UNITAR Online Catalogue
Foresight Approaches in Global Public Health
NCD Digital Health and Capacity Building
Background
When we think about the future, we are imagining what might happen according to our experience and judgements. Imagining the future can be influenced by our personal biases and judgements. Applying Foresight and its methods enables us to manage those biases and challenge current assumptions. Foresight methods assist us in thinking critically and systemically about change and its implications for both emerging risks and emerging opportunities. It helps reduce blind spots about potential changes and their impacts.
Event Objectives
The course “Foresight Approaches in Global Public Health” provides an overview of various methods and tools that can be used to understand emerging trends and changes with a futuristic lens and to explore their potential impacts on global public health. Foresight creates space for thinking about new opportunities and possibilities, taking a longer-term perspective, and articulating current needs and priority actions that can be taken to shape the preferred future scenario.
Content and Structure
- What Foresight involves and how it can be used in the context of global public health;
- Various tools and methods that can be applied to develop futures thinking;
- Different kinds of mental biases and shortcuts that obstruct futures thinking and how foresight approaches can help manage these biases;
- How Foresight can be applied in global public health, for example in identifying and evaluating emerging technologies, mitigating biorisks, and being better prepared for future epidemics and pandemics.
Methodology
The content of this course has been validated, verified, and is owned by the Emerging Technologies, Research Prioritization and Support unit. This course is not a WHO Academy co-produced course. In case of any concerns or feedback on the course content, please share your feedback in the survey form at the end of this course.
Targeted Audience
The target audience for this course are technical teams and mid- to senior-level professionals responsible for planning, prioritisation and strategy setting. This includes WHO staff who plan and manage technical and operational functions as well as all external stakeholders in global health and life science research who may benefit from the Foresight approaches.