives | The Foresight Partnership Forum brought together key partners from across Sub-Saharan Africa to explore challenges facing food, land, and water systems at national, regional, and global scales; identify opportunities to share and strengthen capacity for foresight; and examine ways to use foresight tools and analysis to inform policy making. The Forum on 24-25 January was followed by a training session on country development and policy modeling for partners on 26-27 January.
Agenda | The Forum agenda (see Annex 1) consisted of eight sessions over two days, including keynote perspectives; opportunities and challenges for national agri-food systems; global and regional trends affecting food, land, and water systems; using foresight and models to inform policymaking beyond agriculture; strengthening foresight and modeling capacity and access to tools; stakeholder engagement, analysis, and foresight as a process; a closing session; and an optional session providing an overview of country modeling tools and applications. The two-day Forum was followed by a two-day training course (see Annex 2) focused on data and models for economy-wide analysis at the country level. The full agenda is included with brief summaries below.