MBRF and UNDP's ‘Future' of Knowledge: A Foresight Report' highlights significance of transitional capabilities to combat future challenges

October 18, 2022- ‘The Future of Knowledge: A Foresight Report’, which was launched in 2018 by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has recorded the developments and requirements for future of knowledge. The report analyses internet data and social media platforms to understand the capability of the community in handling the developmental requirements for prospective future fields and specialties. It aims at fostering proactive leadership across countries to ensure a sustainable development process of the workforce.

The third and final edition of the report was launched in 2022 coinciding with an uncertain time, when there is a prevalent concern to boost the immunity and recovery of countries, along with development of strategic plans to accelerate the journey towards sustainability. Based on the analysed data, the report further sheds light on the discrepancies and varieties between the transitional capabilities of different countries, keeping in mind the global risks, while proposing new solutions for countries to enhance their abilities to mitigate future risks. Furthermore, the report offers illustrious data on awareness levels in different countries on future risks and the required level of skills and knowledge to address them.

Four Chapters

There are four chapters in the latest version of the ‘Future of Knowledge: A Foresight Report’. The first chapter highlights global, technological, health, and environmental risks and challenges, further focussing on the importance of transitional capabilities of nations as a vital factor to combat future risks and the role of knowledge and skills to promote the transition. In the second chapter, methods of analysis is emphasised on, which discusses about the means of data gathering and analytical and methodological frameworks. The third chapter highlights the key results of the analysis on a global scale, considering collaboration and innovation abilities. The final chapter offer various recommendation and reviews.

Four recommendations

The latest version of the report offers four recommendations for decision and policy makers. These focus supporting nations to develop partnerships and innovation abilities by implementing structural reforms to mitigate drawbacks and prevalent issue in development, while contributing to fostering preparedness to address future challenges and risks. This edition of the report also aims at bolstering national leadership to prepare nations in facing future global risks, keeping in mind the current issues, especially in the fields of technology, health and environment.

The recommendations also focus on devising and implementing a national framework for a successful transition to a sustainable future by fostering participation of multiple stakeholders and prioritising skills as vital components of future human capital. It also focuses on applying scenario planning methods to anticipate the future risks and find solution to address them with collaborative efforts by concerned entities withing countries.

The report further stated the need for a fundamental change in business operations with an aim to stimulate investment of the full potential of knowledge and infrastructure to reduce adverse impacts of future disruptions and challenges in the fields of health, technology and environment.

It further stated the need of effective legislations and policies by the government and the private sector by leveraging research, development and innovation to successfully mitigate potential environmental, health and technological risks.

Enhance Transformational Capabilities 

The ‘Future of Knowledge: A Foresight Report’ shed light on the need for enhancing transitional capabilities of nations by adapting their characteristics according to the prevalent world scenario. It stated that factors such as vital systems, economic and social structures, among others, should be developed through promotion of innovative capacity and cooperations to ensure preparedness to address potential risks and challenges, while further improving resilience and recovery abilities.

The report also indicated that nations need to revaluate assumptions on change being unachievable or expensive, and should mobilise resources to enhance knowledge and skills, which are the vital pillars for ensuring mitigating capabilities of nations to address potential future risks.

The report also highlighted the significance innovation capability and cooperation as vital elements for developing countries in investing knowledge and skills of the workforce. It also stated that transitional abilities play an essential role in improving the ability to adapt and transform structural characteristics of a nation’s ecology and, economic and social structures by addressing potential risks and disruptions in the conduct of its internal, as well as external affairs.

International Partnerships

The report also focussed on the needs to mould international collaborations to enhance the capabilities to identify and intervene in situations of risks. It also highlighted the significance of cooperation between concerned entities within and between countries, further statin that establishing mutual cooperation capabilities facilitates seamless exchange of knowledge and expertise to motivate different nations to adopt open knowledge systems and transition from centralised decision making.

Qualitative Addition

The ‘Future of Knowledge: A Foresight Report’ is a qualitative addition to the long-standing partnership between the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation and the United Nations Development Program under the Knowledge Project. This project aims at realising the mutual vision of both parties to empower and enhance societal knowledge to achieve sustainable development goals (SGDs). It also focusses on issuing the Global Knowledge Index to monitor the knowledge situation, and also the issuing of 'Future of Knowledge: A Foresight Report’ to transition to the next stage of quantitative analysis on the prevalent global situation.

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