The UNESCO Futures Literacy and Foresight team has been engaged in co-designing capacity building activities with stakeholders around the world, working with government ministries, UN agencies and community groups to advance abilities to creatively ‘use-the-future’ to address contemporary global challenges.
Our Activities
Futures Publications – Journals
There are several peer-reviewed academic and professional journals dedicated to reporting, discussing and analysing issues of relevance to futures researchers, practitioners and students. There are also some futures-oriented magazines below.
Accreditation Services
The World Futures Studies Federation offers its standards to institutions interested in achieving accreditation in futures studies. Institutions offering programmes which meet the Federation’s standards will be credentialed as an Accredited Foresight Programme. Accreditation will extend for a period of five (5) years. Review of accreditation will be available every five (5) years to ensure programmes continue to maintain high quality standards of the Federation.
WFSF World Conferences
WFSF has been holding World Conferences around the globe for 50 years in such diverse places as: France, Norway, Germany, former Yugoslavia, Poland, Egypt, Sweden, Costa Rica, USA, China, Hungary, Spain, Finland, Kenya, Australia, the Philippines, Romania, Japan, and Mexico.
25th WFSF World Conference
25th – 26th of October 2023 in Paris, France
WFSF Magazines
HUMAN FUTURES: A Publication of the World Futures Studies Federation
WFSF has published a magazine since its inception – since even before the organisation was formally constituted. The WFSF magazine has gone through several iterations, changing its name and style with the changing times over nearly five decades.
WFSF Regional Meetings & Partnered Events
WFSF has co-convened many regional conferences, meetings & workshops.
WFSF Regional meetings have been held in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Mexico City, USA, China, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Iceland and Europe.
A complete listing of Regional Meetings, in reverse chronological order, is below. Clicking on the highlighted links will take you to the website or further articles and documentation.
WFSF Iberoamerican Chapter
31 March 2023
XIV International Seminar on Professional Training in Foresight 2023. THE FUTURE UNITES US… READING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES
MARCH 31, 2023. Session 1: “Empowering futures of geopolitics, politics and democracy”. Coordinator Guillermina Baena (Mexico).
7 January 2023
NEWS 2022 FROM VICE PRESIDENCY OF LATIN AMERICAN REGION WFSF
WFSF and Futures TV/Radio
A partnership between WFSF and Futures TV to promote Futures Studies and the WFSF agenda.
The new mass media project – Futures Television (https://futurestelevision.com/) – is a futures studies specific channel that will start broadcasting via Roku TV. Roku has a 180 Million subscriber base — a platform to distribute futures related content free of charge to the masses.
WFSF-PMU Research Fund
17 April 2022 Update:
The Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Center for Futuristic Studies (PMFCFS) and the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) announce the continuation of their futures research grant for the year 2022. The objective of this grant is to encourage researchers to expand their disciplines with methods of futures studies.
(Useful to know: What is Futures Studies?)
PMFCFS website: https://pmfcfs.pmu.edu.sa/default.aspx
Research Grant Proposal: https://pmfcfs.pmu.edu.sa/scientific-research-grants.aspx
Submission Link: https://pmu.edu.sa/forms/scientificresearchgrant/index
Middle East and North Africa Chapter
State of Foresight Studies in the World was organized by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) and the Policy Center of the New South on May 26-27 in Rabat.
The Conference gathered futurists from universities, think tanks and research centers across the globe to discuss opportunities, challenges, and formulate recommendations for Foresight Studies:
Here is the full playback video collection of the whole event in English, Arabic and French:
The Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd (PMU) campus looked to the future when it hosted its very first International Conference in Futures Studies on Dec. 7-8 at the campus headquarters in Khobar. The conference was organized in collaboration with the university’s partner, the World Futures Studies Federation.
LEALA World Futures Learning Lab
WFSF has been supported by the UNESCO Participation Program 2012-2013 in developing online learning content and procedures to run three pilot futures courses in Lubumbashi, DR Congo; Cairo, Egypt and Penang, Malaysia. WFSF also received approval under UNESCO Participation Program 2014-2015 to extend our World Futures Learning Lab into a second stage. The pilots for the second stage include projects in Mexico, Haiti and the Philippines.
The courses blend local face-to-face workshops with online learning of futures studies and foresight. The LEALA project focuses especially on the needs of Africa, youth and developing countries and the related challenges. It enables 60-90 young adults in these locations to learn foresight and it aims to provide experiences and skills to allow the participants to potentially seed ideas and support others who hold a forward-looking stance within their local communities.
Interview WFSF Junior
PRESS RELEASE Antalya , Turkey, 13 January 2020.
The World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) , founded in 1973, is the leading international scholarly body of futures studies and also an official consultative partner of the UNESCO. In 2019 the WFSF Executive Board initiated a new category of membership dedicated to the younger generation called the WFSF Junior. School age children can apply to join the WFSF provided that at least one of their parents or legal custodians are already individual, either Full or Associate, members of the WFSF. In this short interview, Director of the WFSF, Victor V. Motti, asks a number of questions from one of the members of the WFSF Junior whose name is Arsam MARDUK born in 2008 in Iran. Another interview with Arsam was published in the September 2019 issue of the WFSF Human Futures Magazine, pages 60-63. He tells now us what are the goals that he wants to achieve in 2020: introducing and spreading Gen Z Futurists Movement and Platorm to the world.
WFSF Futures Courses
Since 1975 WFSF has offered courses to young people around the work introducing them to the concepts and methods of the futures studies field. WFSF Futures Courses have been held in Dubrovnic, Romania, USA, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Egypt and DR Congo.Please refer to the details below for a chronological list of the Futures courses that have been offered since the 1970’s. Click on the links provided to access further details for each course.