FAO presents its overarching strategic foresight at the United Nations' annual strategic planning meeting
From 19 to 21 November 2024, the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the United Nations Strategic Planning Network (UNSPN) was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome. The hybrid event brought together 70 participants from 35 UN system agencies, including the UN Futures Lab, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Development Programme (UNDP), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), and others.
The three-day event delved into how UN entities can navigate uncertainty and turn challenges into opportunities through innovative strategic planning and monitoring. Key discussions on practical solutions included leveraging AI and data ecosystems for anticipatory decision-making, applying behavioural science to influence public behaviour through nudges, and utilizing FAO’s strategic foresight scenarios to address inequalities and food insecurity.
During the first session, Alana Poole, Deputy Head at the UN Futures lab, highlighted, “Strategic foresight is not a crystal ball; it is a structured and systematic way of dealing with uncertainty, ensuring we are better prepared to face change. It is a proactive, inclusive, and participatory discipline that challenges assumptions, builds resilience, and creates long-term impact in planning and decision-making processes.”
The event featured a dedicated session on strategic foresight, attended by over 150 participants and delivered by Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù, Senior Economist and Coordinator of Overarching Strategic Foresight (OSF) at FAO’s Agrifood Economics and Policy Division (ESA).
The session’s primary goal was to share institutional experiences with strategic foresight, including its areas of work, the insights and value it offers, its growing importance in corporate strategic planning, various implementation processes, and key lessons learned.
Bellù began his keynote speech by stating, “This is not just foresight for the sake of foresight, it’s strategic. It means that there is decision making dimension implied. We want to strategize our actions to build our future.”
Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù delivering his keynote speech during the session on strategic foresight.
He underscored how strategic foresight provides insights into development patterns, power asymmetries, barriers to progress, and systemic challenges, explaining why countries struggle to achieve sustainability, resilience, and the transformative changes needed for Agenda 2030.
“If we don’t deconstruct the narratives for the last 30 years about development, we are not achieving any change,” he explained. “Pointing out real issues is a way of gathering energies to adjust our future, knowing that we need to change the development paradigm” he concluded.
The link between FAO’s Strategic Foresight and the organization’s strategic planning is critically important. Strengthening discussions and the exchange of insights at the broader UN level is particularly valuable, especially when considering objectives beyond the 2030 Agenda.
The OSF team has extensive experience in contributing to corporate strategic planning through longstanding collaboration between the Strategic Foresight team and FAO’s Office of Strategy, Planning and Budget (OSP). This partnership has enabled the work stream to contribute to the development of FAO’s Strategic Framework and other corporate programming documents over the past decades.
More recently, corporate foresight exercises at the global level, such as the Corporate Strategic Foresight Exercise (CSFE) 2020–2022 and earlier ones, have provided a foundation for key corporate planning processes. These include the Review of the Strategic Framework 2010–2019, the preparation of the Medium-Term Plan 2018–2021, and the development of FAO's Strategic Framework 2022–2031 (SF), among other related foresight experiences. Currently, the team is actively contributing to the ongoing review of the SF 2022–2031 and the Programme Priority Areas (PPAs).
During UNEP’s session, Janice Golding, Global Head of the Programme Coherence and Assurance Unit in the Policy and Programme Division, stressed the significance and impact of foresighting in UNEP's work, “Foresighting has helped UNEP anticipate and prepare for future trends, keeping us on the pulse of global environmental priorities. It has made us more responsive, agile, and relevant as an organization, ensuring we proactively address complex environmental challenges instead of relying on reactive approaches that often fall short."
The Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the UN Strategic Planning Network highlighted strategic foresight as an essential approach to shape the future and drive impactful decision-making across the UN system. Insights from FAO, UNEP, and others emphasized its potential to address systemic challenges, anticipate trends, and foster sustainable development, paving the way for transformative progress toward Agenda 2030.