Foresight for Smart Globalization: Accelerating & Enhancing Pro-Poor Development Opportunities

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Executive Summary (excerpt)

Pro-poor foresight is forward-looking analysis that focuses on poor and marginalized people by expanding their social and economic opportunities and by enhancing the social, economic, and ecological resilience of human society. Yet foresight, as generally applied within government, industry, and the non-governmental sector, rarely includes an explicit focus on poverty. While foresight exercises typically take into account the impact of long term political, economic, social, and technological trends, the differential implications of these factors for the lives of poor people tend not to be addressed. Poor communities, however, will be disproportionately affected by the myriad and intractable problems of the 21st century, including climate change disasters, weak governance systems, financial crises, security threats, and societal disruptions.