Futures Thinking in Asia and the Pacific : Why Foresight Matters for Policy Makers

Futures thinking and foresight is a powerful planning approach that can help Asia and the Pacific countries meet economic, political, social, and environmental and climate change challenges. This publication shows how the Asian Development Bank (ADB) piloted this approach to understand entry points to support transformational change in the region. It compiles lessons from an ADB initiative to apply futures and foresight tools in Armenia, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste. Futures terminology is introduced as are specific tools such as emerging issues analysis, scenario planning, and backcasting. It also describes how futures and foresight tools were applied in the countries.