Working for the Wellbeing of Current and Future Generations

National champions (early adopters among policy makers, government officials, civil society). Plus UN/IO officials, practitioners, funders, academics, and interested parties in the media and business.

A. The Case for Long-term Governance as a Lever of Intergenerational Fairness

With growing global consensus on the need for long-term policymaking, the Declaration on Future Generations (DFG), signed at the 2024 Summit of the Future, represents a landmark commitment. This Handbook offers strategies to help national champions and early adopters transform these commitments into actionable, long-term policies that are intergenerationally fair. The Handbook outlines a roadmap for national-level champions (policymakers and civil society) to embed intergenerational fairness and long-term governance principles in their national strategies, ensuring that the DFG is actionable and transformative. The Handbook features two sections:

• Policy: Proposes a roadmap for three levels of action where countries can seize opportunities to implement the DFG: national, UN and wider multilateral level.

• Technical: Presents evidence on long-term governance from 32 countries, identifying challenges and opportunities, and providing a maturity framework for assessing and prioritising actions.

B. Research Process

To fill the gap in systematic evidence on long-term governance, SOIF developed a global framework to assess governance maturity around the world. It provides a comparative heatmap and insights into key innovations across political leadership, citizens, and institutions.

This framework is informed by action research conducted in 32 countries and supported by a community of over 300 experts in foresight and sustainability, including insights from a global community of early adopters leading futures agendas on the ground:

• Pledge Community: Launched at the Dubai Futures Forum in November 2023, this network of over 225 advocates for foresight and wellbeing is pushing for a strong and ambitious DFG.

• Futures Pioneers Community: An informal group of over 135 civil servants and politicians from 50 countries and international organisations, sharing knowledge and ambitions on futures work. Case studies and comparative analysis of different government ecosystems (looking across political leadership, citizens, and institutions) has resulted in a heatmap that compares countries and a set of dynamic insights on key innovations and catalysts in the experience of different countries over time. This is in service of:

• Action: Providing participating countries with a holistic understanding of long-term governance within their territories and potential pathways to strengthen it.

• Research: Helping identify common traits of what works and what doesn’t, beyond territorial differences. In this regard, the interaction between political leadership, citizens, and institutions emerges as crucial across all contexts.

• Advocacy: Establishing a reference framework that not only assists countries in implementing the DFG comprehensively and measurably but also enables them to demand accountability and support from the multilateral institutions backing the DFG. Through this action research, the SOIF-SOTF Programme supports ambitious futures agendas in countries like Kenya, Cameroon, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand or the US. The programme also supported Wales’ leadership on the multilateral dialogue, including by facilitating the global consultation process that led to the Wales Protocol on DFG implementation. Taken together these elements provide a wealth of evidence, gathered from hundreds of leaders and innovators across more than 50 countries. We have distilled this evidence into a practical roadmap, below, making it easy for national champions to access this expertise as they implement the Declaration.

C. Roadmap for Country Implementation of the DFG

1. National Level: Building National Long-term Governance Capability In-country

• Assess Intergenerational Fairness: Identify key actors, platforms and initiatives working for Future Generations’ (FGs) wellbeing. Use the momentum of the DFG to foster intergenerational dialogues and enhance foresight capability across government.

• Build Coalitions: Connect like-minded stakeholders to create synergies, minimise overlaps, and ensure meaningful citizen engagement in shaping future policies.

• Engage Institutionally: Ensure that intergenerational fairness and long-term governance principles are embedded in policy creation and implementation by equipping institutions with the tools and capacity to plan for the long term based on foresight and by promoting intersectionality across government.

• Monitor and Foster Accountability: Use intergenerational fairness indicators to evaluate progress. Establish trust and accountability through dedicated oversight bodies, such as audit committees or ombudspersons, and embed intergenerational justice in judicial systems to hold society accountable for actions affecting FGs. 2. UN Level: Leveraging UN Support for National and Regional Implementation

• Use Strategic Guidance from UN Headquarters: The UN is set to solidify global strategies for implementing and monitoring the DFG and aligning efforts with the 2030 Agenda. Utilise platforms like the UN Futures Lab to integrate advanced foresight tools and prepare for future challenges.

• Integrate Intergenerational Fairness in UN Regional and Country Support: Work with UN Resident Coordinators and Country Teams to embed long-term governance and foresight into national strategies and capacity-building efforts. Adapt global commitments to regional contexts, pushing forward cross-country agendas that require specific support from UN regional commissions.

• Support Impact Coalitions and “Friends of” Future Generations: join the impact coalition on future generations, as a legacy of the Summit of the Future, and support the creation of a friends group of member states. These initiatives provide for country ownership and allow member states to discuss diplomatic coordination in a flexible and adaptive way.

• Engage in Post-SDG Preparations: Participate in dialogues leading up to the UN Social Summit in 2025, which will address long-term issues such as employment, social integration, gender equity, and access to health and education – all requiring an intergenerational fairness perspective.

source :

https://soif.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/09/SOIF_DFG_Implementation_Handbook_Sept-2024.pdf