Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Foresight: “From” or “Into” the Future? Developing Foresight Capacities for South Sudan's Public policy Experts
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is during the implementation of the countries first national development strategy post independence the country entered into a protracted civil war which disrupted development. Now that the country has experienced relative peace post the implementation of of the peace agreement the country has now launched the second national development strategy that is a blueprint that seeks to put the country on sustainable development pathway that seeks to prioritize the strengthening of institutions for transparent, accountability, and an inclusive governance, and fostering of macroeconomic stability, and inclusive innovation that delivers benefit to people and places where the need is greatest means moving beyond business-as-usual and mobilizing cross-cutting actions which build peaceful, inclusive and resilient systems to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2040.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
South Sudan currently ranks number 186/186 the lowest in the world on the Human Development index. GDP contracted by 6.0% in 2020/21 after growth of 13.2% in 2019/20, owing to floods, locust invasions, and COVID-19. Pandemic containment measures constrained movement and business operating hours and affected the services sector. On the supply side, agriculture was hurt by the floods and locusts. Production in the oil sector, which accounts for over 75% of GDP and 80% of the industry sector’s value added, fell as some oilfields reached maturity. Public and private consumption, which drove growth on the demand side in 2020, were affected by reduced economic activity in 2020/21. Tighter monetary policy reduced inflation to an estimated 24.0% in 2020/21 from 33.3% in 2019/20.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Learning from the losses of Covid 19 and other disaster situations, building a robuster and future looking policies is crucial in ensuring management of future events and as such having a more futuristic policy designing processes will help wither such shocks.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
UNDP in partnership with the Government of South Sudan coauthored the South Sudan National Development strategy. UNDP in country being mandated to support the government in development is the Key stakeholder to support the government towards it's developmental aspirations in the NDS.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
The South Sudan Accelerator Lab is working with the GoSS to Develop capacities for foresight and future thinking across key relevant stakeholders to advocate for a society wide adoption of forward-looking planning and policy development in the public service
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Government of South Sudan, Demos Helsinki
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
- Develop capacities for foresight and future thinking across key relevant stakeholders to advocate for society wide adoption of forward-looking planning and policy development in the public service.
- Provide policy makers and stakeholders with a general overview of the role of future foresight in policy development and implementation
- Develop in country foresight teams (national and CO experts), responsible for running foresight exercise to promote a wider awareness of foresight approaches, processes, and results among our national stakeholders.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
If we develop the capacities for foresight and future thinking across key relevant stakeholders in the government civil service will the impact be empowered senior civil servants with the ability to advocate for a society wide adoption of forward-looking planning and policy development in the public service.
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore, Test, Grow
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
imparting knowledge on future and foresight analysis in the heart of the civil service will help to lead to better anticipatory decision making.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
There are huge gaps in future and foresight as well as in anticipatory studies in South Sudan. We aim to bring in the expertise to provide a training of trainers to boost the capacities of the civil service.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Government of South Sudan senior civil servants
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
8Decent work and economic growth
10Reduced innequalities
17Partnerships for the goals
