Strategic foresight is a relatively new policymaking tool that helps governments to prepare for the wider spectrum of future scenarios that our more complex and interconnected socio-economic systems make plausible.

With the approach being seen as a key way to increase economies’ and societies’ resilience to shocks, safeguard the environment, and augment economic performance, policy analysts and advisers worldwide are increasingly adopting the approach.

Its uptake, however, remains low among HKH policymakers – due, 2024 research by ICIMOD shows, not to lack of demand but to lack of available training. Following a scoping exercise and consultations with experts that showed the extent of interest in strategic foresight in the HKH, the centre went on to train a number of influential regional think tanks and academic policy centres in the approach, including

1. Sustainable Development Policy Institute (Pakistan)
2. the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and Indian Institute of Human Settlements (India)
3. Centre for Bhutan Study (CBS)
4. Royal Thimphu College (Bhutan)
5. Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (Bangladesh)
6. Kathmandu University
7. Nepal Institute of Development Studies (Nepal)

Participants expressed interest in future sessions to focus on climate adaptation, yak-based livelihoods, and the relationship between climate change and migration. 

Following the training. ICIMOD carried out preliminary work with partners to set up pilots for local participatory foresight in two sites each in India and Pakistan, and some partners have started to integrate Strategic Futures into their work for the first time. ICIMOD has also been asked to help establish a foresight unit by the Government of Bhutan (CBS).