Foresight on Africa: be prepared for the future

Key details

Duration: 1 day

Dates: Tuesday 20 June and Thursday 6 July 2017

Fee: £950, incentives available

Location: Stanley Building, 7 Pancras Square, London N1C 4AG

Overview

This unique one-day course brings together three world-leading organisations to offer you a multi-disciplinary and multi-national analysis of Africa’s possible trajectories over the next 20 years.

Combining the research expertise of the University of Warwick, the global trends analysis capability of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre DCDC, and the foresight capacity-building and advisory approach of School of International Futures (SOIF), it will bring you unique insights into possible futures for Africa and what they could mean for your organisation.

Gain insights into the impact of global trends, political, economic, technological, social and environmental factors shaping the world over the next 20 years, and how these will impact on Africa. Benefit from leading-edge current research into different aspects of African society and the business and political environment. Understand what this intelligence and analysis means for your organisation and identify actions you can take to be better prepared for them.

Context

By 2045, Africa will account for approximately a quarter of the global population, and it is likely to remain one of the most economically and culturally diverse regions in in the world. There is enormous potential for development and growth. The African economy is expected to quadruple in size over the next 30 years. At the same time, the continent will continue to experience significant challenges. More than half of African states are ‘fragile’ and this will remain a driver for instability and violence. Climate change, and conflict with and between non-state actors and states will remain risks; disputes over control of resources, inequality, political disagreements and religious differences will not be overcome easily.

This course will help you understand the opportunities among the risks for your organisation and to stay ahead of the competition. It will also provide a great opportunity to network with the three organisations and fellow delegates.

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Taught by experts

The course will be co-delivered by Professor Abhinay Muthoo of the University of Warwick, and Cat Tully and Jerry O’Brien of SOIF. DCDC, the UK MOD’s global trends think-tank, will present a morning briefing, and Professor Franklyn Lisk, a leading expert on Africa will join to give an early evening talk.

The benefits – on leaving this course you will:

  • have benefited from a state-of-the-art global trends briefing from a leading think-tank in the field
  • have gained unique insights into what the future holds for Africa from leading academics
  • be aware of what foresight is, and what you can achieve with it, in Africa and beyond
  • be ready to use one or two simple foresight techniques back in your organisation.

Is this course aimed at you?

Those with a business, policy or international development interest in Africa will have a particular interest in this course. The range of insights generated through the combination of original approaches, mixing academic expertise with world-leading trend analysis skills, and complemented by SOIF’s ability to bring these insights back into the organisation, goes well beyond the risk analysis most organisations rely on.

Those without a particular focus on Africa will also benefit by developing their foresight skills: the approach to integrating complex data on future trends and other intelligence into organisational processes is relevant to many other contexts. Strategy, business planning, policy development, procurement, risk management, HR, innovation and communications are some of the business functions where foresight skills will bring immediate benefits.